History of Princeton University
Encyclopedia
The history of Princeton University
spans over 250 years since it was founded in 1746. Princeton University has produced many notable scholars and scientists, including several Nobel laureates, most recently economist Paul Krugman
.
Princeton University was founded at Elizabeth, New Jersey
, in 1746 as the College of New Jersey.
New Light
Presbyterians
founded the College of New Jersey, later Princeton University, in 1746 in order to train ministers dedicated to their views. The college was the educational and religious capital of Scotch-Irish America. By 1808, loss of confidence in the college within the Presbyterian Church led to the establishment of the separate Princeton Theological Seminary, but deep Presbyterian influence at the college continued through the 1910s. The Province of New Jersey granted a charter on October 22, 1746 for “the Education of Youth in the Learned Languages and in the Liberal Arts and Sciences”. The charter was unique in the colonies, for it specified that “any Person of any religious Denomination whatsoever” might attend. The College’s enrollment totaled 10 young men, who met for classes in the Reverend Jonathan Dickinson
’s parlor in Elizabeth. Dickinson soon died and was replaced by Aaron Burr, Sr.
, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Newark, New Jersey
. The College moved to Newark in the fall of 1747, where in 1748 a class of six men became the first to graduate.
, in Princeton, New Jersey
. Nassau Hall, named to honor King William III
, Prince of Orange, of the House of Nassau, was one of the largest buildings in the colonies. For nearly half a century it housed the entire College—classrooms, dormitories, library, chapel, dining room, and kitchen. During the American Revolution
it survived occupation by soldiers from both sides and today bears a cannonball scar from the Battle of Princeton
(January 3, 1777). The federal government recognized the historical significance of “Old Nassau” by awarding it national landmark status and by issuing an orange and black commemorative three-cent stamp in celebration of its 1956 bicentennial.
Following the untimely deaths of its first five presidents, the college enjoyed a long period of stability during 1768-94 under Reverend John Witherspoon
. Military occupation and the Battle of Princeton severely damaged the college during the war. In another disaster, fire destroyed Nassau Hall in March 1802. Student unrest led to an explosion at the Nassau Hall front door and several other incidents in 1814. Witherspoon was a prominent religious and political leader; and an original signer of the Declaration of independence
and the Articles of Confederation
.
John Witherspoon
was a prominent evangelical Presbyterian minister in Scotland before becoming the sixth president of Princeton in 1768. Upon his arrival, he transformed a college designed predominantly to train clergymen into a school that would equip the leaders of a revolutionary generation. Witherspoon made fundamental changes to the moral philosophy curriculum, strengthened the college's commitment to natural philosophy (science), and positioned Princeton in the larger transatlantic world of the republic of letters. Witherspoon's common sense approach to morality was more influenced by the Enlightenment ethics of Scottish philosophers Francis Hutcheson
and Thomas Reid
than the Christian virtue of Jonathan Edwards. Witherspoon thus believed morality was a science. It could be cultivated in his students or deduced through the development of the moral sense--an ethical compass instilled by God in all human beings and developed through education (Reid) or sociability (Hutcheson). Such an approach to morality owed more to the natural moral laws of the Enlightenment than traditional sources of Christian ethics. Thus, while "public religion" was an important source of social virtue, it was not the only source. Witherspoon, in accordance with the Scottish moral sense philosophy, taught that all human beings--religious or otherwise--could be virtuous. His students, who included James Madison
, Aaron Burr
, Philip Freneau, and John Breckenridge, all played prominent roles in the development of the new nation.
Locally, Witherspoon was influential in leading the royal colony of New Jersey--a colony initially ambivalent about revolution-- toward rebellion. In 1780 an amended charter declared that the trustees should no longer swear allegiance to the king of England, and in 1783 the Continental Congress met in Nassau Hall, thus making it the capitol of the United States for a short time. Nine Princeton alumni attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787, more than from any other American or British institution. But even as Witherspoon championed American liberty, he also championed more conservative ideals such as order and national unity. As a result, he was a strong defender of a national constitution. Not surprisingly, the College’s revised charter of 1799 called on the trustees to support the new Constitution of the United States of America.
was characterized by little or no faculty-student rapport or communication, crowded conditions, and strict school rules - a combination that led to a student riot on 31 March-1 April 1807. College authorities denounced it as a sign of moral decay.
