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This Week in Princeton History for October 3-9


In this week’s installment of our recurring series, posting bills in Trenton gets four students arrested, F. Scott Fitzgerald is not doing well, and more.

October 3, 1970—A dozen state and local feminist groups, in their first general convention, join to discuss the basic issues of the women’s rights movement in the Princeton Inn. The University is held up as an example of discrimination at the meeting, with 600 faculty but only 13 women who hold a rank above “Instructor.”

October 4, 1889—According to a report that will later appear in the Trenton Times, Trenton police arrest and take four students to their station while the students are posting bills warning “Ye Mongrel Herd of Freshmen” not to carry canes, use tobacco, sing “Old Nassau,” or wear orange and black. As there is nothing obscene in the bills, however, they are released.

“Attention Ye Mongrel Herd of Freshmen,” 1889. (Click to enlarge.) Princeton University Class Records (AC130).

October 7, 1913—F. Scott Fitzgerald meets with Howard McClanahan, Dean of the College, about his unsatisfactory academic performance so far in his first semester at Princeton. He is already set to fail three courses.

Grade card for F. Scott Fitzgerald, Class of 1918. Office of the Registrar Records (AC116). For an overview of Princeton University’s historical grading scales, please see our previous blog on the topic.

October 8, 1836—The New York Commercial Advertiser urges Princeton faculty to act in response to a racist attack on Theodore Wright at Commencement.

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

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