200 Years
Explore selected highlights in Princeton and Alumni Association history, curated by the Princetoniana Committee of the Alumni Council. Check back often โ new highlights will be added weekly.
1830s & Earlier
James Carnahan โ1800 had the longest tenure of any Princeton president: 31 years (1823-1854).
1816: John Maclean Jr. โ1816 is the only Princeton president to go on to serve as president of the Princeton Alumni Association.
1776: Maclean House is occupied by the British when Gen. Alexander Leslie makes it his military headquarters during the American Revolution. The British were evicted by American forces under the direction of Gen. George Washington in the Battle of Princeton on Jan. 3, 1777.
1840s
1845: George M. Dallas โ1810 is sworn in as the 11th vice president of the United States, serving with President James Polk.
Francis Landey Patton, one of only four University presidents who are not buried in Presidents’ Plot in Princeton Cemetery, was born and died (1843-1932) in Bermuda.
1842: Founded as the Nassau Monthly, the Nassau Literary Review (NassLit) is the oldest student publication at Princeton and the second-oldest undergraduate literary magazine in the nation. Originally designed to allow students to publish work anonymously, it was renamed in 1930 and has featured prominent writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald.
1850s
1859: “Old Nassau” is first sung — originally to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne.”
1859: Harlan Page Peck โ1862 writes the lyrics to Old Nassau, in homage to his beloved school. He sent them to the Nassau Literary Magazine, winning the magazineโs prize for the “Best College Song.”
1860s
1866: The first regional association of Princeton alumni, the Princeton Alumni Association of New York, is established. Today, there are more than 150 regional Princeton alumni associations across the globe.
1870s
1879: A group of students rent Ivy Hall and establish the first formal eating club at Princeton. Others follow, and by 1910, two-thirds of juniors and seniors were eating at 14 clubs.
1879: Graduating classes begin placing a stone engraved with their class year either on or near Nassau Hall.
1877: Students move into Witherspoon Hall, the first college dormitory in the United States to have indoor plumbing.
1876: Founded in 1876, the Princeton Club of St. Louis celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2026. Today, alumni in the St. Louis, Greater Missouri and southwest Illinois regions show their strong Tiger spirit through participation in diverse activities, events and service opportunities, including the Princeton Prize in Race Relations, the Alumni Schools Committee and the Book Award Committee.
1876: In 1876, the Princeton Club of Chicago is founded. Celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2026, the robust regional group serves a community of approximately 2,400 alumni, with over 370 members. PCC hosts a wide range of programs and events in service to the PCC community, the University and Chicagoland. In 2024-25, the club received the Universityโs Austin P. Leland Award in recognition of general excellence in regional alumni activities.
1876: Hikoichi Orita from Japan becomes the first known Asian graduate of Princeton.
1873: The earliest class song to appear in print โ the facetious โSong of the Class of โ74โ โ is published in the โCarmina Princetonia.โ In subsequent decades, writing a class song becomes a popular way for alumni to enliven a major reunion.
1880s
1888: Pedro Rioseco becomes the first known Hispanic graduate of Princeton.
1888: Moses Taylor Pyne and William Libbey Jr., Class of 1877, collected information about alumni to create the first alumni directory.
1890s
1897: Before Commencement, all returning classes march, in order, to the Princeton/Yale baseball game. It sparks a tradition that becomes the P-rade.
1896: Celebrating its 150th anniversary, the College of New Jersey officially is renamed Princeton University.
1896: The newly renamed Princeton University celebrates its sesquicentennial (150th anniversary), with 800 Princeton undergraduates and 2,000 alumni marching in a mile-long procession through the campus and town; most carried an orange torch or lantern, and many classes wore coordinated costumes.
1893: The Triangle Club is established. The Triangle Club is one of Princeton’s longest-standing organizations and America’s oldest touring college musical-comedy theater group. Many alumni go on to perform professionally.