In 1812 Princeton Theological Seminary
was established as a separate institution. College authorities approved, for they were coming to see that specialized training in theology required more attention than they could give. Archibald Alexander
, a professor at the college, was its first professor and principal. The two institutions have always enjoyed a close relationship based on common history and shared resources.
Princeton University's position on pre-Civil War disputes over slavery and abolitionism to fall mainly on the conservative side, not so much favoring slavery as opposing radical antislavery. This resulted from Princeton's adhering to the conservative Old School wing of the Presbyterian denomination. Ironically, the surrounding town had a lively free black community during this period, which formed its own congregations, including the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church. By the late 1850s, the conservative middle gave way and increasingly supported Lincoln and Republican Party positions on slavery issues.
The debate between James McCosh
(1811-94), president of the college (1868-88), and Charles Hodge
, head of Princeton Seminary, during the late 1860s and 1870s exemplified the classic conflict between science and religion over the question of Darwin's evolution theory. McCosh offered the first public endorsement of evolution by an American religious leader. However, the two men showed greater similarities regarding matters of science and religion than popularly appreciated. Both supported the increasing role of scientific inquiry in natural history and resisted its intrusion into philosophy and religion. The debate vitalized the college and helped propel the school to future recognition for excellence in scholarship.
Although genuinely loved by many Princetonians, as president of Princeton during 1888-1902 Francis Landey Patton
(1843-1932) was viewed by many as a hindrance to Princeton's progress. His model of higher education frustrated the plans of the 'New Princetonians,' who desired a graduate school, not a graduate department. Further, his insistence on a somewhat rigid Christian education program - which limited academic freedom - coupled with outdated administrative methods, alienated those who hoped he would make Princeton into a major American university. Finally, in 1902, Patton was ousted from the presidency.
As part of the sesquicentennial celebrations in 1896, the College of New Jersey changed its name to Princeton University
, the present name of the university. Princeton University adopted as an informal motto “Princeton in the nation’s service,” the title of the keynote speech by professor Woodrow Wilson.
became Princeton’s 13th president. During his term of office (1902–10) plans for building the Graduate College were finalized, and what had been the College of New Jersey began to grow into a full-scale university.
As Princeton looked toward expansion, Wilson focused on the quality of the individual teaching and learning experience. He is credited with developing small discussion classes called preceptorials, which to this day supplement lecture courses in the humanities and social sciences.
Wilson doubled the size of the faculty, created an administrative structure, and revised the curriculum to include general studies for freshmen and sophomores and concentrated study for juniors and seniors. He proposed that the undergraduate dormitories be divided into quadrangles or “colleges” in which students would live with resident faculty masters and have their own recreational facilities. A variation on this plan became a reality in 1982 when five residential colleges were organized for freshmen and sophomores.
Wilson established academic departments but otherwise downplayed the Germanic model of the PhD-oriented research university in favor of the "Oxbridge" (Oxford and Cambridge) model of intense small group discussions and one-on-one tutorials. He hired 50 young professors, called preceptors, to meet with students in small conferences, grilling them about their reading. Complaining that Princeton was dominated by "eating clubs" in which students ate with each other and ignored the professors, he sought to build Oxford-style colleges where students and faculty would eat and talk together. He failed--the eating clubs are still there.
Wilson promote the leadership model, whereby the college focused on training a small cadre of undergraduates for national leadership, "the minority who plan, who conceive, who superintend," as he called them in his 1902 inaugural address as the university's president. "The college is no less democratic because it is for those who play a special part." He confronted Andrew West, the dean of the graduate school, and lost. West had the German research model in mind and outmaneuvered Wilson by obtaining outside funding for a graduate complex for serious scholarship that was well separated from the fun-loving undergraduates.
As supervising architect of the Princeton campus during 1906-29, Ralph Adams Cram
contributed several important buildings in the medieval collegiate Gothic style as well as a plan for stylistic unity and for development.
As a trendsetter in young men's fashion, Princeton University in the early 20th century casualized the look of clothing across the country for decades to come. With its elite prep-school student population and highly ritualized eating club subculture, the school was an ideal setting in which to create a nation's taste in menswear.
