Category Archives: Exhibitions

“Your True Friend and Enemy”: Princeton and the Civil War

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Civil War exhibition reveals sectional fissures within college and town.

“Your True Friend and Enemy”: Princeton and the Civil War, a new exhibition at Princeton University’s Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, examines life at the college and within the town of Princeton against the backdrop of the War Between the States. Through the eyes of students, faculty, and townspeople—including women and African Americans—the exhibition provides a local view of this watershed event in American history. It opens on September 17, 2012, the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, after which President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

“Each case features something related to Abraham Lincoln,” said Dan Linke, the head of the Mudd Manuscript Library and one of the four exhibition curators. “We have student accounts of his pre-inaugural speech in Trenton and then his funeral train, as well as an alumnus soldier’s diary noting the assassination. Perhaps the most significant item is the three-page handwritten letter sent by Lincoln to the college president accepting an honorary degree. It is one of the University’s treasured possessions and what a former dean called ‘among the title deeds to our Americanism.’”

Letters and documents drawn from the University Archives at the Mudd Manuscript Library and from other units of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, as well as the Historical Society of Princeton, demonstrate how sectional differences affected student life and how the bonds of friendship transcended the national conflict. The exhibition also illuminates how Princetonians and the university have commemorated the war and preserved the memory of fallen student and alumni soldiers.

Mudd Library staff members Christie Lutz, Brenda Tindal, and Kristen Turner also curated the exhibition. “This exhibit shows how both local communities—the College of New Jersey and Princeton—grappled with the impact of the Civil War and responded to the crisis in a variety of ways.” said Turner. “The story is more nuanced and complicated than you may remember from your history books.”

“Your True Friend and Enemy”: Princeton and the Civil War is free and open to the public in the Wiess Lounge at the Mudd Manuscript Library, 65 Olden Street, until June 1, 2013. The exhibition is open from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. An open house will be held at Mudd Library from 10 a.m. until noon on Saturday, October 20, 2012. A behind-the-scenes tour will start at 10:30 a.m.

For more information, call 609-258-6345 or email .

 

The Election for Woodrow Wilson’s America

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The 1912 U.S. presidential election was a turning point for progressivism, both for the nation and for Woodrow Wilson.  An exhibition now open at the Princeton University Library illustrates this remarkable election and the life of the man who won it.

Drawn from the University Archives and the Public Policy Collection at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, the exhibition follows Wilson’s career as scholar, university president, governor of New Jersey, and newly elected president of the United States to tell the story of how his ideas were formed and changed in service of the nation. In addition, the exhibition features rare Wilson memorabilia loaned by Anthony W. Atkiss, a member of Princeton’s class of 1961.

“The Election for Woodrow Wilson’s America”  is free and open to the public, and is on display in Firestone Library’s Milberg Gallery now through the end of December 2012.

The 1912 election was a four-way race between a conservative incumbent, William Howard Taft, a socialist, Eugene Debs, and two progressives, former president Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson. Growing concern about the concentration of wealth and influence among the power elite and pressing questions about taxation, the welfare of farmers, banking regulation, and labor rights made it almost inevitable that a progressive candidate would take the White House.

“The exhibition is filled with some exceptional items, including love letters Wilson wrote to his first wife, the complete text of Wilson’s first inaugural address, the top hat he wore while campaigning for the presidency, a good number of original political cartoons from the era, and a tremendous variety of pins, buttons, pennants, and other campaign memorabilia, generously loaned to us by Mr. Atkiss,” said Dan Linke, the head of Mudd Library, who co-curated the exhibition with Maureen Callahan, a project archivist at Mudd.

According to Callahan, Wilson represented the model citizen-scholar that Princeton strove to produce throughout the 20th century. Cosmopolitan, serious, and reformist, he had studied the structures that make political change happen and was willing to leverage his influence to affect them. As Princeton’s president from 1902 to 1910, Wilson transformed the university into a far more scholarly place than it had been when he was a student. Motivated by ambition and a sincere desire to serve, Wilson took on the political party system and local monopolies as governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913, and this work helped catapult him to the presidency.

“The Election for Woodrow Wilson’s America” is currently open from 8:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Monday through Friday.  Starting Sept. 4, it will be open from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday until Dec. 28, 2012.  The exhibition is open from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. A curator’s tour of the exhibition will be held Oct. 28, 2012, at 3 p.m.

The Milberg Gallery is located within Firestone Library at 1 Washington Road (#5 on map). For more information, call 609-258-6345 or email .

 

University Archives materials in new Art Museum exhibition

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A new exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum features items borrowed from the Princeton University Archives. Princeton and the Gothic Revival: 1870-1930 is a look into "Americans’ changing attitudes to the art, architecture, and style of the Middle Ages through the lens of Princeton University around the turn of the twentieth century" and opens to the public this Saturday, February 25, 2012.

Chapel exterior
Alexander Hoyle for Cram and Ferguson, architects

The exhibit includes 10 items loaned from the Princeton University Archives, including the signature image for the exhibition, a watercolor of the University Chapel (above). Other items include architectural drawings of the Marquand Chapel, Holder Hall, Madison Hall and the South Court Tower, and some suggested additions for the university library from 1898, which at that time was housed in Chancellor Green.

One piece needed some intricate and delicate conservation efforts from University Paper Conservator Ted Stanley. A watercolor of the proposed exterior of the A. Page Brown, Class of 1877 Biological Laboratory had split in half. Stanley was able to restore the watercolor and the board it was mounted on to its original form to hide the separation. We challenge you to find the seam!

