In this week’s installment of our ongoing series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, a dorm thief is caught, a movie about an alum premieres in town, and more.
December 22, 1898—A granite monument in Arlington National Cemetery at the grave of Major General William W. Belknap, Class of 1848 and former Secretary of War under Ulysses S. Grant, is presented to the U.S. government.
Photo taken in Washington, D.C. at what the caption describes as “a chance meeting of Bradley M. Thomas (Class of 1849), George Alexander Otis (Class of 1849), Alfred Alexander Woodhull (Class of 1856), Princeton President John Maclean (Class of 1816), and Gen. William Worth Belknap (Class of 1848).” Belknap is on the bottom left. Historical Photograph Collection, Campus Life Series (AC112), Box SP1, Item No. 4599.
December 23, 1952—A young man recently expelled from Harvard University’s English Ph.D. program who had been going into Princeton dorms and stealing a variety of student possessions is apprehended by a University proctor. At the time, he was wearing shoes he had stolen from a dorm room. The Mercer County Court will later send him to the Menlo State Insane Asylum.
December 24, 1915—University president John Grier Hibben and his wife invite any students still on campus to have dinner in their home.
December 25, 2001—A Beautiful Mind opens at the Garden Theatre, four days before being shown nationwide. The movie, filmed on the Princeton University campus, is loosely based on Sylvia Nasar’s biography of John Nash *50 by the same name.
Ron Howard directs Russell Crowe during filming of A Beautiful Mind, 2001. Office of Communications Records (AC168), Box 198.
For last week’s installment in this series, click here.
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