1900s
1909: The Graduate Council of Princeton University is created to provide central leadership to the numerous regional clubs and associations for Princeton alumni around the world.
April 7, 1900: The first issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly is published. The publication aims to keep Princetonโs growing alumni body informed about University life because, as founding editor Jesse Lynch Williams โ1892 writes, โthe abstract sentiment of affection for alma mater, being a matter of the heart, cannot well supply the head with actual facts.โ
1900: The Princeton Graduate School is formally established by the trustees. Latin professor Andrew Fleming West โ1874 is named its first dean.
1910s
Nov. 1, 1919: The National Alumni Association of Princeton University is formed from the consolidation of the Princeton Alumni Graduate Council and various local alumni clubs and associations.
1919: the Tiger Band is formed. The band is one of the nation’s oldest collegiate marching bands. The band was reorganized in 1938 by the Friends of the Princeton Band society, which continues to provide financial support.โ
1919: Following World War I, more than 5,000 alumni return for a “victory commencement,” the first Reunions since 1916.
1915: Alumni join what the PAW called “an intellectual pilgrimage to their Alma Mater” on Lincoln’s birthday for the first Alumni Day. The next year it was observed on Washingtonโs birthday, where it remained until 1955 when it moved to the Saturday closest to Feb. 22.
1914: Walter E. Hope, Class of 1901, becomes president of the Alumni Association. A lawyer by trade, Hope would go on to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.
1913: The graduating class dons white denim beer jackets as a means of class identification and protection against beer stains.
1912: Francis Speir, Class of 1877, becomes president of the Alumni Association. As an undergrad, Speir co-led the first Princeton Science Expedition in paleontology.
1911: The Class of 1901 becomes the first class to wear their official class blazers at Reunions.
1910: New York publisher Charles Scribner II, Class of 1875, becomes president of the Alumni Association.
1920s
1928: The interdenominational Princeton University Chapel is completed. It was designed in 1921 by Ralph Adams Cram, who also designed the Graduate College and who played a large role in bringing the Gothic style to educational buildings across the United States in that era.
1927: Walter L. Johnson, Class of 1897, becomes president of the Alumni Association. Johnsonโs term would overlap with his serving as vice president of the New York Stock Exchange.
1927: The Class of 1892 gifted the University a 35-bell carillon, installed in the Graduate Schoolโs Cleveland Tower. With additional bells added over the years, the carillon now boasts 67 bronze bells and is the fifth-largest in the United States and 10th-largest in the world. The bells ring every Sunday at 1 p.m., played via a manual keyboard.
1926: Convening 11 Princeton alumni for a luncheon, Gaston Drake, Class of 1894, establishes the Princeton Club of South Florida. Today, the Princeton Club of South Florida presents the Gail Serota โ75 Princeton Club Service Award each year to a South Florida high school student who demonstrates a wide-ranging, extraordinary commitment to civic service as reflected in the life of past club president Gail Dorff Serota โ75 P14.
1926: President John Grier Hibben โ1882 *1893 introduces the thesis requirement.
1921: Francis G. Landon, Class of 1881, begins his second term as president of the Alumni Association. Notably, Francis is the only alumni to serve two non-consecutive terms.
1930s
1938: Chauncey Belknap, Class of 1912, becomes president of the Alumni Association. An infantryman in World War I, he worked under Maj. George C. Marshall to help supervise the movement of American troops in France . Marshall described Belknap as โan interesting example of the rapidity with which an American can adapt himself to the performance of an intricate and difficult task.โ Known as โChickโ to his colleagues, Belknap became a prominent New York lawyer and also served as a University trustee for 20 years.
1935: Now an annual highlight of Reunions, the first luncheon for the Princeton National Alumni Association is held in Holder Hall for members and their families.
