Certificate of Incorporation

TRANSCRIPT: “Know all men by these presents, that we, Thomas M. Smith, William Hopkins, Lewis N. Hopkins, John W. Garrett, Alan P. Smith, John Fonerden, George W. Dobbin, George M. Gill, Andrew Sterett Ridgely, Thomas Donaldson, James A. L. McClure and Charles J. M. Gwinn, being citizens of the Unites States of America, and the State of Maryland, and being desirous to form a corporation for the purpose of organizing an “University” for the promotion of education in the State of Maryland, do hereby declare and certify that we do, by the instrument of writing, and by virtue of and under the provisions of an Act of the General Assembly of Maryland, passed at the January session thereof in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, chapter three hundred and seventy-nine, form a corporation under the name of “The Johns Hopkins University” for the promotion of education in the State of Maryland, which shall be governed and controlled by twelve Trustees, who shall manage the concerns thereof, and which said twelve trustees shall be Francis T. King, Lewis N. Hopkins, Thomas M. Smith, William Hopkins, John Fonerden, John W. Garrett, Francis White, Charles J. M. Gwinn, Galloway Cheston, George W. Dobbin, Reverdy Johnson Jr., and George William Brown, and which said University shall be located in Baltimore County, in the State of Maryland.

Witness our hands and seals set hereto on the twenty-fourth day of August, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-seven.”

Images of the original certificate:

Page two of the JHU Board of Trustees Certification of Incorporation.  Johns Hopkins University Certificate of Incorporation cover page.