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This Week in Princeton History for August 22-28


In this week’s installment of our recurring series, royals take a tour, an athletic meet for Chinese students is held on campus, and more.

August 25, 1975—Royalty from Monaco—Princess Grace, Prince Rainier, and their children, Caroline and Albert—visit Princeton on a tour of American colleges that includes Williams and Amherst.

August 26, 1819—A letter to the editor of New York’s Commercial Advertiser briefly details the burial of College president Samuel Stanhope Smith.

His remains were attended to the grave by the largest concourse of people ever witnessed in this place. Six Trustees bore the pall, and eight members of the church conveyed the body to its last home. The Students of the College went into mourning, and formed part of the procession, Clergymen, Strangers, from the adjacent towns, and the inhabitants of the borough, followed in the train.

August 27, 1986—University administrators write to a company named “Princeton International.” The company, which is not affiliated with Princeton, is trying to sell diet drugs via advertising in the Weekly World News tabloid with the implication they are a product manufactured by the school. “If the response from dissatisfied and unhappy users of your products is any indication, there is in fact substantial misimpression being given …”

August 28, 1911—An intercollegiate athletic meet is held at Princeton in which all competitors are Chinese students from Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, and other American colleges. It includes a kite-flying contest.

Clipping from the London Sphere, September 16, 1911, depicting scenes from the Chinese students’ intercollegiate athletic competition at Princeton University.

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

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