In this week’s installment of our recurring series, alumni support coeducation, some Presbyterians condemn Princeton, and more.

October 28, 1969—Reporters with the Daily Princetonian discover the identities of donors who have given in support of coeducation, seemingly revealed by an administrative mistake. Laurance S. Rockefeller, Class of 1932, has donated more than $2 million and is expected to donate $2 million more toward the funding for “Education of Women.”

October 29, 1897—The Missouri Presbyterian Synod condemns Princeton for serving wine at an event and for having professors who signed a petition for the Princeton Inn to obtain a saloon license. Further,

we express most emphatically our condemnation of the policy pursued at Princeton of permitting students to visit drinking places, and we do hereby warn the officials concerned in this matter that their course has been condemned and is a reproach upon the whole Presbyterian church…

Their warning will be published in the Boston Daily Advertiser.

October 30, 1863—With an election coming up, the Princeton Standard urges everyone to vote, including students, if they are residents and otherwise qualified. However, they warn, “Vote for no man who directly or indirectly incites to a resistance of the laws, and encourages riot.”

November 1, 1933—In protest of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s expressed intentions regarding U.S. relations with Soviet Union, a Student League for the Non-Recognition of Soviet Russia is forming on campus.

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Earlier this year, Jean Hendry *80, former chair of the Princetoniana Committee, visited Mudd Library to review the Daily Princetonian’s general records, where she found something very special. Lo and behold, within box 2, a folder marked “Special Issues” contained four previously thought lost issues, including Volume 1, Issue #1 from 1876. These four issues have been digitized and are now available online.  

In 2009, the University Archives initiated a digitization project to put the student newspaper, The Daily Princetonian, online back to its first issue in 1876. At that time, only the Harvard newspaper was entirely online, but just its text, and it was delivered using the same style formatting as the contemporary newspaper. The Princeton project aimed to do better by photographing the newspaper pages and making them keyword searchable, but with the results being delivered as images of the actual newspaper. Now over two dozen college newspapers use this system, including Cornell, Columbia, Penn, and Yale.

When we completed the initial Daily Princetonian digitization project in 2011, about 20,000 issues were available, an impressive number, except that the first and second issue were not among them. The run started with issue #3. Despite searching the multiple runs within the Mudd Manuscript Library and the offices of the Prince, they could not be located. But just like the advice given Dorothy at the end of the Wizard of Oz, we should have looked in our own backyard.

This fall we updated the Papers of Princeton website to have more information about the origins of the project, its various donors and supporters, and information about the publications themselves. Also, two publications, The Nassau Weekly and Business Today were added, joining the recently digitized US 1, bringing the total number of publications available to 17. Each addition to the site makes the overall site more valuable, as more coverage provides more perspectives, and the chance to recover multiple voices from Princeton’s past.

We will continue to add publications to the site as resources and time allow, and given Princeton’s rich student publishing history, this work will be ongoing for some time to come.

In this week’s installment of our recurring series, a senior gets permission to write a novel senior thesis, graduate students have found that eradicating discrimination does not require an end to prejudice, and more.

October 21, 1969—Jan Robinson ’73 writes in her journal (later published in Redbook),

According to Professor Burger (sociology) there are three big problems existing in America today: (1) being Black, (2) being a woman, (3) being a student. Put them all together and what have you got? Me! A Black female student at Princeton. What a laugh! I knew the course would prove to be interesting, but this is ridiculous.

October 22, 1897—Large crowds gather to celebrate Commemoration Day, which honors the anniversary of the University’s founding (October 22, 1746). Those present include Grover and Frances Fulsom Cleveland.

October 24, 1950—For the first time, Princeton has granted permission to a student to write a novel as a senior thesis.

October 25, 1957—The Princeton Alumni Weekly reports on research undertaken by public policy graduate students. Their findings from field work in Greensboro, South Carolina suggest that “there are no necessary connections between what people feel in their hearts and what they will publicly do.” Instead,

“The gap between private feeling and public action is filled, in short, with social precepts, moral injunctions, fear of consequences and positive commitments to democratic rights and community responsibilities. … And if custom and morality do not intervene adequately, the resolute action of law can be interposed to restrain and impede the translation of prejudice into discrimination.”

