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Princeton’s 250th Anniversary Commencement with speaker President Bill Clinton
On June 6th, 1996, as part of the University’s 250th Anniversary celebration, U.S. President Bill Clinton delivered the principal address at the 249th Commencement ceremonies, a departure from the Princeton tradition of having the University President deliver the ceremony’s major remarks. The video includes the entire commencement program starting with the procession (00:02), then the…
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Class of 1929 Commencement and a potpourri of student activities
While the traditions around Commencement have changed some over the University’s 267 year history, overall it is a remarkably consistent ceremony. Let’s take a look back to 1929. This video shows a number of scenes from a typical Commencement week. We begin with the procession of graduates led by the faculty. Following that, you see a…
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Name Dropping: A list of famous Commencement Week speakers at Princeton
In a previous post we discussed the history behind commencement at The College of New Jersey and Princeton University. Here, we highlight the individuals and include links to video and news articles. For the years 2011-2016 each name will link to an individual streaming video courtesy of Princeton University MediaCentral. These are mobile friendly. 2016…
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The history of Princeton University Commencement Ceremonies
Every year leading up to the final weeks of classes, commencement and reunions, we receive questions related to the history of commencement activities. In this post we dive right into that subject! The original commencement of the College of New Jersey was held in Newark, New Jersey on November 9th, 1748. There was a procession, an address from President…
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Mudd Library Awarded Grant to Provide Global Access to Records of the Cold War
by: Maureen Callahan The historian John Lewis Gaddis, author of a 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of George Kennan, has stated that the Mudd Library holds “the most significant set of papers for the study of modern American history outside of federal hands.” This may be true, but is often only relevant to researchers who have the resources…
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Penumbral Eclipse of the Heart
by: Amanda Pike A penumbral lunar eclipse took place earlier this morning, the last of four eclipses observed this year. Unfortunately, here in Princeton, the eclipse was not visible since it began after moonset. However, there is still an opportunity to observe an eclipse at the Mudd Library! The Princeton University Archives houses the Princeton…
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Bonfire!!!
On Saturday, November 17th, 2012, at 7:00 p.m., we went back to Cannon Green to re-light a fire that has been dormant for six years, the BONFIRE! The bonfire is one of the oldest traditions at Princeton University. The Princetoniana Committee, part of the Alumni Association, describes the fire as “one of the most memorable–…
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Before Sandy, there was Gloria and David: Hurricane damage on campus.
As many are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy here at Princeton and throughout the east coast we take a look at how the University survived past super storms and hurricanes. Within the Princeton University Archives and the Office of Communications Records (AC168) we found a number of photos from Hurricane David ,which unleashed its fury…
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Editing the world’s online encyclopedia: Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon Three
On October 19th, 2012 staff members of Mudd Manuscript Library once again opened the doors and archives for the purpose of composing and editing Princeton University-related articles on Wikipedia. For this third event of its kind, we decided to hold it during our normal business hours during volunteer weekend with the focus of enhancing Princeton athletics information. We had…
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Access to Higher Education: A National and Princeton Timeline
In light of the Trustees Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity that is working to develop recommendations for strategies to attract and retain more diverse campus community members, (including people of color and women, in areas where the University’s efforts to advance diversity have had more limited success), we offer this historical timeline. The mid to…
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