The History of Ideas Club was founded in 1923 by a small circle of Hopkins professors including A. O. Lovejoy, George Boas, and H. C. Lancaster. The purpose of the club, as stated in its constitution, was "to bring together members of the University for the occasional presentation and discussion of papers and informal communications in the field of the 'history of ideas' i.e., the historical study of the development and influence of general philosophical conceptions, ethical ideas, and aesthetic fashions, in occidental literatures, and of the relations of these to manifestations of the same ideas and tendencies in the history of philosophy, of science, and of political and social movements."

The club's membership comprised professors of Johns Hopkins and other universities and Johns Hopkins graduate students. The club met six times each year, and at each meeting a paper was read and discussed. Some of the notable speakers were: Niels Bohr, Alexandre Koyre, W. F. Albright, A. O. Lovejoy, and Hopkins presidents Ames and Bowman. Topics ranged from the problem of causality in physics to animism in Wordsworth.

In 1947 a motion was passed to publish (under the auspices of the club) a volume of collected papers of A. O. Lovejoy. The volume, entitled Essays in the History of Ideas, appeared in 1948 and was well received. In 1959, the club came out with another publication, The Forerunners of Darwin, comprised of essays on the philosophic and scientific foundations laid in the century before Origin of Species was published. Professor Lovejoy was a major contributor to the work.

In 1964, on funds bequeathed to the University by Professor Lovejoy, the Lovejoy Lecture was established. This annual event was not restricted to members; nonetheless the club undertook responsibility for it. The Lovejoy Lecture has since become one of the highlights of the academic calendar.