This is the first time that any of the archives material has been loaned and displayed at the Princeton Art Museum. The exhibit will run from February 25th to June 24, 2012

For more about Princeton and the Gothic Revival: 1870-1930 or the Princeton Art Museum, visit their website.

“She Flourishes:” Chapters in the History of Princeton Women

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The Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University invites visitors to view the new exhibit, "She Flourishes: Chapters in the History of Princeton Women," which documents the struggles and accomplishments of women scholars, students, staff and other women associated with the institution. The exhibit is open now through the end of August, 2012.

The exhibit title is derived from the University’s official motto, Dei Sub Numine Viget, which translates to "Under God’s Power, She Flourishes." Drawing from the library’s rich holdings, the exhibit showcases various accounts of women throughout Princeton’s history and explores the ways in which these women have redefined what was once considered an "old-boys’ school."

EvelynWomensCollege
From the "dangerous experiment" of Evelyn College (Princeton’s local all-women’s college, 1887-97), to the implementation of undergraduate coeducation (1969), and the inauguration of President Shirley M. Tilghman (2001), women have historically contributed significantly to the function and educational mission of Princeton University, though not always without opposition. Exhibition items from the University Archives at the Mudd Manuscript Library spotlight chapters in the lives of a handful of particularly notable Princeton women, while demonstrating their changing roles and their ability to influence their environment.
Women highlighted in the exhibit include: Beatrix Farrand, who was responsible for crafting Princeton’s highly regarded landscape environment; Katharine Fullerton Gerould, a noted scholar and faculty wife barred from intellectual pursuits, skewered the parochial, hyper-masculine environment at Princeton in 1924; Josephine Thomson Swann who was integral in the founding of the Ivy Club in 1887; and Sally Frank, who more than one hundred years later, challenged male-oriented cultural traditions, resulting in the full integration of women into the eating clubs.
Woman Enters Admissions
This exhibit does not and cannot tell the whole story of women at Princeton. It does, however, provide a glimpse into the materials generations of Princeton women left behind including letters, memoranda, photographs, publications and other records of scholarship and campus work. The exhibit also includes a video compilation of archival footage relating to women at Princeton, available online through the Reel Mudd Blog. For more information related to the history of women at Princeton, see the Mudd Library’s page devoted to this topic.
"She Flourishes" is open to the public free of charge from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday until August 31, 2012. The Mudd Library will also be open Saturday morning, June 2, 2012, for Reunions. Beginning in June, exhibit hours will be 8:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Annual Report 2011: Exhibitions, Public Relations, and Outreach

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As a continuation of our series on our 2011 Annual Report, please see a description of our work in exhibitions, public relations, and outreach:

  • The John F. Kennedy exhibition assembled by Nicole Milano in August 2010 was very well-received, so much that we extended its run through the end of August 2011. In addition, in March Mudd co-hosted a panel with the Woodrow Wilson School entitled “JFK and Civil Rights: 50 Years After” that filled Dodds auditorium. John Doar ’44 and Nicholas Katzenbach ’43 were the highlights of the panel that reminisced about their service in US Justice Department in the first half of the 1960s. A dinner in the Garden Room at Prospect followed where over 50 people dined with the speakers, including President Shirley Tilghman.
  • Mudd hosted an Open House on Saturday, October 23, featuring the exhibit and stacks tours that attracted 17 people.
  • The Mudd blog continues to be a source of information on new collections, interesting reference inquiries, digital collections, staff, accessions and finding aids, and other library news. We created 25 new entries last year. Mudd continued to expand its embrace of social media this year by adding a new blog, The Reel Mudd, devoted to providing access to our audiovisual media, with 58 entries featuring over 85 films. We also launched Facebook and Twitter sites. At the conclusion of the fiscal year, our Facebook page had over 200 monthly active users and we had more than 200 wall posts, a significant number of those originating from our Twitter account where we deliver the “This Day in Princeton History” facts.
  • In conjunction with Alumni Day, Mudd Library assisted Theatre Intime’s 90th anniversary dinner in February. Student members assembled an exhibition in the Harlan Room that was viewed prior to the dinner which was served in the reading room.
Stay tuned for further discussion of our goals for fiscal year 2012.

Lobby Case Exhibition on Moe Berg

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Update — Back by popular demand! The Moe Berg Lobby Case Exhibition can be once again viewed in the lobby of the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library through August 31st, 2012.

Primarily known as a Major League catcher and coach, Morris “Moe” Berg was also a spy for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in World War II, as well as a lawyer, linguist, and Princeton graduate. As a member of the class of 1923, Berg excelled scholastically and athletically by graduating with honors in Modern Languages (he studied Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Sanskrit), and playing first base and shortstop for the Princeton Tigers. While his batting average was low- Berg inspired a Major League scout to utter the phrase, “Good field, no hit”- he was known at Princeton for his strong arm and sound baseball instincts.

The exhibit highlights the varied roles of Berg in its presentation of Princeton memorabilia from the class of 1923, Berg baseball cards, and other material culled from Mudd’s two collections on Moe Berg: The Moe Berg Collection (1937-2007), and the newly acquired Dr. and Mrs. Arnold Breitbart Collection on Moe Berg (1934-1933). Also on display is a 1959 baseball signed by Berg and other Major League players, on loan from Arnold Breitbart. The Moe Berg exhibit can be located in the lobby of the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, and was originally on display until August 31, 2011.

[i] Dawidoff, Nicholas. The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg. New York: Pantheon, 1994.