Dear Mr. Mudd,

What is the his­tory of Princeton’s Open­ing Exer­cises, and how long have they been held at the Chapel?

1986 Open­ing Exer­cises, Office of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Records, Box 172

Pur­suant to your ques­tion on when Open­ing Exer­cises began and how long the cer­e­mony has been held in the Chapel, the ear­li­est doc­u­mented “open­ing exer­cise” I could find was in 1802, held in Nas­sau Hall. There is a news­pa­per clip­ping to that effect in His­tor­i­cal Sub­ject Files, Box 312. I also checked the index to Trustees Min­utes but did not see any­thing there.

The first time the gath­er­ing is referred to as “open­ing exer­cises” is in 1904. It was pre­vi­ously referred to in the Gen­eral Cat­a­logue as an assembly.

Open­ing Exer­cises have been held in the Uni­ver­sity Chapel since 1929. After Nas­sau Hall, they were held in Mar­quand Chapel. After Mar­quand burned, they were held in Alexan­der Hall until the com­ple­tion of the Uni­ver­sity Chapel.

Open­ing Exer­cises Pro­ces­sion at Mar­quand Chapel,

His­tor­i­cal Pho­to­graph Col­lec­tion: Grounds & Build­ings, Box MP29

Best,

Christie Lutz