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Jonathan Dickinson, born in 1688 and graduated from Yale College in 1706, was the first president of the College of New Jersey. After becoming the pastor of the Congregational church in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, Dickinson shifted from Congregational to Presbyterian teachings in order to join the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Yet while becoming a leader within the Presbytery and the higher Synod of Philadelphia, Dickinson steadfastly maintained his belief in the freedom of the individual clergy. Having first envisioned an educational institute within the Synod, Dickinson only realized his dream of founding a school to train future Presbyterian ministers and pious laymen when he and others founded the College of New Jersey in 1746. Dickinson died in office in October 1747.

Material on Dickinson is arranged topically and divided into four categories: biographical information, his association with the College of New Jersey, genealogical material, and post mortem material. This series contains only secondary documents, most of which take the form of letters and clippings. The biographical folder contains brief summaries of Jonathan Dickinson's life, as well as a few cards referencing other sources. Material relating to his foundational work on behalf of the College of New Jersey includes numerous letters, documents concerning his death, such as the epitaph on his tombstone, and a paper discussing the establishment of the College. Family members are documented through the correspondence to and from descendents of Dickinson and his wife, Joanna Melyen, and include two genealogical charts. In several cases Dickinson's seven children, Abigail, Jonathan, Temperance, Joanna, Elizabeth, Mary, and Martha, are mentioned. Post mortem material details the buildings dedicated to him at both Yale and Princeton Universities. Also to be found are several images of Dickinson and a pamphlet about him and the College of New Jersey by Professor Henry Cameron.

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While Jonathan Dickinson bears the distinction of serving as Princeton University's first president, Aaron Burr played a central part in organizing the College after its initial establishment and overseeing its move to Princeton in 1756. Burr was born in Fairfield, Connecticut in c. 1715/1716 and graduated at the head of his Yale College class in 1735. From there he moved to Newark, New Jersey to head both the Presbyterian church and a school in classics. Burr, along with Dickinson and five others, established the College of New Jersey in 1746. In 1748 Burr was named president of the college, though he had filled this office unofficially since Dickinson's death in 1747. During Burr's ten years of service he increased enrollment, raised much-needed funds, presided over the erection of Nassau Hall, and instructed the first classes of students to graduate from the College of New Jersey.

This series is arranged topically and consists of textual material relating to Burr, his career, family, and legacy. Burr's early life is chronicled in a biographical folder, while another folder documents his tenure as president. Genealogical information about family members such as Aaron Burr, Jr. and Esther Edwards Burr is included in this series. A folder containing information collected post mortem discusses his death and burial as well as monuments, books, statues, and celebrations in his honor. This series also contains a paper and microfilm copy of Burr's account book during his latter years as president, as well as index cards relating to this book. There are numerous images of Burr, and a few of his wife, Esther Edwards Burr.

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Jonathan Edwards succeeded his son-in- law, Aaron Burr, Sr., to become the third president of the College of New Jersey in September 1757. Edwards studied theology at Yale College, preached in the Presbyterian Church, and is remembered for his belief that only the truly converted should receive Communion, rather than all baptized persons. However, his proposal along these lines led to his dismissal from the Northampton, Massachusetts Presbyterian church in 1750, after which he passed his days serving as a missionary and writing with a passion. Edwards accepted the office of president with some reluctance but continued to preach actively from the College's pulpit. He died in March 1758 after being inoculated for smallpox, just six months into his tenure. His three sons and eight daughters survived him.

This series is arranged topically and contains folders concerning Edwards's life, his time in Princeton, his family, and his legacy. Materials include a newspaper obituary, several copies of the inscription on his tomb and a memorial to him in Latin, and information about his descendents and various Edwards artifacts such as his bust, his desk, and one of his letters. A folder entitled "Information on Portraits" contains an inventory of the Edwards portraits located in the Princeton Art Museum, information about the portraits, and several letters regarding their donation. Of particular interest among the images in this series are photographs of a portrait of Edwards's wife, Sarah Pierpont Edwards. Other images include views of his tomb and the Edwards Elm.