In 1909-10, football faced a crisis resulting from the failure of the previous reforms of 1905-06 to solve the problem of serious injuries. There was a mood of alarm and mistrust, and, while the crisis was developing, the presidents of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton developed a project to reform the sport and forestall possible radical changes forced by government upon the sport. President Arthur Hadley of Yale, A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard, and Wilson of Princeton worked to develop moderate changes to reduce injuries. Their attempts, however, were reduced by rebellion against the rules committee and formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The big three had tried to operate independently of the majority, but changes did reduce injuries. In 1926 Harvard entered into an agreement to play football against the University of Michigan instead of Princeton, and that agreement threatened to destroy the 'Big Three' relationship of the time. Harvard's actions were based on the fact that games with Princeton had been marred by fights and roughness. During the 1930's, the 'Big Three' was restored, and in 1939 it was enlarged to the Ivy League
.
During World War II the student body of Princeton University became almost entirely military as the result of Reserve Officer Training Corps mobilization, the Navy V-7 and V-12
programs, and the Army Specialized Training Program. Wartime changes opened Princeton to the larger world and brought it into the mainstream of American society. From their beginnings Harvard, Yale and Princeton restricted the admittance of Jews and other minorities. After World War II, however, ethnic prejudice was condemned in higher education because of the US commitment to democracy. College-bound veterans, benefiting from the GI Bill, flooded admissions offices with applications. By the 1950s and 1960s the Big Three began to expand their admission policies, admitting more minorities.
, a leading mathematician and chair of the department, took this approach as Princeton was in the process of transforming itself into a recognized research institution. Veblen's skill in securing university funding helped to make the Princeton mathematics department a center of mathematics research. His strategy helped to split the field, however, between 'pure' mathematicians in academic settings and 'applied' mathematicians whose interest in the practical applications of their work allowed them to find support in industry.
Princeton University has produced 29 Nobel laureates. Some of the greatest minds of 20th century were associated with Princeton University. Princeton has also produced several Fields Medal
lists. Before World War II, most elite university faculties were gentlemen's clubs, with few, if any, Jews, blacks, women, or other minorities. By 1980, this condition had been altered dramatically, as numerous members of those groups held faculty positions.
Princeton's students and faculty share the tradition of educational excellence begun more than 250 years ago. The few books in the Dickinson parlor were the seeds for 55 miles (88.5 km) of shelving and more than five million volumes in Firestone Library. The original quadrangle—Nassau Hall, the president’s house, and two flanking halls—has grown into a 600 acres (2.4 km²) main campus with more than 160 buildings. The “learned languages”—Latin and Greek—have been joined by many ancient and modern languages and an array of computer dialects.
Today, more than 1,200 full and part-time faculty members teach at Princeton; collectively they publish more than 2,000 scholarly documents a year. Princeton’s professors form a single faculty that teaches both undergraduate and graduate students.
Originally an institution devoted to the education of young men, Princeton became coeducational in 1969. Today, approximately 5,000 undergraduates and 2,500 graduate students are enrolled here. Virtually all undergraduates and about two-thirds of graduate students live on campus.
Princeton is one of the smallest of the nation’s leading research universities. Its size permits close interaction among students and faculty members in settings ranging from introductory courses to senior theses.
(SDS) had an active Princeton chapter, which organized protests against the Institute for Defense Analysis and staged a protest that came to be known as the "Hickel Heckle," in which several SDS members demanded that Interior Secretary Walter J. Hickel "Talk About the War!" Three students were suspended over the incident.
In 1971, the Third World Center, now the Carl A. Fields Center, was founded to address the concerns of minority students to have a facility of their own making for academic, political and social functions.
studied at Princeton as undergraduates. Two were alumni: James Madison
, the fourth president and an influential founding father
, graduated in 1771; and Woodrow Wilson
, the 28th president, graduated in 1879. Wilson also served as president of Princeton from 1902 to 1910. Future President John F. Kennedy
began his studies at Princeton in the fall of 1935 until a period of illness precipitated his withdrawal from the university and eventual transfer to Harvard University
during his freshman year.
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
spans over 250 years since it was founded in 1746. Princeton University has produced many notable scholars and scientists, including several Nobel laureates, most recently economist Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman is an American economist, professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times...
.
College of New Jersey
Princeton University was founded at Elizabeth, New Jersey
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth largest city with an increase of 4,401 residents from its 2000 Census population of 120,568...
