Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, no stranger to applause, happily received it when accepting an honorary degree from the University in 2005. Numerous artists of varied genres shared their work and vision at Princeton during the 2008–09 academic year, including author Jamaica Kincaid, Japanese filmmaker Hara Kazuo, choreographer Mark Morris, and actresses Glenn Close and Phylicia Rashad.
Photo by T. Kevin Birch
First Ladies Lou Hoover, Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower, and Barbara Bush kept low profiles when accompanying their husbands on Princeton visits. But in 1944 Eleanor Roosevelt, above, came solo and addressed a student organization on how can the quality of our citizenship be improved and how can our active participation in government be stimulated? More recently, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has visited twice, as a First Lady and as a U.S. Senator. Will current First Lady Michelle Obama '85 make the trip, too?
Photo courtesy of Princeton University Archives
The confirmation of the Honorable Sonia M. Sotomayor ’76, a University trustee, to the U.S. Supreme Court as the first Latina justice elicits memories of a previous path breaker on the highest court. Before being named the first African American justice, Thurgood Marshall, center, received an honorary degree from Princeton. At Commencement in 1963 he talked with fellow degree recipients Robert McNamara, left, then U.S. Secretary of Defense, and Episcopalian Bishop Arthur Lichtenberger.
Photo courtesy of Princeton University Archives
When national and international notables visit the University, Princeton students often have the opportunity not only to hear them speak, but also to speak to them. Undergraduates enjoyed that opportunity with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in April. The University also hosted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, author and foreign correspondent Robin Wright, and international economist Jeffrey Sachs during the 2008–09 academic year.
Photo by Denise Applewhite