This Week in Princeton History for February 10-16

In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, a local farmer is making use of the waste from the outhouses, badminton debuts on campus, and more.

February 10, 1881—A report to the Board of Trustees notes that a local farmer is emptying the outhouses and taking the excrement to use as manure. (See Volume 6 of the Board of Trustees Minutes.)

February 12, 1891—Prof. Cyrus Brackett gives a lecture on electricity with a demonstration of battery-operated electric lights at Second Presbyterian Church to a large audience.

February 14, 1936—Princeton debuts badminton on campus in a tournament in Dillon Gym.

Princeton University Badminton Club, ca. 1930s. Historical Photograph Collection: Campus Life Series (AC112), Box LP59, Image No. 3890.

February 15, 1960—The New York Times reports that Orange Key’s planned fund-raising dance, advertising “One Hundred Dates to Be Sold,” has been cancelled due to phone calls from angry mothers of the women from Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey, who were unwittingly being offered for “sale.” The Centenary College students have decided not to attend.

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

Fact check: We always strive for accuracy, but if you believe you see an error, please contact us.

This Week in Princeton History for April 15-21

In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, classes resume while war rages on,  Harvard raises money for Princeton, and more.

April 16, 1778—The Board of Trustees votes to attempt to resume classes, despite the war that interrupted them in the first place still being waged.

April 19, 1880—Sophomore Alfred M. Terriberry dies from drinking contaminated water. Several other students who drank from the same well are also ill. In response, Princeton officials promise to regularly check the purity of the wells supplying water to student lodging.

April 20, 2002—Three buses of Princeton residents, including undergraduate and graduate students from Princeton University, arrive in Washington, D.C. to join with at least 50,000 others in a rally to support the rights of Palestinians.

April 21, 1925—Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Club gives the entire proceeds for its performance of “Laugh it Off” in Newark to their Princeton counterparts in support of the proposed Triangle Club Theater (later named McCarter Theater).

The star of “Laugh It Off” was Harvard’s H. E. Carillo ’26. Photo from Daily Princetonian Photographic Weekly.

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

Fact check: We always strive for accuracy, but if you believe you see an error, please contact us.

This Week in Princeton History for May 21-27

In this week’s installment of our ongoing series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, a rally pushes for the expulsion of repeat sexual harassers, the New Jersey State Board of Health investigates a typhoid outbreak, and more.

May 22, 1931—The Daily Princetonian laments the suicide of influential cartoonist Ralph Barton and notes it reflects a larger societal phenomenon. “Among the more sensitive, which naturally includes men of talent and genius, this psychopathic condition is as common as measles. … The germ is in the age itself…and no-one has yet found means to combat it.” (Those interested in the work of Ralph Barton can find examples at Firestone Library in the Graphic Arts Collection.)

May 23, 1988—Students hold a demonstration advocating the expulsion of those who repeatedly engage in sexual harassment.

Flyer advertising rally, May 23, 1988. Women’s Center Records (AC248), Box 1.

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The Temples of Cloacina

Today, behind Nassau Hall just beyond Cannon Green, visitors to the Princeton University campus will see stairs between two large tiger sculptures installed in 1969. This sharp incline had different scenery prior to the twentieth century, however. Students sometimes called it “South Campus,” “The Temples of Cloacina,” or “Cloaca Maxima.” Less euphemistically or poetically, it served a most basic purpose, which students studying ancient Rome will have already guessed from the last two names: this was where the College of New Jersey (Princeton) sent its sewage.

2015_Denise_Applewhite_OOC

Photo by Denise Applewhite, 2015. Courtesy Princeton University Office of Communications.

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