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This Week in Princeton History for September 20-26


In this week’s installment of our recurring series, residents of Baker Rink are asked to notify the Prince of their bunk numbers for subscription deliveries, Americans are questioning Princeton’s decision to hold a funeral for Aaron Burr, and more.

September 21, 1999—Peter Singer’s first day of teaching is marked by protest, as 14 demonstrators are arrested and dragged away from Nassau Hall after blocking its entrances for two hours.

Clipping from the Daily Princetonian.

September 23, 1946—The Princetonian asks subscribers who live in Baker Memorial Rink to notify the Circulation Manager of their bunk number to make sure their newspapers are delivered to their beds.

Due to high enrollment with veterans returning from World War II, in 1946 many students were given barracks-style lodging in Baker Memorial Rink, called “Baker Hotel,” to handle the demand for housing. Historical Photograph Collection, Campus Life Series (AC112), Box MP164, Image No. 6041.

September 24, 1836—Massachusetts’s Nantucket Inquirer reprints an editorial from the New York American questioning Princeton’s actions in holding a funeral for Aaron Burr.

It may seem invidious to hazard a remark upon such proceedings, and yet we feel bound to say that the propriety of such a course on the part of the President and Professors of the College appears to us questionable.

 

Col. Burr, for the later years of his life, lived, and he died under the ban of society. We enter not into the question, whether this was just or unjust towards him, but assuming such to be the fact, it strikes us as tending to confound in young minds all distinction of right and wrong–that where nothing had occurred to alter or affect this general estimate, the Rev. Head and learned Professors of the College should pay to the memory of such a man the honor which belongs to an unbroken life of virtue and patriotism.

September 26, 1845—An investigation finds that in spite of many accusations otherwise, no Princeton students voted illegally in the recent election.

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

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