Mike McCurry '76 speaking on campus at Princeton University, November 1995. McCurry served as White House Press Secretary for Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1998.
Images from contact sheet found in the Office of Communications Records (AC168), Box 155.
In the 1990s, a student group at Princeton University, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance (LGBA), had a monthly newsletter called The Gaily Princetonian. If you want to read it, you can find the original online issues thanks to the Internet Archive.
"The man had on a pair of false whiskers."
A Princeton student impersonating a New Jersey State Detective arrested a circus cowboy at the Wyoming Wild West Show in Plainfield, New Jersey, on May 13, 1895. According to the New York Times (May 15, 1895), "The man had on a pair of false whiskers."
Some present recognized him as a Princeton student, but because he was armed with a revolver he threatened to use, the crowd allowed him to continue. The student kept the disguise on until he brought the cowboy in front of a judge at the courthouse. He told the court that he and friends of his had been swindled by this circus in Princeton and he was seeking justice. After dropping the cowboy off with the local authorities, “He then washed his face and took a train for Princeton."
The advertisement shown here appeared in the Daily Princetonian several times in the spring of 1895.
Tiger Tuesday: This illustration appears on Princeton University's 1967 Bric-a-Brac.
Menu Monday: The annual dinner menu from the Princeton Club of Chicago, April 19, 1912 (held at the Princeton Club of Chicago).
Office of the President Records (AC117), Box 65
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Throwback Thursday: Princeton Glee Club program, March 29, 1880.
Music Performance at Princeton Collection (AC205), Box 3
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On May 11, 1966, nearly 400 protesters demonstrated their opposition to the American involvement in the Vietnam War during U. S. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s visit to Princeton University. (Johnson was present for the dedication of the Woodrow Wilson School.) A bystander reportedly expressed disagreement with the protesters by punching a graduate student involved.
The Woodrow Wilson School was renamed the School of Public and International Affairs in 2020.
On this postcard with a colored photograph of Princeton University's Witherspoon Hall sent to a woman in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1906, someone has asked, "Has fishtown any buildings like this?"
Historical Postcard Collection (AC045), Box 1.
On May 7, 1911, alongside notes from other classmates under the header "Happy Thoughts," Charles Allen, Jr. wrote in Wilder H. Haines’s scrapbook, “My thoughts cannot be happy in this room.”
Scrapbook Collection (AC026), Box 277.
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Tiger Tuesday: This stripeless version of the Princeton University mascot–a style popularized in the 1940s–appeared in the Nassau Sovereign on November 12, 1942.
Menu Monday: "If only I had good coffee, and bread, I would ask no more"
On January 25, 1836, a Princeton student named J. V. Reynolds wrote a letter to his aunt. Among the topics he covered were the food on campus, which he generally liked, while being very critical of the coffee:
"Had for dinner, boiled mutton, chicken pie, (excellent--have it often) wasted potatoes, soup &c. for dessert--apples. We have excellent dinners, frequently apple dumpling,--great big ones, like a half bushel. When we have them I feast. We have no cream, therefore I use butter and large quantity of sugar or molasses. And I believe I am as fond of it that was, as with cream. We always have apple or mince pies, or pancakes, or apple dumpling, or (very seldom) apples alone, generally apples, with the pies &c. We do not get good coffee. That is the hardest on me. If only I had good coffee, and bread, I would ask no more. Very seldom, we do get a tolerable good cup of coffee, but to tell the truth, I have not tasted a good cup, since I left Sally's."
Historical Subject Files (AC109), Box 104, Folder 47
Alan Lukens '46 left Princeton early, as did many in his time, to fight in World War II. On April 30, 1945, he assisted in the liberation of Dachau concentration camp. Of this, he said,
Liberation was the 29th of April at 6:00 PM. ... I was fortunate to be chosen among a few early the next morning to visit the camp. ... We counted 37 of these cattle cars full of dead bodies. These were what the French used to call 40 and 8. In the first war, they were made for 40 men or 8 horses. But actually, they had something like 200 men in these. And the Nazis had the crazy idea that somehow if they moved all of the prisoners from other camps, that somehow they could congregate there in Bavaria, and that the world wouldn't know what had happened. ... There were very, very few that made it. The ones who had gotten in that day managed to get off, but there were only just a handful really that were still living on those trains. The ones that were lucky, like a couple who became my friends when I got to know them later, were sick enough so they were put into the infirmary, and that's what saved them.
The following February, he was back at Princeton to finish his degree.
More about this, as well as the rest of his life, is available on the Princeton University Athletics website.
Photo from 1946 Nassau Herald.
"Princeton has 'gone dry'... all the places in Princeton where intoxicants were dispensed were closed on May 1st by agents of the federal government... in accordance with the regulation prohibiting the sale of intoxicants within a half-mile of a government military school."
--Princeton Alumni Weekly, May 8, 1918, on Prohibition coming to town thanks to the establishment of the School of Military Aeronautics at Princeton University
Tiger Tuesday: We found these tiger drawings in a scrapbook made by Princeton University alum Wilder Haines, Class of 1915. Nearby writing suggests this has something to do with a move to ban "horsing," which was especially a topic of conversation during Haines's time on campus. ("Horsing" was essentially just hazing incoming students for their first year of study--which is probably why the bird is saying, "Oh, them freshies!" in each drawing.)
Ultimately, what seems to be suggested here is that the tiger (representing the rest of Princeton) had previously put significant pressure on the "freshies," making them cry. Now, roles have reversed, and the "freshies" are riding on the back of the tiger. Both saying "cinch" when atop the other suggests the power dynamic, as does the puffed out chest of the new student in the second drawing.
Scrapbook Collection (AC026), Box 277
Menu Monday: We don't know much about this dinner other than that it seems to have been attended by Princeton student William C. Braislin, Class of 1889. He kept the menu in his scrapbook.
Scrapbook Collection (AC026), Box 129
Clipping from the Daily Princetonian, April 28, 1917
George Kennan was a member of Princeton University's Class of 1925. He is known, in part, for writing a really long telegram. The so-called "Long Telegram," however, was not quite as long as many have claimed. It was still 17.5 pages, roughly, but not 8,000 words. Apparently, its word count is closer to 5,300.