, in 1746 as the College of New Jersey.
New Light
The Old Side-New Side Controversy
The Old Side-New Side Controversy occurred within the Presbyterian Church in Colonial America and was part of the wider theological controversy surrounding the First Great Awakening. The Old and New Side Presbyterians existed as separate churches from 1741 until 1758. The name of Old Side-New...
Presbyterians
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
founded the College of New Jersey, later Princeton University, in 1746 in order to train ministers dedicated to their views. The college was the educational and religious capital of Scotch-Irish America. By 1808, loss of confidence in the college within the Presbyterian Church led to the establishment of the separate Princeton Theological Seminary, but deep Presbyterian influence at the college continued through the 1910s. The Province of New Jersey granted a charter on October 22, 1746 for “the Education of Youth in the Learned Languages and in the Liberal Arts and Sciences”. The charter was unique in the colonies, for it specified that “any Person of any religious Denomination whatsoever” might attend. The College’s enrollment totaled 10 young men, who met for classes in the Reverend Jonathan Dickinson
Jonathan Dickinson
Jonathan Dickinson was a Quaker merchant from Port Royal, Jamaica who was shipwrecked on the southeast coast of Florida in 1696, along with his family and the other passengers and crew members of the ship....
’s parlor in Elizabeth. Dickinson soon died and was replaced by Aaron Burr, Sr.
Aaron Burr, Sr.
The Reverend Aaron Burr, Sr., was a notable divine and educator in colonial America. He was a founder of the College of New Jersey and the father of the third United States Vice President, Aaron Burr , who killed Alexander Hamilton.-Biography:A native of Connecticut, Burr was born in 1716 in...
, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. The College moved to Newark in the fall of 1747, where in 1748 a class of six men became the first to graduate.
New location
In 1756, the College moved to its new quarters Nassau HallNassau Hall
Nassau Hall is the oldest building at Princeton University in the borough of Princeton, New Jersey . At the time it was built in 1754, Nassau Hall was the largest building in colonial New Jersey. Designed originally by Robert Smith, the building was subsequently remodeled by notable American...
, in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
. Nassau Hall, named to honor King William III
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
, Prince of Orange, of the House of Nassau, was one of the largest buildings in the colonies. For nearly half a century it housed the entire College—classrooms, dormitories, library, chapel, dining room, and kitchen. During the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
it survived occupation by soldiers from both sides and today bears a cannonball scar from the Battle of Princeton
Battle of Princeton
The Battle of Princeton was a battle in which General George Washington's revolutionary forces defeated British forces near Princeton, New Jersey....
(January 3, 1777). The federal government recognized the historical significance of “Old Nassau” by awarding it national landmark status and by issuing an orange and black commemorative three-cent stamp in celebration of its 1956 bicentennial.
Following the untimely deaths of its first five presidents, the college enjoyed a long period of stability during 1768-94 under Reverend John Witherspoon
John Witherspoon
John Witherspoon was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey. As president of the College of New Jersey , he trained many leaders of the early nation and was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration...
. Military occupation and the Battle of Princeton severely damaged the college during the war. In another disaster, fire destroyed Nassau Hall in March 1802. Student unrest led to an explosion at the Nassau Hall front door and several other incidents in 1814. Witherspoon was a prominent religious and political leader; and an original signer of the Declaration of independence
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...
and the Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among the 13 founding states that legally established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution...
.
John Witherspoon
John Witherspoon
John Witherspoon was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey. As president of the College of New Jersey , he trained many leaders of the early nation and was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration...
was a prominent evangelical Presbyterian minister in Scotland before becoming the sixth president of Princeton in 1768. Upon his arrival, he transformed a college designed predominantly to train clergymen into a school that would equip the leaders of a revolutionary generation. Witherspoon made fundamental changes to the moral philosophy curriculum, strengthened the college's commitment to natural philosophy (science), and positioned Princeton in the larger transatlantic world of the republic of letters. Witherspoon's common sense approach to morality was more influenced by the Enlightenment ethics of Scottish philosophers Francis Hutcheson
Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)
Francis Hutcheson was a philosopher born in Ireland to a family of Scottish Presbyterians who became one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment....
and Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid
The Reverend Thomas Reid FRSE , was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher, and a contemporary of David Hume, was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment...