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In this week’s installment of our recurring series, a new seal is accepted, students gather to track the World Series, and more.

October 13, 1748—The Board of Trustees accepts the design by William Peartree Smith for the College seal. Its colors are blue, gold, and purple, though usually the design will not be rendered in color. It will be used until 1896.

October 14, 1965—To Princeton University students, “the novelty has worn off” of having women in class as part of the Critical Languages Program. There are 12 female students on campus, and about 3,000 male students.

October 16, 1912—For the final game of this year’s World Series, those seeking as close to real time updates as possible can head to “Dad” Struve’s theater in Princeton, where details will be shared beginning at 2:00 p.m. over a direct wire from the new Fenway Park stadium. Fans of the Giants will sit on the left, and the Red Sox on the right. As with many Americans tracking the progress of their favorite teams long distance, Princetonians are deeply invested in the outcome of this year’s championship.

October 17, 1768—In the New York Gazette, the Trustees respond to complaints that the cost of attending college is too high by saying the issue is that parents pay their tuition and fees too late, forcing the institution to purchase supplies on credit at a higher overall cost.

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In this week’s installment of our recurring series, polio shuts down the swimming pool, a professor wins a Nobel Prize, and more.

October 5, 1893—The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Princeton students and faculty are “indignant” over exaggerated reports of college hazing. Princetonians insist that sophomores did not, as has been rumored, attempt to drown a frosh recently.

October 7, 1931—After two cases of polio among students, Dr. Joseph Raycroft advises others to avoid travel and crowded indoor spaces. The swimming pool has been closed as a precaution.

October 8, 1924—The Princeton Alumni Association of Shields, Pennsylvania challenges any other alumni association to beat their record for their first annual meeting. The town “contains about one square mile, has a population of 157 … Its principal industry is raising boys for Princeton. Shields has no stores, only homes. It has a post office. It has one slot machine. It has one church…” Yet 100% of the 12 alumni who live there were in attendance were said to be at the first annual meeting. Royal S. Goldsbury, Class of 1891, who has been elected “Publicity Man,” explains: “We believe this meeting to be unique (pronounced u-neek) for two reasons: first, because of its unprecedented percentage, and second, because the meeting though talked of was never held.”

October 9, 1995—Molecular biology professor Eric Wieschaus wins the Nobel Prize for Medicine. The award recognizes his genetic research on fruit flies, which has provided insights into embryonic development.

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In this week’s installment of our recurring series, students greet a war hero, a British doctor condemns Princeton’s president, and more.

September 28, 1994—The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, Thomas J. Moyer, signs a document alongside representatives from ARD/Checci that was written by Princeton senior James Garland ’95. The memorandum of understanding is the first step in drafting a constitution for the newly independent Ukraine after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

October 1, 1956—In response to rumors that Yale would become coeducational, a Princeton student’s deliberately hyperbolic editorial describes the concept of women at an Ivy League school as “Hell on Earth.”

October 2, 1899—A crowd of 700 students gathers to greet Admiral George Dewey, who is on his way to Washington. At the train station, Dewey speaks to them from the rear of the train, pointing out that his son is a Princeton graduate and Dewey himself has an honorary Princeton degree, and thus, he is “one of you now.” This will later be reported in the New York Tribune.

October 4, 1783—Christian Frederic Michaelis, head physician of the general hospital in New York (which the British control), summarizes Princeton’s recent Commencement for Major George Beckwith. Of Princeton’s president, John Witherspoon, Michaelis writes, “He poisons the minds of his young students, and through them the continent.”

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In this week’s installment of our recurring series, some say students are marrying too young, a presidential candidate’s appearance disappoints some, and more.

September 22, 1954—A Prince editorial warns that single-sex education is driving students toward early marriage.

September 23, 1868—At a meeting called by the YMCA at the Methodist church, local leaders say the town has a responsibility to students among them to have high moral standards.

