Sometime before World War I the Municipal Art Society decided to erect and give to the city a memorial to Johns Hopkins (1795-1873) in recognition of his generosity in founding both the university and the hospital that today bear his name. These early plans were interrupted by the war but were revived in the early 1930s. Hans Schuler was chosen as the sculptor, and he was to work in association with the architect William Gordon Beecher.
The site chosen for the monument was an oval at the intersection of N. Charles and 34th streets, directly opposite the entrance to the university's Homewood campus. Included in these early plans were two fountains, one on the north side of the monument and one on the south.
Schuler proposed that there be a heroic bronze bust of Johns Hopkins on top of a tall marble pylon, with two allegorical figures seated at its base, on the east-west axis of the monument. The female figure on the east side, with bare breasts, a laurel wreath in her hair, holding a bowl from which a snake twists around and up her arm, would represent healing and the hospital; the male figure opposite her, with a bare chest, beautiful flowing drapery over his crossed legs, and a scroll spread across his lap, would represent learning and the university. The inclusion of flowing water was to be symbolic of the enduring benefits of this gift to the city and the world.
Source: Kelly, Cindy, Outdoor Sculpture in Baltimore: A Historical Guide to Public Art in the Monumental City, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.