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This Week in Princeton History for February 3-9


By April C. Armstrong *14

In this week’s installment in our recurring series, an old sport is revived, activists are prevented from speaking, and more.

February 3, 1881—A mass meeting is held to form a cricket association and revive Princeton’s oldest sport.

Cricket team photo
Princeton’s cricket club, 1862. Historical Photograph Collection (AC112), Box LP36, Image 2499.

February 4, 1867—Due to “blackguardism at Mercer Hall,” Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry Blackwell, are prevented from speaking in Princeton by a reportedly premeditated, concerted effort by young men to interrupt their talk. Students and prospective students from the South are blamed for the situation:

We hear that the authorities are having some of the young men arrested: and that the College Faculty will deny to any of the young men implicated any connection with the College. This is right. The College will suffer by retaining any such violent—ill-bred and disorderly young men in the institution. The disturbance did not grow out of woman speaking, but out of her advocating the right of negro and female suffrage.

February 8, 1906— The Nashville Banner reports that Princeton students are disappointed that Grover Cleveland did not name his son Grover Cleveland, Jr. The article quotes Frances Fulsom Cleveland’s explanation for the choice: “There was but one George Washington; was but one Abraham Lincoln; there shall be but one Grover Cleveland.”

February 9, 1965—Former Russian president Alexander Kerensky speaks to a crowd of about 400 people in McCosh 50. He says that the Bolshevik Revolution did not come from the “barbarity or stupidity of the Russian people,” but instead from the autocratic tendencies of Nicholas II and the despair and anger over World War I’s devastation.

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

Fact check: We always strive for accuracy, but if you believe you see an error, please contact us.


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