-
Records of Adlai Stevenson, Ambassador to the United Nations, Now Available to View Online
In October 1962, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, Adlai Stevenson spoke the most famous line of his career. The former Illinois governor and two-time presidential candidate was the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations. After a series of provocative political moves and a failed US attempt to overthrow the Cuban regime,…
-
Archives for Everyone
In each of the last two springs, several staff of the Mudd Manuscript Library and other members of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections have judged at the regional qualifier of the National History Day competition held on Princeton’s campus. This is a contest for middle and high school students who, based on…
-
1993 Baccalaureate Speaker Garry B. Trudeau
On Sunday June 6th,1993 at 2pm students were seated in the University Chapel to hear the remarks of Baccalaureate speaker Garry B. Trudeau, cartoonist and creator of Doonesbury. Trudeau was also the first person to receive a Pulitzer for a comic strip. This film shows some of the only documentation of the 1993 Baccalaureate ceremony…
-
Princeton’s 250th Anniversary Commencement with speaker President Bill Clinton
On June 6th, 1996, as part of the University’s 250th Anniversary celebration, U.S. President Bill Clinton delivered the principal address at the 249th Commencement ceremonies, a departure from the Princeton tradition of having the University President deliver the ceremony’s major remarks. The video includes the entire commencement program starting with the procession (00:02), then the…
-
Class of 1929 Commencement and a potpourri of student activities
While the traditions around Commencement have changed some over the University’s 267 year history, overall it is a remarkably consistent ceremony. Let’s take a look back to 1929. This video shows a number of scenes from a typical Commencement week. We begin with the procession of graduates led by the faculty. Following that, you see a…
-
Name Dropping: A list of famous Commencement Week speakers at Princeton
In a previous post we discussed the history behind commencement at The College of New Jersey and Princeton University. Here, we highlight the individuals and include links to video and news articles. For the years 2011-2016 each name will link to an individual streaming video courtesy of Princeton University MediaCentral. These are mobile friendly. 2016…
-
The history of Princeton University Commencement Ceremonies
Every year leading up to the final weeks of classes, commencement and reunions, we receive questions related to the history of commencement activities. In this post we dive right into that subject! The original commencement of the College of New Jersey was held in Newark, New Jersey on November 9th, 1748. There was a procession, an address from President…
-
Princeton wins MARAC Finding Aid Award
We are very pleased to announce that the Princeton University Library’s Archival Description working group has been awarded the 2012 Frederic M. Miller Finding Aid Award by the Mid Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC). The award recognizes outstanding finding aids and finding aid systems in the Mid Atlantic region. Submissions are evaluated in the areas…
-
Digitization and the Council on Foreign Relations
In March our vendor began scanning the first batch of material to be digitized as part of our grant. We’ve sent 15 boxes (and over 15,000 pages) of the Council on Foreign Relations Records to be scanned. The material will be returning to Mudd in April and all 15,000+ images should be available to anyone…
-
ACLU Court Document Summons King’s Last Days
A recent reference inquiry brought to light a document within the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Records that provides a record of one of the events that took place in the days surrounding the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. W.J. Michael Cody, an attorney in Memphis,…
Princeton University Library
University Archives
