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World War II training on and off campus
In the fall of 1941, preceding the attack on Pearl Harbor, undergraduate enrollment stood at 2,432. By November 1943, however, only 655 of the 3,742 students in residence were civilian. The footage on the two silent films shown here was shot a few years before and after the United States entered the Second World War.…
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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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Kicking off the McCarter era: Triangle footage 1929-circa 1950
The Triangle Club Records at Mudd Manuscript Library are as rich and colorful as the history of the Triangle Club itself. Going back to 1883, when the theater troupe was founded as the ‘Princeton College Drama Association,’ the collection includes a wide range of records, from business correspondence and production files (including scripts and scores)…
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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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Celebrating Princeton’s 250th anniversary
On October 25, 1996 Princeton University celebrated the 250th anniversary of the granting of its original charter as the College of New Jersey. Featured here is a recording of the Charter Day convocation on the steps of Nassau Hall. Speakers include Princeton President Harold Shapiro (3:46, 27:38), Neil Rudenstine ’56, former Princeton provost and then…
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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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