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Having declined the presidency of the College of New Jersey in 1758, Samuel Davies accepted it in 1759 with a reluctance akin to that of his predecessor, Jonathan Edwards. Davies, who thought that his successor, Samuel Finley, was the right man for the job, was urged to take the position, even though some of the College's trustees shared his high opinion of Finley. Born in 1724 in Summit Ridge, Delaware and educated both at home and in the Rev. Samuel Blair's seminary, Davies received his license to preach in 1746 in Newcastle, Delaware. Ordained the following year as an evangelist to Virginia, he went on to serve as the first moderator of the Presbytery of Hanover, encompassing all the Presbyterian ministers in Virginia and North Carolina. At the request of the trustees, Davies traveled to Great Britain with Gilbert Tennent in 1753 to raise funds for the College. Among other uses, the donations collected abroad served to fund the construction of Nassau Hall and the president's house. As president and professor at the College of New Jersey, he was renowned for his emphasis on public service.

This series is arranged topically and documents Davies's life, his years as president, his family, and his legacy. Materials include letters referring to his travels to Great Britain, excerpts from his diary, articles about his death in office, and letters and documents concerning his immediate family, including his first and second wives, Sarah Kirkpatrick and Jean Holt, and distant descendents. Also included is information about Davies "artifacts," such as his portrait and a book of his sermons, and the performance of music he composed. There are also several images of Davies.

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As president of the College of New Jersey, Samuel Finley is known for increasing enrollment and for his popularity as a teacher. Finley was born in 1715 in Armagh County, Ireland. On immigrating to America in 1734, he immediately began to educate himself with the goal of becoming a minister and was ordained in 1740 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. During his seventeen years as pastor of the church of Nottingham, Maryland, he oversaw its educational academy. Early in his career, Finley preached in a contentious manner, very much in keeping with the spirited religious revivals of the Great Awakening, but he later moderated his tone. He received an honorary degree from the University of Glasgow before becoming the fifth president of the College of New Jersey in June 1761, serving in this role until his death in July 1766.

This series is arranged topically and contains biographical, College of New Jersey and family-related documents, and a folder pertaining to post-mortem issues. The material includes brief accounts of Finley's life, documents concerning his tenure as president, a genealogy of the Finley family, and information on Finley portraits. In addition to these secondary materials, there are six contemporary sermons, each dated in the late eighteenth century. Photographs of portraits of Finley also form part of this series.

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John Witherspoon arrived in America from Scotland in 1768 having been persuaded by the trustees and then medical student Benjamin Rush to assume the presidency of the College of New Jersey. After declining initially, Witherspoon, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, became one of the most popular and influential presidents in Princeton University's history. Witherspoon served not only Princeton, but also the nascent United States as a member of the Continental Congress. During Witherspoon's tenure the College weathered the turmoil caused by the American Revolution: Nassau Hall sustained heavy damage, enrollment declined, and finances were precarious. In the wake of this conflict, Witherspoon's preaching tours increased enrollment, particularly from the southern United States, and he broadened the curriculum by his emphasis on English grammar and composition. He also obtained needed instruments of instruction such as books for the library and apparatus for scientific study (such as the Rittenhouse Orrery). Witherspoon advocated a well-rounded clergy, emphasizing the liberal education of students, rather than just religious instruction. It was his aspiration to produce men who would not only make exceptional clerics, but also outstanding statesmen. Witherspoon instructed many students who became notable for their contributions to state and federal government, including James Madison, Aaron Burr, Jr., William Smith Livingston, Andrew Kirkpatrick, and Ashbel Green. Part of Witherspoon's popularity and influence with both students and politicians derived from his ability to discuss the merits of contesting views, while using reason to reach an ultimate conclusion.

This series is arranged topically and contains biographical, genealogical, and post- mortem documents, as well as information about Witherspoon's years at the College of New Jersey, including original letters. Information concerning Witherspoon possessions donated to the College and Tusculum, his home one mile north of the College, is also present, as are business papers, including an account of repairs completed at the College, trustee accounts, and receipts. This series contains several pamphlets and sermons referencing Witherspoon, as well as Varnum Lansing Collins's notes for his book, President Witherspoon: A Biography. There are a significant number of images in this series, including portraits, photographs of cameos and statues, and views of Tusculum and St. George's Church in Paisley, Scotland, the town where Witherspoon ministered prior to coming to Princeton.

