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This Week in Princeton History for April 5-11
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, Princetonians join NOW’s rally in Washington, the Board of Trustees urge parents not to send their children too much money, and more. April 5, 1877—Marveling at the possibilities the intention of the telephone has…
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Dear Mr. Mudd: Who Was Princeton’s First International Student?
Dear Mr. Mudd, Can you tell me who Princeton’s first international student was? Were there international students in the first graduating class? As with all questions about “firsts,” this one is too complicated to answer simply with someone’s name. We are aware that our records aren’t comprehensive, so we can only provide what we…
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This Week in Princeton History for March 29-April 4
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, a member of the Class of 1905 denounces racial exclusion, Elm Club opens, and more. March 29, 1940—Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas, Class of 1905, takes Princeton’s racial exclusion to task in the Princeton…
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Princeton Meets the Near East: John Van Antwerp MacMurray’s Ambassadorship in Turkey
By Diana Dayoub ’21 The connections between Princeton and the Near East are not self-evident. My tentative effort to uncover some link between the North American university I consider home now and the part of the Orient where I was born and raised seemed almost futile until I discovered the John Van Antwerp MacMurray Papers…
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This Week in Princeton History for March 22-28
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, the temperance movement finds support, A Beautiful Mind begins filming on campus, and more. March 23, 1843—Princetonians are collecting data about the Great Comet passing by. March 24, 1830—The Boston Recorder reports that a Temperance…
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Clothes Make the Woman: William H. Walker’s Critiques of 1890s Fashion and Feminism in Life Editorial Cartoons
In the 1850s, women’s rights activists attempted to popularize a new fashion, known as “bloomers” because of one of its best-known advocates, Amelia Bloomer. The summer of 1851 saw scores of women wearing these loose-fitting pants inspired by Turkish pantaloons. Suffragettes were some of the most passionate enthusiasts of the new style, but soon felt…
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This Week in Princeton History for March 15-21
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, 100 Princetonians picket a local bank for ties to apartheid, an unexpected loss of housing causes financial stress, and more. March 16, 1816—A trunk is discovered open on the lawn of Nassau Hall with…
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Yellowface in Princeton University’s 20th-Century Triangle Club
Recently, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about the history of racism at Princeton University. As we’ve worked to help those trying to research this topic, we realized that we’ve highlighted some types of racism more than others on this blog. In order to help researchers locate materials that may assist them in constructing…
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This Week in Princeton History for March 8-14
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, many feel the CPUC’s response to homophobic violence is unsatisfactory, a graduate student vows to sue the town for his disenfranchisement, and more. March 8, 1802—The Philadelphia Gazette reports that, due to a recent…
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Dear Mr. Mudd: Why Was There a Woman in Princeton University’s Texas Club Before Coeducation?
Dear Mr. Mudd, Looking at the photograph posted on the Princeton University Archives Tumblr of the Texas Club in 1960, I see a woman, but Princeton wasn’t fully coeducational until 1969. Where did she come from? Although to some extent this woman remains a mystery to us as well, there are other women we can…
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