Princeton University
Princeton University is an old[1] and famous university in Princeton, New Jersey, founded in 1746 as the "College of New Jersey." It is one of the nine Colonial Colleges (founded before 1776) and one of eight members of the Ivy League. In its own words, Princeton "strives to be one of the leading research universities and the most outstanding undergraduate college in the world."[2]
Princeton's original building, Nassau Hall, was the first important college building in the Middle Atlantic colonies. Construction began in 1754 and it was first used in 1756.[3] It was named in honor of King William III,[4], King of England from 1689 to 1702, and a Dutch-born member of the house of Orange-Nassau. It was pressed into service in the American Revolution, changed hands several times during the Battle of Princeton, and briefly served as the capital of the United States in 1783[4]. The building, and by extension Princeton itself, are affectionately referred to by Princeton alums as "Old Nassau." Old Nassau is also the title of Princeton's alma mater, written in 1859[5]
Princeton is famous for its Institute for Advanced Study, a center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry in history, mathematics, natural science, and social science. It was founded in 1930. The Institute's web page mentions, as particularly notable faculty, "Albert Einstein, who remained at the Institute until his death in 1955, and distinguished scientists and scholars such as Kurt Gödel, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Erwin Panofsky, Homer A. Thompson, John von Neumann, George Kennan and Hermann Weyl."[6]
The "Princeton machine," the pioneering computer developed by Von Neumann and completed in 1952, was important in the history of computing, and transformed "computers" from specialized numerical calculators like ENIAC into the general-purpose stored-program device we know today.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Princeton had an historical association with what historican E. Digby Baltzell termed "the WASP establishment." Baltzell noted "the three major upper-class institutions in America have been Harvard, Yale, and Princeton."[7] Of the three, Princeton was historically the preference of the Southern upper class.[8]
Campus life on Princeton during the Roaring Twenties was depicted by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his novel This Side of Paradise.[9] A Trenton newspaper columnist wrote that "Fitzgerald described how boozing, social climbing and sex were an accepted part of the college scene. And he refused to draw any moral conclusions... The book would bring flappers, flaming youth and fast living into the American consciousness. In time, Fitzgerald would coin a name for the hectic era—The Jazz Age."[10]
Notes and references
- ↑ Princeton considers itself to be the fourth oldest university in British North America.[1] Princeton, Penn, Brown, Columbia, Rutgers, and Dartmouth are all roughly the same age, originating within about a two-decade period from 1750 to 1770. Because institutional age is a point of pride, and because there is no firm definition of what constitutes "founding," colleges have a tendency to interpret history in such a way as to yield the earliest possible founding date. Until 1895, Princeton would generally have been considered the fourth oldest, Penn then stating its founding date as 1749, but in 1895 Penn alumni found an interpretation for a founding year of 1740, the date Penn now uses. Thus, Princeton and Penn both claim to be the fourth oldest.
- ↑ About Princeton, university website: "Princeton simultaneously strives to be one of the leading research universities and the most outstanding undergraduate college in the world. As a research university, it seeks to achieve the highest levels of distinction in the discovery and transmission of knowledge and understanding, and in the education of graduate students. At the same time, Princeton is distinctive among research universities in its commitment to undergraduate teaching."
- ↑ Nassau Hall, National Park Service
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Nassua Hall, Princeton alumni association website
- ↑ Old Nassau, history and words, Princeton alumni association website.
- ↑ Institute for Advanced Study: Mission and History
- ↑ Baltzell, E. Digby (1996). Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia. Transaction Publishers. 156000830X. (p. 249, "the three major upper-class institutions...")
- ↑ Encyclopædia Americana, 1833, p. 247: "The College of New Jersey at Princeton has long and justly maintained a high reputation, and numbers among its alumni many of the most eminent men of the Union, especially in the Southern States."
- ↑ This Side of Paradise, online text at Bartleby.com]
- ↑ The Capital Century: 1920: Fitzgerald's Own 'Paradise', Trenton, NJ history website; article by Jon Blackwell