than the Christian virtue of Jonathan Edwards. Witherspoon thus believed morality was a science. It could be cultivated in his students or deduced through the development of the moral sense--an ethical compass instilled by God in all human beings and developed through education (Reid) or sociability (Hutcheson). Such an approach to morality owed more to the natural moral laws of the Enlightenment than traditional sources of Christian ethics. Thus, while "public religion" was an important source of social virtue, it was not the only source. Witherspoon, in accordance with the Scottish moral sense philosophy, taught that all human beings--religious or otherwise--could be virtuous. His students, who included James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
, Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr, Jr. was an important political figure in the early history of the United States of America. After serving as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, Burr became a successful lawyer and politician...
, Philip Freneau, and John Breckenridge, all played prominent roles in the development of the new nation.
Locally, Witherspoon was influential in leading the royal colony of New Jersey--a colony initially ambivalent about revolution-- toward rebellion. In 1780 an amended charter declared that the trustees should no longer swear allegiance to the king of England, and in 1783 the Continental Congress met in Nassau Hall, thus making it the capitol of the United States for a short time. Nine Princeton alumni attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787, more than from any other American or British institution. But even as Witherspoon championed American liberty, he also championed more conservative ideals such as order and national unity. As a result, he was a strong defender of a national constitution. Not surprisingly, the College’s revised charter of 1799 called on the trustees to support the new Constitution of the United States of America.
19th century
The situation during the winter semester of 1806-07 under the presidency of Samuel Stanhope SmithSamuel Stanhope Smith
Samuel Stanhope Smith was a Presbyterian minister, founding president of Hampden-Sydney College and the seventh president of the College of New Jersey from 1795 to 1812. His stormy career ended in his enforced resignation...
was characterized by little or no faculty-student rapport or communication, crowded conditions, and strict school rules - a combination that led to a student riot on 31 March-1 April 1807. College authorities denounced it as a sign of moral decay.
In 1812 Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton Theological Seminary is a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church located in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey in the United States...
was established as a separate institution. College authorities approved, for they were coming to see that specialized training in theology required more attention than they could give. Archibald Alexander
Archibald Alexander
Archibald Alexander was an American Presbyterian theologian and professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary...
, a professor at the college, was its first professor and principal. The two institutions have always enjoyed a close relationship based on common history and shared resources.
James McCosh
James McCosh was a prominent philosopher of the Scottish School of Common Sense. He was president of Princeton University 1868-1888.-Biography:...
(1811-94), president of the college (1868-88), and Charles Hodge
Charles Hodge
Charles Hodge was the principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878. A Presbyterian theologian, he was a leading exponent of historical Calvinism in America during the 19th century. He was deeply rooted in the Scottish philosophy of Common Sense Realism...
, head of Princeton Seminary, during the late 1860s and 1870s exemplified the classic conflict between science and religion over the question of Darwin's evolution theory. McCosh offered the first public endorsement of evolution by an American religious leader. However, the two men showed greater similarities regarding matters of science and religion than popularly appreciated. Both supported the increasing role of scientific inquiry in natural history and resisted its intrusion into philosophy and religion. The debate vitalized the college and helped propel the school to future recognition for excellence in scholarship.
Although genuinely loved by many Princetonians, as president of Princeton during 1888-1902 Francis Landey Patton
Francis Landey Patton
Francis Landey Patton , American educationalist and theologian, and the twelfth president of Princeton University.-Background, 1843-1871:He was born in Warwick Parish, Bermuda and attended Warwick Academy...
(1843-1932) was viewed by many as a hindrance to Princeton's progress. His model of higher education frustrated the plans of the 'New Princetonians,' who desired a graduate school, not a graduate department. Further, his insistence on a somewhat rigid Christian education program - which limited academic freedom - coupled with outdated administrative methods, alienated those who hoped he would make Princeton into a major American university. Finally, in 1902, Patton was ousted from the presidency.
Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, the present name of the university. Princeton University adopted as an informal motto “Princeton in the nation’s service,” the title of the keynote speech by professor Woodrow Wilson.
Woodrow Wilson
In 1902 Woodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
became Princeton’s 13th president. During his term of office (1902–10) plans for building the Graduate College were finalized, and what had been the College of New Jersey began to grow into a full-scale university.
