Today, Johns Hopkins University has a reputation as one of the world’s preeminent authorities on medicine, known for its leading medical school and for consistently pushing the cutting edge of what’s possible in research. Its medical school, however, would never have been built without the donation of a generous woman philanthropist—who made an unusual demand.
In 1889, the trustees of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, realized they couldn’t open their medical school because they were short $500,000. Enter: Mary Elizabeth Garrett.
Mary was born in 1854 to a wealthy Baltimore family as the youngest child of John Work Garrett, president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the country’s first common-carrier railroad. She grew up close to power, as her father was highly influential and even served as an informal advisor to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
Having seen both her grandfather, a merchant, and her father build successful empires, she knew better than most women of the time the value of strategy, perseverance, and seizing opportunities. Her parents and grandparents were also involved in philanthropy…