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Samuel Stanhope Smith, born in 1751 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was the first alumnus to become president of the College of New Jersey. His father, Robert Smith, taught him at the school he headed in Pequea, Pennsylvania until the age of sixteen, when Samuel entered the College of New Jersey as a junior. He graduated with honors in 1769 before returning to Pennsylvania to teach in his father's school. In 1771 he returned to Princeton to tutor and study theology under John Witherspoon. For health reasons, he left Princeton to work as a missionary in Virginia. In 1775 the seminary that later became Hampden-Sydney College was founded, and Smith became its president. Married to Ann Witherspoon, Witherspoon's daughter, Smith returned to Princeton in 1779 as a professor of moral philosophy, and his brother, John Blair Smith, replaced him as president of Hampden-Sydney College. On Witherspoon's death in 1794, Smith, who had become vice president in 1786, assumed the leadership of the College. After the Nassau Hall fire of 1802, he raised enough money not only to reconstruct the landmark but also to add two additional buildings. Unfortunately, a riot in 1807 led to the suspension of 125 students and a growing distrust on the part of trustees. Faculty resignations and a declining student body led to Smith's resignation in 1812.

This series is arranged topically and contains biographical and family information, details of Smith's Hampden-Sydney College and College of New Jersey years, and original correspondence. Material relating to Hampden-Sydney College includes a document describing the courses of study there and a pamphlet about the institution. The correspondence folder contains a short letter from Smith written in 1806 relating to a stock of books. There are also two letters to Smith: one relating to a shipment of books and one concerning administrative matters. Other correspondence dates from the twentieth century and pertains to gifts to and from Princeton University. A number of portraits of Smith can be found in this series.

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Ashbel Green was born in 1762 in Hanover, New Jersey, the son of Jacob Green, a Presbyterian minister and a trustee of the College of New Jersey. Green studied under his father until the age of sixteen, before becoming a revolutionary soldier in 1778. He returned home in 1781 to prepare for college, and the following year he entered the junior class of the College of New Jersey. He graduated in 1783, delivering his class' valedictory before George Washington and other members of the Continental Congress. He remained at the College as a tutor and then as a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy until he received his license to preach in 1786, whereupon he assumed the role of junior pastor at the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. The year before he had married Elizabeth Stockton, a member of one of Princeton's most prominent families. In 1792 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by the University of Pennsylvania and was elected chaplain to the United States Congress. He was re-elected to this position several times until 1800, when Congress moved to Washington, D.C. Green returned to the College of New Jersey as its president in 1812 and held office until 1822, emphasizing religion and discipline. During his tenure, he was part of the planning committee for the Princeton Theological Seminary, and he remained closely associated with the Seminary until his death in 1848. He resigned the presidency in 1822 over differences with the Board of Trustees, returning to Philadelphia to become editor of the Christian Advocate.

This series is arranged topically and contains biographical information, writings, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and Green's valedictory oration. Among Green's records are a photocopy of his letter of resignation, an original letter of recommendation for one of his students, a document written during his own student days, an account of the student unrest that shook the College in 1817, and three original letters that were sent to Green in 1815 and 1816. The first is from a student, and the others are about students. Biographical information comes from a variety of publications, including the Princeton Alumni Weekly, the New York Observer, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, among others. Portraits of Green are also included in this series.

