By April C. Armstrong *14

In this week’s installment of our recurring series, alumni send an unusual donation, a new building’s unconventional nails are newsworthy, and more.

July 13, 1934—Professor E. Baldwin Smith and librarian James Thayer Gerould say that the prospect of a new library on campus is so exciting that the proposed design “has persuaded the Faculty to forget its right to disagree and led the Trustees to ignore the depression.”

July 14, 1944—A group of alumni who participated in the recent D-Day invasion of Normandy have sent a donation of 100 francs in Allied Military Currency to the University, asking that half be used for repairing the gymnasium after a fire and half for building a new library. Their letter, written on a paper towel, explains, “Both buildings represent much that we are fighting for.”

July 15, 1786—John Rhea Smith, Class of 1787, details his day in his diary,

At 12 buy some whortleberries from Country people eat some & have the greatest part crushed in my pocket by a scuffle with Jones & so lose them much against inclination as they were a rarity. I Snowden, H Deas, Rattoone & myself go to the cake &c house served with pretty good fare–return tie [sic] to get some leavings of dinner–almost envy S Snowden a ride which he took with Gilbert & Clarkson to bathe–take neither recreation nor exercise of any kind this afternoon unless playing Quiots for one-half hour.

July 16, 1889—As will be reported in the Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, “Ground was broken to-day for the new electrical building of Princeton College. No iron will be used in its construction, not even the nails–they are to be of brass or copper.”

Did you read the previous installment in this series?

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