History of Princeton University
The institution was formally designated Princeton University in 1896, and soon embarked on a major expansion under the auspices of future president of the USA Woodrow Wilson.
New Light Presbyterians founded the College of New Jersey, later Princeton University, in 1746 in order to train ministers dedicated to their views.
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 College's enrollment totaled 10 young men, who met for classes in the Reverend Jonathan Dickinson's parlor in Elizabeth.
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.
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'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.
His students, who included James Madison, Aaron Burr, Philip Freneau, and John Breckinridge, all played prominent roles in the development of the new nation.
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.
[2] The situation during the winter semester of 1806-07 under the presidency of Samuel Stanhope Smith 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 March 31-April 1, 1807.
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.
[4] 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.
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.
He is credited with developing small discussion classes called preceptorials, which to this day supplement lecture courses in the humanities and social sciences.
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.
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.
[citation needed] 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.
[11] 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.
President Arthur Hadley of Yale, A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard, and Wilson of Princeton worked to develop moderate changes to reduce injuries.
In 1915 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.
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.
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 Veblen, 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.
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.
Shapiro would continue to increase the endowment, expand academic programs, raise student diversity, and oversaw the most renovations in Princeton's history.
Before World War II, most elite university faculties were gentlemen's clubs, with few, if any, Jews, blacks, women, or other minorities.
Its size permits close interaction among students and faculty members in settings ranging from introductory courses to senior theses.