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James Carnahan, the longest serving president in Princeton University's history, was the son of a farmer, Major James Carnahan. Born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in 1775, Carnahan soon moved with his family to Sewickley, Pennsylvania. When James was 13, his father died, leaving him to work the family farm and attend Canonsburg Academy. During his time there, he founded the Franklin Literary Society, which was modeled after the College of New Jersey's American Whig and Cliosophic Societies, and taught classics during his last year. Carnahan entered the College of New Jersey as a junior in 1798, graduated second in his class in 1800, and returned to Canonsburg Academy for one year to study theology. In 1801 he returned to Princeton as a tutor, studying theology under Samuel Stanhope Smith. In 1803 he married Mary Vandyke, with whom he had two daughters, and the following year was ordained by the Presbytery of New Brunswick. He became the pastor of the united churches of Whitesboro and Utica in New York in 1805, where he remained until 1812. The next major phase of his career began in 1814, when he founded and became the headmaster of a classical seminary in Georgetown, D.C. He held this position until he was invited to assume the presidency of the College of New Jersey in 1823. Unfortunately, he found the College in difficult straits, with a divided Board of Trustees, declining enrollments, and inadequate funds. Things grew so bad that Carnahan considered closing the institution, but his successor, John Maclean, Jr., persuaded him and the trustees to strengthen the faculty instead. Enrollments began to increase, and by Carnahan's retirement in 1854, the student body had doubled, and the faculty had tripled. During his tenure, East and West Colleges and the first Whig and Clio Halls were added to the campus. In addition, a new refectory, chapel, and three new faculty homes were built or purchased, and trees from his nursery were planted at the College's entrance.

This series is arranged topically and contains biographical and genealogical information, correspondence, and financial records. The correspondence folder contains two items in Carnahan's hand: the first is his acceptance of the presidency in 1823; the second is a report on the state of College in 1852. Also to be found is a letter from John Quincy Adams declining an invitation to attend the College's centennial celebrations, as well as various letters sent to Carnahan. Financial materials include treasurer's and president's vouchers and checks. Among the images in this series is a photograph of a portrait of Carnahan's wife, Mary Vandyke.

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John Maclean, Jr. was the eldest of six children of John Maclean, Sr. and Phoebe Bainbridge. His father was born in Glasgow, studied for the medical profession, and became a surgeon. At 24, the elder Maclean immigrated to the United States for political reasons. He was invited to take the vacant chair of natural philosophy, which included chemistry, at the College of New Jersey, becoming the institution's first professor of chemistry. He married in 1797, and John was born on March 3, 1800. Entering the College of New Jersey as a sophomore, he graduated in 1816 as the youngest in his class. He taught for a few months in Lawrenceville, New Jersey before earning a divinity degree from the Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1818 he was appointed as a tutor of Greek at the College of New Jersey, beginning a long, varied, and devoted career at his alma mater. Four years later he was elected to fill the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy, though this did not prevent him from subsequently teaching languages and literature. Maclean also served as the College's librarian from 1824 until 1849.

When James Carnahan wanted to resign as president and, later, close the College, citing falling enrollments, financial problems, and the necessity of cutting faculty salaries, Maclean convinced him to persevere. The energetic professor collected funds due the College and recruited additional faculty. Enrollment increased as a result, and Maclean was named vice president at the age of twenty-nine. In 1854 Maclean assumed the presidency. The following year Nassau Hall caught fire, forcing him to tighten the budget and raise funds from friends and alumni for the building's restoration. He contributed part of his own salary as well, and Nassau Hall was completely restored in 1860. During the Civil War Maclean and his faculty supported the Union cause, yet demonstrated understanding towards the plight of Southern students. In 1868 he resigned after half a century of service to the College of New Jersey. During his presidency he added 10 new professors to the faculty, and 895 students (an average of 64 per year) graduated.

Maclean never married. He lived on campus along with his two unwed sisters and dedicated his life to the students around him. According to published sources, Maclean often walked the campus during the night with his lantern, carrying food and a teakettle to the rooms of ailing students. The Macleans would bring particularly ill students into their own home, as well as lodging a worried relative if need be. Maclean kept a close watch on the students and was known to detect inappropriate behavior quickly, often pursuing delinquents at a run, but he was lenient when assigning penalties. He was generous with those who needed financial help and had a drawer full of watches and other items that students had pledged as payment but never redeemed. Students affectionately called him "Old Johnny" among themselves. Maclean was also involved in a plethora of associations and charities. These included religious, educational, prison reform, literary, and temperance societies. During his retirement he wrote a two-volume history of the College of New Jersey from the granting of its charter to the resignation of his predecessor. He died on August 9, 1886.

