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This Week in Princeton History for February 8-14
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, the Bric-a-Brac has a new cover, an employee at an eating club protests unfair treatment, and more. February 9, 1931—The new Bric-a-Brac subscribers receive today has a new cover design. February 11, 1874—The Hampton Singers,…
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Songs of the Freed: The Hampton and Jubilee Singers at Princeton
In the 1870s, Princeton students were exposed to a form of entertainment new to them: African American choirs. Many of the singers in these choirs, who were raising money for Black colleges, had formerly been enslaved. Their performances met with a mixed reception among Princetonians and on balance appear to have been a negative experience…
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Dear Mr. Mudd: How Did Princeton Students Treat Campus Servants?
This post is the second in a two-part series. Dear Mr. Mudd, If Princeton University dormitories could not have housed enslaved persons, why does the rumor persist that they did? What were the experiences of campus servants really like? How did students treat them? Last week, I outlined the factual evidence that proves that…
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This Week in Princeton History for December 7-13
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, concerns about local residents corrupting undergraduates are expressed, sophomores cancel plans to burn a dean in effigy, and more. December 8, 1835—A new academic year begins. The Class of 1838, which began with 12…
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Techniques for Unmuting Archival Silence: Recovering More of Princeton University’s 19th-Century Black Graduate Students
About two and a half years ago, I wrote about the strategies I had used to uncover African American alumni from the 19th century whose records were absent from the University Archives due to the legacy of institutional racism passed down to us. At the time, I had primarily used the Board of Trustees minutes…
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This Week in Princeton History for October 5-11
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, women gather to discuss sexism on campus, a new kind of roof is being installed for Nassau Hall, and more. October 5, 1978—Female students and staff hold an exclusive meeting to discuss sexism on…
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The Problem with “Firsts,” Part II: Archival Silence and Black Staff at Princeton University
This is the second in a two-part series about archival silence and the “first” African Americans at Princeton University. The first post in this series addressed the history of Black students. In last week’s post in this series, focused on Black students, I wrote about how questions of definition and gaps in the archival record…
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The Problem with “Firsts,” Part I: Archival Silence and Black Students at Princeton University
This is the first in a two-part series about archival silence and the “first” Black Princetonians. The second post in this series will consider Black staff. People often ask us about the “first” person to do something in a given demographic. I previously wrote about the difficulty with determining who the “first” Jewish student was—and…
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This Week in Princeton History for August 10-16
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, Alfred A. Woodhull enters the Class of 1856, the Princetonian asks town residents to stop looking at undergraduates, and more. August 10, 1854—Having successfully passed the entrance exam, Alfred A. Woodhull enters the Class of…
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This Week in Princeton History for July 27-August 2
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, the governor seals the college charter, trends in the overall diversity of the incoming class are mixed, and more. July 27, 1942—A Daily Princetonian editorial criticizes Secretary of State Cordell Hull for “abundant lip…