By April C. Armstrong *14

In this week’s installment in our recurring series, a professor faces a choice, a visitor remarks on campus culture, and more.

February 26, 1869—The Board of Trustees meets at the request of Prof. Joshua Hall McIlvaine, Class of 1837, to reconsider their decision to reassign the Professorship of Political Economy to Lyman Atwater. They conclude that they will stand by their decision, and McIlvaine will be the Professor of Belles Lettres and English Language and Literature despite his objections, unless he should no longer wish to teach at Princeton.

February 27, 1852—At a town temperance meeting, John Maclean, Class of 1816 and Vice President of the College, denounces those who sell alcohol to minors and alcoholics. After discussion, the group drafts a resolution asserting

That the manufacture and sale of spiritous and intoxicating liquors, in our State, except for medicinal, sacramental and mechanical purposes, is an evil of great magnitude, extremely pernicious to public morals, and inevitably productive of individual misery; that it is a chief source of crime, pauperism, and personal degradation.

As such, they push for legislation to prohibit the manufacture and sale of liquor in New Jersey.

February 28, 1975—Ginger Horne, who is visiting from Wellesley, is quoted in the Daily Princetonian on her surprise about Princeton’s culture, where “no one seems to care about sexist statements. At Wellesley, people would hiss.”

March 1, 1990—Talk show host Regis Philbin and Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione are among those who are denied entry to the memorial service for Malcolm Forbes ’41 due to fire hazard regulations. “It’s not fair. None his real friends were in there,” a tearful woman says. “It seems like only the press and celebrities got in.”

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

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