Jacob N. Beam, Class of 1896, initially organized Maclean's records in 1940. He created a useful and copious index to much of the material, dividing the collection into two groupings: letters and papers. Copies of the index are in Box 6. Beam also created a card catalog for these records, which was updated in 2001 to include the names of correspondents and dates of letters that were added to the collection after Beam's work. The card catalog is housed with Princeton University Library Records (AC123). The bulk of the records remain in Beam's order, though additional folders were added at the beginning of this series. Most of the collection relates to Maclean's tenure as president. It is divided into four subseries: General Materials, Correspondence, Subject Files, and Sermons and Addresses.

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James McCosh was the first president since John Witherspoon who was not an alumnus of the College of New Jersey. Many similarities have been noted between the two men. Both were born in Scotland and graduated from the University of Edinburgh. Witherspoon was inaugurated in 1768, and McCosh was inaugurated one hundred years later in 1868. They died one hundred years apart, almost to the day, and like all presidents until Woodrow Wilson, both were ministers.

McCosh was born April 1, 1811 on a farm in Ayrshire, Scotland. His father, who died when James was nine, had decided that he should be educated for the ministry. McCosh attended Glasgow University and then Edinburgh University. In Edinburgh he joined debating societies, discussing such issues as theology and the power of patronage. He sided with several others in believing that the major landowners should not have the final say on who became the minister of a congregation. This issue would resurface later. Inspired by his professor, Thomas Chalmers, McCosh and other students went to the poorer districts of Edinburgh to preach and do missionary work. He also began to study philosophy and created the groundwork for what would become his most noted published work , The Method of Divine Government, Physical and Moral. Licensed to preach in 1833, his first assignment was the Abbey Chapel in Arbroath; his second at Brechin in Forfarshire, where he met his wife, Isabella Guthrie. The two were married in September 1845. In 1843 "The Disruption" occurred when McCosh, along with one-third of his fellow ministers, left the security of the established Church of Scotland to begin the Free Church of Scotland. The rebellion was caused by the increased interference of Great Britain's central government in church affairs, with ministers being settled in parishes against the will of the people.

McCosh also disagreed with the lack of weight given to supernatural powers in John Stuart Mill's System of Logic and wrote The Method of Divine Government, Physical and Moral in response. The work received much recognition and led to his appointment to the chair of logic and metaphysics at Queen's College, Belfast. He spent 16 years in Ireland, published several other works, and became well known in the English-speaking world. He was one of the few clergymen who agreed with the theory of evolution, albeit within limits. He taught that it served "to increase the wonder and mystery of the process of creation." His published lecture on this subject was The Religious Aspect of Evolution.

McCosh was offered and accepted the presidency of the College of New Jersey in 1868. He found an institution that was in need of repair after the turbulence caused by the Civil War, and McCosh, an expert fundraiser, undertook great improvements. He added distinguished faculty, increased the size of the student body, developed elective courses, bought scientific equipment, founded schools of science, philosophy, and art, added buildings, and enhanced the campus landscape. McCosh believed that the body as well as the mind should be cultivated, and on his arrival, he announced that he would build a gymnasium. When the Bonner-Marquand Gymnasium was completed a year later, it was the first college gymnasium built in the United States. McCosh also added Chancellor Green Library (1873), the Marquand Chapel (1881), and the Observatory (1869), among other buildings, while increasing the treasury by three million dollars. During his presidency The Daily Princetonian, The Tiger, and the Bric-a-Brac were founded, and extracurricular activities that evolved into the Triangle Club, the Glee Club, and intercollegiate football were initiated. With all these accomplishments to his credit, it is no wonder that McCosh referred to the College of New Jersey as "me college." His students affectionately referred to him as "Jimmie," and his wife also took a personal interest in students by caring for those who were ill. Four years after McCosh retired, the trustees erected the College's first infirmary and named it in her honor. McCosh ranks among Princeton University's most successful presidents, setting his institution well on the path to university status.

