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This Week in Princeton History for October 27-November 2
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, reports of Martians landing nearby distress the University community, Bruce Springsteen packs Jadwin Gym, and more. October 29, 1955—A Princeton undergraduate is arrested for disturbing the peace when found kicking a pineapple juice can…
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Princeton and Apartheid: The 1978 Nassau Hall Sit-In
Princeton di-vest! Oh yeah Just like the rest! Oh yeah And if you don’t! Oh yeah We will not rest! Oh yeah We gonna fight And fight And keep on fightin’ some more Princeton di-vest! (Student protest chant, quoted in Princeton Alumni Weekly 24 April 1978) Following the recent “Coming Back: Reconnecting Princeton’s Black Alumni”…
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Forrestal Digitization Completes Grant’s First Phase
James V. Forrestal ‘15, known to members of the Princeton community as the namesake of the James Forrestal Campus, served as Secretary of the Navy and as the first Secretary of Defense. The Mudd Library is the home of the James V. Forrestal Papers, and Mudd recently digitized Forrestal’s diaries dating from 1941-1949. The diaries…
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This Week in Princeton History for October 20-26
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, the first charter is issued for the College of New Jersey, the first mid-semester fall break occurs, and more. For the week of October 20-26: October 20, 2000—A ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official dedication…
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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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This Week in Princeton History for October 13-19
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, the College starts wearing orange, students protest the Vietnam War, and more. For the week of October 13-19: October 13, 1868—The faculty pass a resolution permitting students to adopt and wear orange ribbons imprinted with…
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The University Archives and its Focus on Fixity
The Council of State Archivists (CoSA) has designated today as Electronic Records Day and we’d like to use this occasion to provide updates about our efforts to preserve and provide access to born-digital archival records within the University Archives. I wrote about born-digital records in a previous blog post, but as a reminder, challenges unique…
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The Year Princeton University Delayed the Start of Classes until October 10
The motion was passed that the following resolutions of the Council be printed in the Princetonian issue of October 16th: (1) That all undergraduates shall not enter any moving picture theatre in Princeton. (2) That all undergraduates shall stay within the University limits, avoiding Witherspoon street and other congested districts unless there is an…
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1957 Epidemics at Princeton
The most characteristic sound around the Princeton campus last week was not the familiar and rhythmic tolling of Nassau Hall’s bell, nor even the sleep-shattering bedlam of the steam-shovels on the new U-Store site. The sound around campus was everywhere: if you went to the heights of Blair Tower, behold, it was there, and even…
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This Week in Princeton History for October 6-12
For last week’s installment in our ongoing series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its students and alumni, click here. For the week of October 6-12: Toni Morrison is named a Nobel Laureate, an undergrad gets international attention for a physics paper, and more. October 6, 1938—Princeton University is selected as one of…
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