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Combustible Dulles, ca. 1934
Not many collections in the Public Policy Papers at Mudd Manuscript Library contain audiovisual materials. John Van Antwerp MacMurray’s films of China, which were featured over the past nine weeks, and the American Civil Liberties Union records are an exception. So we were very excited when a preservation survey led to the discovery of an…
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Escape to the Diamond Mountains in Korea, 1928
(This is our ninth and final post about the films of diplomat John Van Antwerp MacMurray. See the first post for more background.) This is the last post featuring the films that diplomat John Van Antwerp MacMurray made while serving as Minister to China from 1925-1929. The film “The Diamond Mountains, 1928,” which captures a…
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Peking friends and family scenes
(This is our eighth post about the films of diplomat John Van Antwerp MacMurray. See the first post for more background.) Although most films that have previously been discussed are interspersed with family scenes, shot in and around Peking and during outings and vacations, some of MacMurray’s films are more distinctively “home movies.” Featured here…
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Vacation with the Navy, friends with the Marines
(This is our seventh post about the films of diplomat John Van Antwerp MacMurray. See the first post for more background.) On August 8, 1926, during a family vacation in Chefoo (the summer headquarters of the US Asiatic Fleet), MacMurray wrote his mother that her grandson had problems staying loyal to the Marines in…
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Trips to Southern China and the Philippines, 1926 and 1929
(This is our sixth post about the films of diplomat John Van Antwerp MacMurray. See the first post for more background.) Photo of Igonot carriers, taken by MacMurray in October 1926 on the trail between Baguio and Bontoc and sent to his mother as a postcard. John V.A. MacMurray Papers (MC094), Box 26. In…
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Early films of Princeton football, 1903-1951
The oldest known silent movie of a Princeton football match is a four minute recording of a Yale-Princeton game, shot at Yale’s stadium in 1903. The film, which was produced by the company of Thomas A. Edison, inventor of the motion picture camera, is held at the Library of Congress and can be viewed online.…
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Marines and Chinese armies in Peking
(This is our fifth post about the films of diplomat John Van Antwerp MacMurray. See the first post for more background.) When watching MacMurray’s peaceful films of China, it is easy to forget that the country was torn by civil war for most of the time he served as minister. The films labeled “Peking Misc(ellaneous)…
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Hubert Alyea’s Spectacular Chemistry
One of Princeton’s most popular faculty members of the mid-20th century was chemistry professor Hubert Newcombe Alyea ’24 (1903-1996), known for his colorful and explosive chemistry demonstrations that sometimes burned his suits. Alyea taught at Princeton between 1930-1972, but gave lectures around the country and the world and worked to make teaching science by demonstration…
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Renting a temple in the Western Hills
(This is our fourth post about the films of diplomat John Van Antwerp MacMurray. See the first post for more background.) Detail of MacMurray’s German map of the Peking surroundings. The Pa Ta Ch’u valley, with Ta Pei Ssu, the temple rented by MacMurray (no. 41) is shown at the left of the center above…
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Freddie Fox ’39 about old and new: “A Walk in the Springtime,” 1974
After last week’s film about living and learning at Princeton in 1962, it is interesting to watch “A Walk in the Springtime,” created only twelve years later. The film features the legendary Frederic C. Fox, ’39, whose love and knowledge of Princeton’s history and lore made him the first and only Keeper of Princetoniana in…
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