The McCosh records are arranged topically. Materials of note during his presidency include information about commencements, the regulation of liquor in the town of Princeton, and his request to stop teaching while serving as president. Pre-presidency highlights include the certificate appointing McCosh as the first minister of the church of Brechin, a farewell letter signed by his associates and friends in Ireland, plans for the Queen's College Library, and invitations and programs from his inauguration. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent, with foreign letters at the end of the run. Letters from McCosh with unidentifiable addressees are filed under McCosh in chronological order. This series also contains numerous clippings and articles of a biographical nature. Also of interest are a large number of images, including photographs of McCosh and the construction of his Prospect Street house.

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Francis Landey Patton served as president from 1888 to 1902 during an era of change and growth, reflected in the adoption of the name Princeton University in 1896. Born January 22, 1843 in Warwick, Bermuda in a house called Carberry, Patton was the eldest of three sons. His father died when he was six years old. Patton attended the Warwick Academy in Bermuda and graduated from Knox College at the University of Toronto in 1862 and from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1865, the year in which he was ordained a Presbyterian minister. His first three pastorates were in the state of New York. In 1865 he married Rosa Antoinette Stevenson, with whom he had seven children.

Patton moved to Chicago, where he served as pastor of the Jefferson Park Presbyterian church from 1873 to 1876 and occupied the chair of didactic and polemical theology at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the Northwest from 1872 to 1881. He was also editor of the Chicago Presbyterian paper, The Interior. In 1874 Patton joined in the prosecution of the Rev. David Swing, an influential preacher at four Chicago churches whose sermons were often published. Patton, a conservative who preached the classic doctrines of Calvinism, wrote editorials against Swing's liberal teaching and brought charges of heresy against him. The Presbytery acquitted Swing, but Patton was ready to appeal to the Synod when Swing forestalled him by forming an independent church. In the aftermath of this controversy, Patton became a prominent leader of Presbyterian orthodoxy, serving as moderator of the General Assembly in 1878. In 1881 he accepted the chair of the relations of philosophy and science to the Christian religion at the Princeton Theological Seminary. In addition, in 1884, he began teaching ethics and philosophy of religion courses at the College of New Jersey, and after James McCosh's retirement in 1888, became its president.

During Patton's presidency the endowment increased, the number of faculty and students more than doubled, the Graduate School was created, 17 buildings were erected, the undergraduate eating clubs grew in popularity, and interest in sports increased. Of all his improvements, Patton was proudest of inaugurating the honor system. However, most of the other changes during his tenure were largely due to a robust economy, his predecessor, McCosh, and the work of faculty and trustees. Economic growth made college more affordable, and enrollments increased at colleges in the United States in general. Faculties also increased to accommodate this growth, and Patton was responsible for appointing Woodrow Wilson, Bliss Perry, John Grier Hibben, and several other accomplished scholars to the faculty. However, it was McCosh, not Patton, who initiated the vast expansion of the campus, though much of the building took place during Patton's time in office. Known as a great intellectual and preacher, Patton was characterized as a contemplative yet witty man. He was popular with the students, and his sermons drew them to chapel. While Patton allowed modern languages to be taught, he loved the classics and insisted that Latin be kept in the curriculum.

The role of Princeton University's president was in flux, with an ever-greater emphasis on administrative and business skills. However, administratively speaking, Patton was viewed as somewhat inept, and in an era of change, some of the faculty and trustees regarded him as a hindrance rather than an impetus to progress. When the faculty and trustees established the Graduate School, the trustees bypassed Patton and directly appointed Andrew Fleming West as its dean, allowing West to manage the School without Patton's approval. The Board of Trustees, like the presidency, was also changing as professional and businessmen replaced the clergy who had once been dominant. In 1902 trustees and faculty suggested that Patton create an executive committee from among the two groups to perform some presidential functions. Patton protested at first, but then resigned instead, after negotiating and receiving compensation for leaving six years earlier than he had anticipated. He retained his position as professor of ethics and continued to teach at the Princeton Theological Seminary, whose presidency he assumed in the fall of 1902. In 1913 Patton retired and returned to Carberry in Bermuda, but he continued to write and preach. He died on November 25, 1932.