As Princeton looked toward expansion, Wilson focused on the quality of the individual teaching and learning experience. He is credited with developing small discussion classes called preceptorials, which to this day supplement lecture courses in the humanities and social sciences.
Wilson doubled the size of the faculty, created an administrative structure, and revised the curriculum to include general studies for freshmen and sophomores and concentrated study for juniors and seniors. He proposed that the undergraduate dormitories be divided into quadrangles or “colleges” in which students would live with resident faculty masters and have their own recreational facilities. A variation on this plan became a reality in 1982 when five residential colleges were organized for freshmen and sophomores.
Wilson established academic departments but otherwise downplayed the Germanic model of the PhD-oriented research university in favor of the "Oxbridge" (Oxford and Cambridge) model of intense small group discussions and one-on-one tutorials. He hired 50 young professors, called preceptors, to meet with students in small conferences, grilling them about their reading. Complaining that Princeton was dominated by "eating clubs" in which students ate with each other and ignored the professors, he sought to build Oxford-style colleges where students and faculty would eat and talk together. He failed--the eating clubs are still there.
Wilson promote the leadership model, whereby the college focused on training a small cadre of undergraduates for national leadership, "the minority who plan, who conceive, who superintend," as he called them in his 1902 inaugural address as the university's president. "The college is no less democratic because it is for those who play a special part." He confronted Andrew West, the dean of the graduate school, and lost. West had the German research model in mind and outmaneuvered Wilson by obtaining outside funding for a graduate complex for serious scholarship that was well separated from the fun-loving undergraduates.
As supervising architect of the Princeton campus during 1906-29, Ralph Adams Cram
Ralph Adams Cram
Ralph Adams Cram FAIA, , was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partnerships in which he worked.-Early life:Cram was born on December 16, 1863 at Hampton Falls, New...
contributed several important buildings in the medieval collegiate Gothic style as well as a plan for stylistic unity and for development.
Undergraduate life
The college was a popular setting for novels about student life, the faculty and the town. The "Undergraduate novel" (e.g., F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise and Harvey Smith's The Gang's All Here) detailed campus life in the 1920s and 1950s. The "Faculty novel" characterized the 1960s (e.g., Kingley Amis's One Fat Englishman and John W. Aldridge's The Party at Cranton). The '"Town novel" (e.g., Julian Moynihan's Garden State and Thomas Baird's Losing People) typified the 1970s. Other important novels include Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift (1975) and Carlos Baker's A Friend's Power (1958).As a trendsetter in young men's fashion, Princeton University in the early 20th century casualized the look of clothing across the country for decades to come. With its elite prep-school student population and highly ritualized eating club subculture, the school was an ideal setting in which to create a nation's taste in menswear.
In 1909-10, football faced a crisis resulting from the failure of the previous reforms of 1905-06 to solve the problem of serious injuries. There was a mood of alarm and mistrust, and, while the crisis was developing, the presidents of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton developed a project to reform the sport and forestall possible radical changes forced by government upon the sport. President Arthur Hadley of Yale, A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard, and Wilson of Princeton worked to develop moderate changes to reduce injuries. Their attempts, however, were reduced by rebellion against the rules committee and formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The big three had tried to operate independently of the majority, but changes did reduce injuries. In 1926 Harvard entered into an agreement to play football against the University of Michigan instead of Princeton, and that agreement threatened to destroy the 'Big Three' relationship of the time. Harvard's actions were based on the fact that games with Princeton had been marred by fights and roughness. During the 1930's, the 'Big Three' was restored, and in 1939 it was enlarged to the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
.
During World War II the student body of Princeton University became almost entirely military as the result of Reserve Officer Training Corps mobilization, the Navy V-7 and V-12
V-12 Navy College Training Program
The V-12 Navy College Training Program was designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy during World War II...
programs, and the Army Specialized Training Program. Wartime changes opened Princeton to the larger world and brought it into the mainstream of American society. From their beginnings Harvard, Yale and Princeton restricted the admittance of Jews and other minorities. After World War II, however, ethnic prejudice was condemned in higher education because of the US commitment to democracy. College-bound veterans, benefiting from the GI Bill, flooded admissions offices with applications. By the 1950s and 1960s the Big Three began to expand their admission policies, admitting more minorities.