Princeton is under peculiar obligations to surround these institutions of Learning, which have here been established, with a pure moral atmosphere. Parents send their sons to college with trembling anxiety, because of the evils incident to college life; and they have reason to expect that the personal influence of the distinguished Teachers of the College and Theological Seminary, co-operating with the large number of educated christian [sic] people of this community, will exclude from the town by both moral and legal means, all gross immoralities, and all those facilities which tend to demoralize and debauch the youth who are residing among us.

September 24, 1806—John Melish rides in a stagecoach to Trenton with a group of Princeton students. He is shocked when the passengers are forced to help repair the coach using part of a fence stolen from a nearby farm. “Being fixed in this way, we jolted on to Trenton…”

September 27, 1836—William Henry Harrison campaigns for president in Princeton, where thousands have gathered for Commencement. New York’s Saratoga Sentinel will report,

We understand he is a very indifferent looking man, and that his appearance as productive of much disappointment. An old clergyman present from the country, who had been in the habit of attending the College commencement for years, and hearing all the good things which the occasion brings forth, seemed much disappointed at the appearance and conduct of the General, and on being asked how he liked him, emphatically replied, that “he was a poor looking man, and a wonderful poor spoken man.”

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In this week’s installment of our recurring series, the campus is in mourning, an alum starts a new newspaper, and more.

September 14, 1821—Charleston’s City Gazette prints a letter from a writer from Princeton urging naval officers to collect “subjects of Natural History, which are so often met with on foreign coasts” in order to fill museum cabinets, like Robert F. Stockton has done for Princeton.

September 18, 1901—At Opening Exercises, president Francis Landey Patton acknowledges that students are beginning the year mourning William McKinley, and the mood is a bit different on campus than it would be otherwise.

September 16, 1980—University officials are investigating BB-gun shooting of six students during a recent blackout. One witness says, “I heard some people screaming that people were being shot by BB guns, but I didn’t believe it.”

September 20, 1881—J. Bonner Skinner, Class of 1881, publishes the first issue of the Hardy (Nebraska) Clipper, his new newspaper.

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In this week’s installment of our recurring series, a professor begs locals not to pick his flowers, a student expresses indignation at local news coverage, and more.

September 10, 1926—Botany and genetics professor George Shull pleads with locals not to pick flowers used in his research. Though the field of 23,000 evening primroses is beautiful, he explains, “It is hoped that everyone will understand that these cultures exist only for the discovery of scientific principles, and that their beauty is purely incidental…”

September 11, 1950—Raymond Moley writes in Newsweek under the header “Propaganda for Princetonians,” warning of “leftist teachings” and urging parents to send their children elsewhere.

September 12, 1997—The 400 students whose ID cards have malfunctioned should expect them to be working by the end of the day. In the meantime, students will continue to recite their social security numbers to receive meals in campus dining halls.

September 13, 1867—“J. K.” has taken deep offense at the Princeton Standard’s coverage of the controversy surrounding the Jerome Medal, an award students have refused to accept. “The students here were generally weaned, before matriculation, and therefore do not crave milk, or pap, or such infantile pablum…”

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In this week’s installment of our recurring series, Nassau Street draws criticism, a staff member sets off to help hurricane victims, and more.

September 2, 1859—Locals complain that Nassau Street has become “intolerably dirty” and the dust should be swept up regularly.

September 3, 1922—The New York Times reports on Princeton’s unusual tradition of requiring graduate students to wear academic regalia in the Graduate College dining room.

The academic garb harmonizes with the atmosphere of the spacious hall… But, according to the graduate student himself, it requires experience and considerable ingenuity to keep long, ample sleeves from trailing in the soup or scooping up his neighbor’s jam when he reaches for the butter.

September 5, 2005—Office of Information Technology staff member John Green flies to Baton Rouge as a Red Cross volunteer, not knowing what his assignment will be. He will ultimately be assigned to the Procurement Team in Material Support Services, working 14-hour days for two weeks assisting Louisianans displaced by Hurricane Katrina in finding showers, toilets, food, water, and other supplies.

September 6, 1972—The Prince is produced using photo offset technology for the first time, a major technological advance from the hot lead letterpress used previously.

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