The Patton records contain correspondence, publications, and speeches documenting his life as a clergyman and as a college and, beginning in 1896, university president, as well as 16 letterpress books containing copies of his outgoing correspondence. This series is arranged in two subseries, the first topically and the second in chronological order: General Materials and Letterpress Books.

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Born December 29, 1856 in Staunton, Virginia, Woodrow Wilson was the son of Joseph Ruggles Wilson, a Presbyterian minister trained at the Princeton Theological Seminary. His father sympathized with the South during the Civil War and was a leader in the Southern Presbyterian Church and a professor at the Columbia Theological and Southwestern Theological Seminaries. Woodrow was raised in Augusta, Georgia and Columbia, South Carolina. Born into a religious family, he accompanied his father on pastoral calls and edited minutes of the General Assembly. He attended Davidson College in his freshman year (1873-1874), and then prepared for entrance to the College of New Jersey, enrolling in 1875. An ambitious reading program offset his light course load. He became known as a leader, and his classmates elected him speaker of the American Whig Society, secretary of the Football Association, president of the Baseball Association, and managing editor of The Daily Princetonian. He graduated in 1879 and then studied law at the University of Virginia from 1879 to 1880 before briefly practicing in Atlanta, Georgia. Wilson's graduate work, undertaken between 1883 and 1886 in political science and history at Johns Hopkins University, culminated in a doctoral dissertation entitled Congressional Government. Wilson married Ellen Louise Axson of Rome, Georgia in 1885 and had three daughters. Ellen died in 1914, and he married Edith Bolling Galt in 1915.

After receiving his Ph.D. in 1886, Wilson taught political science and constitutional law at Bryn Mawr College, and, from 1888 to 1890, he was chair of history and political economy at Wesleyan University. In 1890 he accepted the professorship of jurisprudence and political economy at the College of New Jersey. He soon made his presence felt, unsuccessfully encouraging Francis Landey Patton, the man he would succeed as president, to raise money for a law school. Stymied, Wilson prepared the best pre-law curriculum in the nation. An eloquent speaker, he was consistently voted the most popular teacher, and some 400 students, representing most of the junior and senior classes, attended his lectures. He delivered the keynote speech, "Princeton in the Nation's Service," at Princeton University's sesquicentennial celebrations in 1896. While serving on the faculty, Wilson wrote four books: Division and Reunion, An Old Master, Mere Literature, and George Washington. In 1902 he was elected president of his alma mater.

As president, Wilson attempted to initiate three major programs: curricular changes, the preceptorial method, and the quadrangle plan. The first two programs were very successful, but he never received sufficient support for the third. Wilson formed a committee on examination and standing to raise standards, and students who failed exams were dismissed regardless of social pull. He also tightened academic standards for entrance and performance, and enrollment declined until 1907. Since Princeton University had no administrative structure to speak of, he created departments according to subjects, with deans reporting directly to the president. He also empowered the faculty to make faculty nominations, taking that authority away from the trustees' curriculum committee. In his curricular changes of 1904, Wilson unified general studies during the freshman and sophomore years, while concentrating study in one discipline and related fields during the junior and senior years. This represented the emergence of the course format used in most colleges and universities today, a format that enables a student to acquire general knowledge and then focus on a major subject. Wilson did not want students to prepare for a vocation; instead he wanted them to be broadly educated for life. Another of his curricular changes was to take Biblical instruction away from a fundamentalist and appoint a scholar in his place. He effectively ended conservative Presbyterian control over the Board of Trustees, and, in 1906, the University was declared a non-sectarian institution. Shortly afterwards, Wilson appointed the first Roman Catholic and first Jewish professor to the faculty.

In order to curb the influence of the conservative faculty, Wilson began the preceptorial program, contracting 45 talented assistant professors to be preceptors before the trustees had approved the plan. In 1905 the faculty doubled with the influx of preceptors, who guided undergraduates in mastering subjects instead of memorizing notes. The success of Wilson's scheme, which continues to this day, is reflected in the Library's records, which show an increase in undergraduate borrowing following the introduction of precepts. The campus also grew in the course of Wilson's tenure, including the construction of a gymnasium, McCosh Hall, Palmer Laboratory, Guyot Hall, and four dormitories: Seventy-Nine, Patton, Campbell, and Holder Halls. Lake Carnegie was also built, transforming the approaches to the University.

