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This Week in Princeton History for March 11-17
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, Jacob Riis lectures on campus, four Princetonians are being held in the same German prison camp, and more. March 12, 1925—The Jewish Student Congregation of Princeton University begins hosting a series of weekly lectures…
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This Week in Princeton History for March 4-10
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, competing protests take place on Nassau Street, dormitory phones get voicemail, and more. March 4, 1965—Competing groups of students, faculty, families, and other locals march in Palmer Square, one group to protest escalation of…
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This Week in Princeton History for February 18-24
In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, hazing makes national headlines, McCarter Theater opens, and more. February 18, 1878—During a particularly severe outbreak of hazing, a gunfight breaks out on Nassau Street between freshmen and sophomores, with one student being shot…
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This Week in Princeton History for October 1-7
In this week’s installment of our returning series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, a recent graduate engages in civil disobedience, Albert Einstein sets sail for Princeton, and more. October 1, 1984—Leo Schiff ’83 breaks into a military facility in Rhode Island to disarm nuclear warheads as part…
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An American University: An Audio Portrait of Princeton in 1946
By: Abbie Minard ’20 Abbie Minard ’20 is a history concentrator with a primary interest in early American history. On campus, she is a research associate at the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, music director and a DJ at WPRB, artistic director of the TapCats (tap dancing group), and a member of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra.…
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This Week in Princeton History for April 2-8
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, the Judicial Committee makes its first disciplinary decisions, the campus debates housing policies for same sex couples, and more. April 2, 1917—Senator Henry Cabot Lodge attacks Alexander Bannwart, Class of 1906, in the only…
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World War II “Trainwomen” of the Long Island Railroad
In 1942, The Long Island Railroad (LIRR) took the unprecedented step of hiring women as engine cleaners. World War II’s labor shortages had opened new doors for women, especially in the transportation industry. The engine cleaners performed well, so the LIRR hired many more women for positions previously held only by men, dubbing them “trainwomen.”…
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Princeton University’s 70 Books Project
By Rosalba Varallo Recchia This post is part of a series on education and war related to our current exhibition, “Learning to Fight, Fighting to Learn: Education in Times of War,” on display through June 2018. Please stop by to learn more. War can interrupt education as military training replaces traditional curricula. While away from…
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Lawrence Rauch *49 and Operation Crossroads: Atomic Testing at Bikini Atoll
By Rosalba Varallo Recchia This post is part of a series on education and war related to our current exhibition, “Learning to Fight, Fighting to Learn: Education in Times of War,” on display through June 2018. Please stop by to learn more. Lawrence Rauch *49, a mathematics graduate student and a research assistant in physics,…
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This Week in Princeton History for February 5-11
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, the library makes a significant change in how it catalogs books, the Board of Trustees is divided over a hiring decision, and more. February 5, 1976—University Librarian Richard Boss announces that new materials will…
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