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This Week in Princeton History for September 7-13


In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, Mudd Library opens, Virginia sends the college a map, and more.

September 7, 1976—Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library opens for research.

Architect’s rendering of plans for Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, 1974. Office of Communications Records (AC168), Box 160.

September 8, 1813—Because the Presbyterian church, where the ceremony is usually scheduled to be held, has burned down, Commencement is canceled.

September 9, 1969—The New York Times quotes June Fletcher ’73 on being overwhelmed by men when she arrived at Princeton as part of its first coeducational undergraduate year: “I’ve met so many boys today and they’re all just one big blur. … There are so many boys.”

September 10, 1833—Washington, D.C.’s Daily National Intelligencer reports that the legislature of the state of Virginia has presented the College of New Jersey in Princeton a Tanner map of Virginia “as a testimony of regard for having educated a considerable number of Virginia’s most distinguished sons.”

Tanner Map of the State of Virginia, 1827. This image courtesy the Library of Congress. Though it is unclear what happened to the map the state legislature sent to us (it may have burned in the Nassau Hall fire of 1855), a similar map of Virginia is held in Firestone Library’s Special Collections, donated by Cyrus H. McCormick, Class of 1879.

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

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