Religion
In the early 20th century liberal Christians came to dominate Princeton University, a former evangelical stronghold. In 1915 Princeton University president John Grier Hibben refused the request of evangelist Billy Sunday to preach on campus, but later allowed liberal theologian Albert Parker Fitch to do so. Liberals sought to make Princeton a modern university that promoted a liberal philosophy of education and liberal theology. Conservative Christians considered the teachings of the liberals to be heresy and sought to get Lucius H. Miller, the liberal professor of Bible studies, removed from the faculty and to have Bible classes eliminated from the curriculum. Liberals favored retaining the religious aspects of the curriculum and, since they came to control Princeton, they were able to maintain those courses along with various institutions that promoted liberal piety. They did this through an uneasy alliance with cultural modernists on the faculty. Gradually the hegemony of the liberal Christian leaders of higher education was eroded by the secularization of the university that occurred during the first half of the 20th century. Princeton thus ceased being a Presbyterian institution in the 1920s, as symbolized by the building of a great interdenominational chapel.Mathematics
American mathematicians of the 1920s worked to maintain the generous funding they had received during World War I. Unwilling to enter a permanent relationship with the federal government, they turned to industry and to private foundations, but with only limited success. The most reliable support for mathematics emerged from universities, where the funding could be justified as part of a larger program of institutional improvement. Oswald VeblenOswald Veblen
Oswald Veblen was an American mathematician, geometer and topologist, whose work found application in atomic physics and the theory of relativity. He proved the Jordan curve theorem in 1905.-Life:...
, a leading mathematician and chair of the department, took this approach as Princeton was in the process of transforming itself into a recognized research institution. Veblen's skill in securing university funding helped to make the Princeton mathematics department a center of mathematics research. His strategy helped to split the field, however, between 'pure' mathematicians in academic settings and 'applied' mathematicians whose interest in the practical applications of their work allowed them to find support in industry.
Princeton University in the modern era
Fields Medal
The Fields Medal, officially known as International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union , a meeting that takes place every four...
lists. Before World War II, most elite university faculties were gentlemen's clubs, with few, if any, Jews, blacks, women, or other minorities. By 1980, this condition had been altered dramatically, as numerous members of those groups held faculty positions.
Princeton's students and faculty share the tradition of educational excellence begun more than 250 years ago. The few books in the Dickinson parlor were the seeds for 55 miles (88.5 km) of shelving and more than five million volumes in Firestone Library. The original quadrangle—Nassau Hall, the president’s house, and two flanking halls—has grown into a 600 acres (2.4 km²) main campus with more than 160 buildings. The “learned languages”—Latin and Greek—have been joined by many ancient and modern languages and an array of computer dialects.
Today, more than 1,200 full and part-time faculty members teach at Princeton; collectively they publish more than 2,000 scholarly documents a year. Princeton’s professors form a single faculty that teaches both undergraduate and graduate students.
Originally an institution devoted to the education of young men, Princeton became coeducational in 1969. Today, approximately 5,000 undergraduates and 2,500 graduate students are enrolled here. Virtually all undergraduates and about two-thirds of graduate students live on campus.
Princeton is one of the smallest of the nation’s leading research universities. Its size permits close interaction among students and faculty members in settings ranging from introductory courses to senior theses.
1960s and 1970s
Princeton was hardly untouched by the Vietnam War. Students for a Democratic SocietyStudents for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
(SDS) had an active Princeton chapter, which organized protests against the Institute for Defense Analysis and staged a protest that came to be known as the "Hickel Heckle," in which several SDS members demanded that Interior Secretary Walter J. Hickel "Talk About the War!" Three students were suspended over the incident.
In 1971, the Third World Center, now the Carl A. Fields Center, was founded to address the concerns of minority students to have a facility of their own making for academic, political and social functions.
In service to the nation
Three future U.S. presidentsPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
studied at Princeton as undergraduates. Two were alumni: James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
, the fourth president and an influential founding father
Founding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, establishing the United States Constitution, or by some...
, graduated in 1771; and Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, the 28th president, graduated in 1879. Wilson also served as president of Princeton from 1902 to 1910. Future President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
began his studies at Princeton in the fall of 1935 until a period of illness precipitated his withdrawal from the university and eventual transfer to Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
during his freshman year.
