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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

The entire Menu Monday series

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Clipping from the Daily Princetonian, April 28, 1917

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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.

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"Princeton students, 500 strong, have congregated around the building and are trying to force their way inside."

--Trenton Times, April 25, 1893, on the coroner's inquest into the death of Joseph Shann, for which his mother, Mattie Shann, stands accused. Mattie Shann was accused not only of her son’s murder by poisoning, but also the murder of her husband, the attempted murder of her daughter, and arson in connection with three house fires in Princeton.

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Throwback Thursday: Listening to records in a dorm room at Princeton Inn College, 1970s. (Princeton Inn College is now Forbes College.)

Princeton Alumni Weekly Photograph Collection (AC126), Box 23

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On April 23, 1968, Elliott D. Moorman was elected president of Princeton University's Class of 1971. He is said to have been the first Black student to have held class office at Princeton.

Photo from 1971 Nassau Herald

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Menu Monday: This is a menu with an unfortunate typo from the April 18, 1912 dinner of the Princeton Association of Central New York in Onondaga, New York. They are unlike to have eaten mouse; we suspect that was meant to be "Mousse de Homard Tout Paris," i.e., lobster mousse.

Office of the President Records (AC117), Box 65, Folder 4.

The entire Menu Monday series

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“They had come to Trenton to see the elephant, had been drinking and when arrested were driving rapidly and making night hideous with their songs.”

--Trenton Times, on the April 20, 1891 arrest of two Princeton students in the wee hours of the morning

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"It is as if one whose eyes were accustomed to the glimmer of a darkened room, should walk out into the broad light of noon, and shaking his little fist at the sun, complain that it hurt his eyes and must stop shining."

--Princeton Standard, April 19, 1861, on reports that the stars and stripes had been removed from Nassau Hall's cupola in an effort to spare the feelings of Southern students

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Though unrecognizable to us now, this was one of the suggested plans for Princeton University's main campus library ca. 1945, found in Firestone Architectural Drawings Collection (AC411), Box 1. For reference, this is how the library actually turned out:

Firestone Library, ca. 1950s. Historical Photograph Collection, Grounds and Buildings Series (AC111), Box AD04, No 8323.

G. B. Moment, Class of 1928, had this to say on April 17, 1936 about the future campus library, after suggesting that Princeton avoid more Gothic architecture in favor of something more modern:

The library itself would then stand as a monument to the renunciation of sentimentality and sham and obscurantism and at the same time proclaim the spirit (rather than the letter) of the cathedral builders themselves who constructed to the highest that they knew, both conceptually and technically, rather than, with a debilitating combination of cowardice, indolence, and lack of vision, produce competent reproductions of the signatures of past ages.

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Menu Monday: The 38th annual reunion dinner of the Princeton Alumni Association of Western Pennsylvania menu, April 19, 1912. This event was held at Hotel Schenley in Pittsburgh, which is now the William Pitt Union, a student union building at the University of Pittsburgh. It was Pittsburgh's first skyscraper hotel.

Office of the President Records (AC117), Box 65, Folder 4

The entire Menu Monday series

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“Many live with entire reputation, on much less, and none ought to expend more.”

--Princeton's Board of Trustees, as quoted in Poulson's Daily Advertiser, April 14, 1819, on why parents should not send students too much money. (The cost of attendance was then estimated to be a maximum of $450 per year.)

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Alexander Hall under construction, ca. 1890s. On April 13, 1894, the Daily Princetonian estimated the total cost of construction for the building would run to $250,000. In 2024, that would be about $9 million.

Historical Photograph Collection, Grounds and Buildings Series (AC111), Box MP02, Image No. 20.

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Throwback Thursday: Students at Princeton University's Third World Center, ca. 1970. The Puerto Rican flag is displayed both above and on the refrigerator.

¡Adelante Tigres! Latino Alumni Conference Collection, 1970-2010 (AC455)

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“It came to me as just a complete and total surprise. … All of this went on without any knowledge on my part.”

--John G. Gager, a professor in the religion department at Princeton University, in response to the news that he'd been granted tenure when he did not know he was being considered for it, as quoted in the Daily Princetonian, April 9, 1975

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Tiger Tuesday: The Princeton University mascot looked for a prom date at the "Dinky" train station ca. 1958, but according to the 1959 Bric-a-Brac where this photo is found, "The tiger finds no takers."

The entire Tiger Tuesday series

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Menu Monday: As we've noted elsewhere, Princeton University does not have fraternities in favor of eating clubs, but Greek letter societies cropped up here and there in Princeton's history. Here, a seemingly short-lived chapter of Phi Kappa Epislon had a dinner on February 10, 1871.

Scrapbook Collection (AC026), Box 22

The entire Menu Monday series