1933: Laurence G. Payson, Class of 1916, becomes president of the Alumni Association. Payson championed financial aid by establishing a tuition savings trust fund during his term. In June 1935, he presided over the annual meeting of the Princeton National Alumni Association, which followed the first-ever Reunions luncheon for members of the association and their families. He became a noteworthy banker in New York City and served as a trustee of the University.
1933: Harold Willis Dodds *1914, chair of the School of Public and International Affairs, is named president of the University.
1940s
1949: Robert Joseph Rivers โ53 becomes one of Princeton’s first Black undergraduate students. Later, Rivers would become one of the first Black members of the Board of Trustees (1969), and the roadway that enters campus from Nassau Street between Firestone Library and the Andlinger Center for the Humanities was renamed Rivers Way in honor of his impact (2019).
1949: Richard K. Stevens, Class of 1922, becomes president of the Alumni Association. A lawyer by trade, Richard was a devoted Princetonian, attending 60 consecutive reunions from 1927 to 1987.
1948: The Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library opened in 1948 as the first large American university library constructed after World War II. Though not the largest university library in the world, the library has more books per enrolled student than that of any other university in the United States.
1947: The Class of 1922 holds its 25th Reunion in Holder Hall courtyard, making it the first on-campus reunions site.
1947: Lewis L. Lukens, Class of 1917, becomes president of the Alumni Association. After his service in World War I, Lewis would go on to serve as a senior partner of Lukens, Savage & Washburn, a Philadelphia based insurance brokerage.
1946:ย More than 7,000 alumni return to Princeton for the “victory reunion” following World War II.
1945: Harold H. Helm, Class of 1920, becomes president of the Alumni Association. Harold served as the inaugural chairman of Annual Giving (1940-42) and is the namesake of the Harold H. Helm โ20 Distinguished Service Award, which is the highest distinction Princeton confers for volunteer service to Annual Giving.
1941: Robert M. Green, Class of 1913, becomes president of the Alumni Association. Green would later be awarded the Class of 1913 Memorial Cup by his classmates for โoutstanding contribution to Canadian-American relationsโ for his work as vice president of the Prudential Life Insurance Company, where he was in charge of all Canadian operations.
1940: Robert F. Goheen ’40 *48 becomes the only future Princeton president to win the Pyne Prize.
1950s
1959: Walker W. Stevenson โ35 becomes president of the Alumni Association. Stevenson was a direct descendant of Declaration of Independence signatory and former university president John Witherspoon. at Princeton, he served as editor of The Daily Princetonian and was on the tennis team. His memorial service was held at the University Chapel and the flag over East Pyne was flown at half-mast for five days in his honor.
1957: Dorrance Sexton โ33 becomes president of the Alumni Association. The former chairman and chief executive officer of the international insurance firm Johnson & Higgins, Sexton also earned his varsity letter on the 1933 baseball team
1955: Alumni Day was first observed on Abraham Lincolnโs birthday in 1915; the date shifted to George Washingtonโs birthday the following year. The date shifted again in 1955, when it began to be observed on the Saturday nearest February 22nd, a tradition that continues to this day.
1955: Chandler Cudlipp, Class of 1919, becomes president of the Alumni Association. His interior design firm, Chandler Cudlipp Associates, was responsible for the interior styling of the former Princeton Club of New York and the decor of The Coach Room, a restaurant that opened in 1959 in Nassau Inn.
1955: A cherished Princeton tradition, classes celebrating major reunions concoct elaborate and imaginative costumes for the one and only P-rade. One of the more memorable examples occurred in 1955, as the great Class of 1950 returned to campus costumed as โmen of the future.โ
1953: George E. Clark โ29 becomes president of the Alumni Association. No stranger to the title of president, Clark served that same role at the New York-based investment firm Adams Express from 1948 to 1970.
1951: John C. Williams, Class of 1925, becomes president of the Alumni Association. Williams was one of 18 classmates who traveled to Japan in 1956 for eight days of unique cultural immersion in celebration of the great Class of 1925โs 25th Reunion.