Further reading
- Axtell, James. The Making of Princeton University: From Woodrow Wilson to the Present (2006), 710pp; highly detailed scholarly history
- Axtell, James. "Rounding out a Century: the Princeton Graduate School, 1969-2000," Princeton University Library Chronicle 2000 61(2): 170-216.
- Bonner, John Tyler. "The History of Biology at Princeton," Princeton University Library Chronicle 2004 65(2): 161-183
- Bragdon, Henry. Woodrow Wilson: The Academic Years (1967)
- Bush, Sara E. and P. C. Kemeny. "The Princeton University Chapels: an Architectural and Religious History," Princeton University Library Chronicle 1999 60(3): 317-352; explores the architectural, and social background to the three chapels built at Princeton University between 1845 and 1928 and their architects John NotmanJohn NotmanJohn Notman was a Scottish-born American architect, who settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is remembered for his churches, and for popularizing the Italianate style and the use of brownstone.-Career:...
, Richard Morris HuntRichard Morris HuntRichard Morris Hunt was an American architect of the nineteenth century and a preeminent figure in the history of American architecture...
, and Ralph Adams CramRalph Adams CramRalph Adams Cram FAIA, , was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partnerships in which he worked.-Early life:Cram was born on December 16, 1863 at Hampton Falls, New...
. - Cowan, , Dorrit Ann. "Single-Sex to Coeducation at Princeton and Yale: Two Case Studies"; PhD dissertation Columbia U. Teachers College; Dissertation Abstracts International 1982 43(2): 377-378-A. DA8215725, 230p.
- Kemeny, P. C. Princeton in the Nation's Service: Religious Ideals and Educational Practice, 1868-1928 (1998). 353 pp.
- Leitch, Alexander, ed. A Princeton Companion (1978), encyclopedic
- MacPherson, Ryan C. "Natural and Theological Science at Princeton, 1845-1859: 'Vestiges of Creation' Meets the Scientific Sovereignty of God," Princeton University Library Chronicle 2004 65(2): 184-235
- Morrison. Jeffry H. John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic (2005) 220 pp.
- Murrin, John M. "Rites of Domination: Princeton, the Big Three, and the Rise of Intercollegiate Athletics," Princeton University Library Chronicle 2001 62(2): 161-206; focus on football 1869 to the 1920s,
- Noll, Mark A. Princeton and the Republic, 1768-1822: The Search for a Christian Enlightenment in the Era of Samuel Stanhope Smith (1989). 340 pp.
- Nugent, S. Georgia. "Changing Faces: the Princeton Student of the Twentieth Century," Princeton University Library Chronicle 2001 62(2): 207-237. Looks at each decade of the 20th century, including the creation of selective admissions in 1900-10, the G.I. Bill of Rights of the 1945-50 era, and the 1969 decision to admit women as undergraduates.
- Oberdorfer, Don. Princeton University (1995) 248pp; heavily illustrated
- Rhinehart Raymond. Princeton University: The Campus Guide (2000), 188pp, guide to architecture
- Rodgers, Daniel T. "The Tramp and the Policy Doctor: the Social Sciences at Princeton," Princeton University Library Chronicle 1996 58(1): 57-90,
- Smith, Richard D. Princeton University (2005) 128pp
- Synnott, Marcia Graham. The Half-Opened Door: Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900-1970 (1979). 310 pp.
- Thorp, Willard et al, eds. The Princeton Graduate School: A History (2nd ed. 2000) (ISBN: 0691011680 / 0-691-01168-0)
- Wilson, Woodrow. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson Volume 14-21, ed, by Arthur S. Link et al. (1972-76)
- McLachlan, James. Princetonians, 1748-1768: A Biographical Dictionary (1976). 706 pp.
- Harrison, Richard A. Princetonians, 1769-1775: A Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 2. (1981). 585 pp.
- Harrison, Richard A. Princetonians, 1776-1783: A Biographical Dictionary Vol. 3. (1981). 498 pp.
- Woodward, Ruth L. and Craven, Wesley Frank. Princetonians, 1784-1790: A Biographical Dictionary (1991). 618 pp.
- Looney, J. Jefferson and Woodward, Ruth L. Princetonians, 1791-1794: A Biographical Dictionary (1991). 677 pp.