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This Week in Princeton History for April 13-19
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, the Princetonian takes over the function of the Bulletin Elm, the baseball team plays its first game, and more. April 15, 1975—Two students receive a letter offering admission to Princeton in error on or about…
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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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This Week in Princeton History for January 15-21
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, students and guests attend the first art lecture, the Board of Trustees ends gender-based admissions quotas, and more. January 15, 1877—Professor Edward Delano Lindsey gives the first lecture of a course in Art in…
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This Week in Princeton History for October 30-November 5
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, a letter provokes debate over race, undergraduates complain of excessive demands on their time, and more. October 30, 1942—A. M. Shumate ’29’s letter to the editor of the Princeton Alumni Weekly takes Daily Princetonian…
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Integrating Princeton University: Robert Joseph Rivers ’53
As we have previously pointed out, Princeton’s first African American undergraduates were not purposefully admitted: they were instead brought as part of a Navy training program during World War II. In 1945, Trustee Laurence G. Payson wrote to fellow member of the Class of 1916 John McFerran Barr to explain the presence of black students…
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“We May Be Unable to Give You an Admission Decision”: The Women of the Princeton University Class of 1970
In 2013, 26,642 people applied to the Princeton University Class of 2018. Princeton made offers of admission to 1,983 of these applicants, an acceptance rate of 7.4%. Though many find this competitiveness discouraging, clearly a significant number choose to try their odds anyway. Yet how many applications can one imagine Princeton would get if the…
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“Princeton University Does Not Discriminate…”: African American Exclusion at Princeton
Bruce Wright applied for admission to Princeton University in the 1930s, having spent some of his childhood living in its shadow in Princeton, New Jersey. He was excited to be awarded a scholarship, and showed up in the fall ready to start as a freshman. So far as the Dean of Admissions was concerned, however,…
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Is or was there a Princeton Law School? Not really!
A question that is frequently asked of us here at the archives is whether or not there was ever a “Law School.” The answer to that is, not really! Initial attempts to create a law school at the College of New Jersey (as Princeton University was then known) were unsuccessful. The College trustees appointed a…
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