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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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A diplomat’s trip along the Yangtze River, 1928
(This is our third post about the films of diplomat John Van Antwerp MacMurray. See the first post for more background.) On February 24, 1928, MacMuray, his Chinese secretary, and a naval attaché started a six-week trip along the Yangtze (Yangzi) river to inspect consulates and ports between Tsingtao (Qingdao) and Chungking. MacMurray, who took…
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The 1962 Orange Key Society film: please tell us more!
Since it was posted on Princeton’s Campus Life channel, “An Undergraduate View of Princeton University,” produced by the Orange Key Society in 1962, has received unexpected attention. In the film, which is staged as an instructional meeting for Orange Key guides, Charles W. Greenleaf ’63, vice-president of the Keycept Program, discusses what distinguishes Princeton from…
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Trip to attend the reinterment of Sun Yat-sen, 1929
(This is our second post about the films of diplomat John Van Antwerp MacMurray. See the first post for more background.) On June 1, 1929, the body of Sun Yat-sen, leader of the Nationalist Party, who died and was buried in Peking (Beijing) in 1925, was reinterred in a new mausoleum in Nanking (Nanjing). The…
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Past, present and future US presidents at Princeton’s bicentennial, 1947
Princeton University celebrated its 200th anniversary with a year-long series of events, starting on September 22, 1946 and ending with a convocation on June 14-17, 1947. The newsreel posted here was shot during the conclusion of the bicentennial celebrations on June 17th, when thirty-six notables received honorary degrees, including US President Harry Truman, who gave…
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