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When Shakespeare Came to Princeton
Princeton aficionados of Shakespeare, including me, can take satisfaction that his works have been on campus for probably as long as the University has existed in Princeton, if not before.
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“He Decided to Conquer the Place that Had Conquered Him”: Peter Putnam ’42 *50’s Princeton, Part II
In Part I of this two-part series, I told the story of how Peter Putnam ’42 *50 lost his sight in a suicide attempt and fought for the right to return to Princeton University and finish his degree. In this second installment, I detail the life Putnam lived as a student, an employee, and an…
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“A Fairyland and Hell to Me for Years”: Peter Putnam ’42 *50’s Princeton, Part I
This is the first in a two-part series on the life of Peter Putnam ‘42 *50 in Princeton, before and after he lost his sight. This first installment focuses on the events leading up to the incident in which he was blinded and his fight to return to Princeton University afterward. Peter Putnam entered Princeton…
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Michelle (Robinson) Obama ’85 in Princeton’s Freshman Orientation Program
By Iliyah Coles ’22 It may be difficult to recognize at first glance, but there is a now-famous face in this photograph. The former first lady, Michelle Obama, then named Michelle Robinson, is on the first row sitting from the top towards the middle of the photograph. This is a picture of the 1981 Freshman…
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F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Great Writer, but a Not-So-Great Student
By Iliyah Coles ’22 Many people know about the success of the infamous writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Some know that he attended Princeton University and even based his first novel, This Side of Paradise, on the Ivy League school. However, what many people don’t know is that Fitzgerald was not a star student. In fact,…
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Natural Philosophy in the 1830s
By Neha Anil Kumar ’21 Class planning as a Princeton undergraduate today can be difficult to say the least. With a huge variety of distribution requirements I have to take, alongside the major requirements of a STEM concentration, the life of an AB Physics student can get quite busy. So, you can imagine my excitement…
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The Princeton Pullman’s “Filipino Boys”
We’ve previously told you about the Princeton Pullman, a specially-designed railroad car that took faculty and students across North America in the 1920s and 1930s to collect geological specimens and fossils. Today, we’d like to highlight one aspect of these journeys: the Filipino staff who attended to the practical needs of the travelers, one of…
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Ivy Hall Library and Higher Education for Princeton Women in the 1870s
As Princeton University celebrates 50 years of undergraduate women, it is worth looking back a bit farther to examine how women pursued higher education in town prior to the mid-twentieth century. A variety of options have been available to Princeton’s women over the century that preceded the first female undergraduate admission in 1969. Some of…
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Princeton’s Summer Trips Across North America
Although traveling significant distances is routine for many Princetonians these days, traversing North America was not always as easy as it is now. Our records reveal a variety of both academic and pleasure trips over the years that have used horses, trains, cars, and bicycles to reach their destinations. Most of the lengthy North American…
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“The End of a Monastery”: Princeton’s First Female Graduate Students
The Princeton University Graduate Announcement for 1961-1962 warned potential applicants, “Admissions are normally limited to male students.” Yet this “adverbial loophole,” as the Daily Princetonian termed it, left room for some admissions that were not “normal” for Princeton at the time. Within the loophole, dozens of women became degree candidates before the advent of undergraduate…
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