In this week’s installment of our recurring series, a system is put in place to warn passengers of departing trains, a new student reflects on having a roommate of a different race, and more.

September 4, 1868—So people do not miss their trains, a bell will now be rung five minutes before departure from Princeton, which is intended to give everyone the opportunity to reach the depot in time.

September 5, 1982—The Class of 1986 arrives on campus, kicking off a new residential college system. Incoming students and sophomores will no longer dine in a single complex (the “Commons”) in favor of eating within their individual residential colleges.

September 9, 1993—A large-scale project to scan the card catalog for Princeton University Library is underway. The project is ambitious—when finished, “Princeton will have the largest image database of any library in the world.”

September 10, 1969—Jan Robinson ’73 writes about her relationship with her new roommate, Laurie Watson ’73, in her journal:

The Blacks here stick together. We don’t separate, we just don’t integrate. We have to maintain our own culture. However, Laurie and I are still eating together. She’s the most natural person. She accepts people as people. I’ve lived with whites before. … But Laurie’s different. She doesn’t profess to know anything about Black problems, but she tries to understand. We talk on a human level, neither of us trying to impress the other.

Robinson’s diary will later be printed in Redbook.

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

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