Unlike his other initiatives, Wilson's quadrangle plan ran into fierce opposition. His plan reflected his belief that social life at Princeton University was undemocratic and detrimental to the intellectual atmosphere he envisioned. The social life of two-thirds of the upperclassmen centered on a number of private eating clubs, which he felt encouraged snobbishness and elitism, leaving one-third of the upperclassmen ostracized and humiliated. Wilson believed that freshmen and sophomores should have exposure to the upperclassmen, as well as to professors, outside the classroom, and he proposed vertically dividing the University so that all three groups could reside and eat in quadrangles. Membership in the quadrangles would be determined by lot, and the eating clubs would eventually be absorbed or abolished. The trustees initially approved the plan, and Wilson announced it at Commencement exercises in June 1907. However, alumni, mostly from New York and Philadelphia, vehemently opposed his proposals, citing loss of class spirit and freedom of choice as reasons. Moses Taylor Pyne, a wealthy trustee and donor, threatened to withdraw support if Wilson pursued his plan. Opposition increased, and contributions to the endowment fell, causing the trustees to withdraw their approval in October 1907.

Wilson's final controversy pitted him against Andrew Fleming West, Dean of the Graduate School. He and West agreed that Princeton University needed a rigorous graduate program, but they disagreed on one important point: the location of the college that would form the heart of graduate life. Wilson wanted the graduate college located at the center of campus, preferably near Prospect House. West had decided that a remote location would be preferable in that students would not be distracted by undergraduate life, which he described as "wild, unruly and obstreperous." The ensuing battle over the graduate college's location divided the University, and by 1910 the controversy had ballooned into a national issue. The death of Isaac C. Wyman, Class of 1848, in May of that year brought the conflict to an end. Wyman left his entire estate, initially estimated at over two million dollars, for construction of West's graduate college, giving the latter the leverage he needed. Wilson conceded the fight, stating, "The game is up. We've beaten the living, but we can't fight the dead." Shortly thereafter, the trustees forced him to resign, and Wilson exchanged academic controversies for state and national politics as Governor of New Jersey, beginning in 1911, and President of the United States, beginning in 1913. He served two terms in the White House and died February 3, 1924. Fittingly, the Woodrow Wilson Award is the highest honor Princeton University bestows for distinguished public service.

The Wilson Records are divided into three subseries, Subject Files, Correspondence, and General Materials, that document Wilson's life and his successes and failures as president of Princeton University, though not as fully as his importance warrants. A much more extensive documentary legacy can be found in the 69-volume edition of The Papers of Woodrow Wilson edited by Arthur S. Link, a copy of which is located in the reference room of the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library.

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Born in Peoria, Illinois April 19, 1861, John Grier Hibben was the son of the Rev. Samuel Hibben, a Union chaplain in the Civil War who died when John Grier Hibben was one year old, and Elizabeth Grier Hibben. Hibben graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1882. As a student, he was a junior orator, editor of the Bric-a- Brac, winner of the mathematical prize, sophomore honor prize, and the Class of 1861 prize. He was also valedictorian, class president, and received the J.S.K. fellowship in mathematics. Having completed a one-year post-graduate course at the University of Berlin, he attended the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1883 to 1886. During this time he temporarily took the place of Henry B. Fine, Class of 1880, as instructor in mathematics at the College of New Jersey, and he briefly taught French and German at the Lawrenceville School. Hibben was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1887 and married Jenny Davidson of Elizabeth, New Jersey the same year. They had one daughter.

A pastor in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania for four years, he had to end his ministerial career due to a throat ailment, returning to his alma mater to study philosophy. In 1891 he accepted an appointment as instructor in logic and received his Ph.D. in 1893. Promoted to assistant professor of philosophy, he became a full professor in 1907. He was named Stuart Professor of Logic and, on January 11, 1912, was elected president. Between 1896 and 1910 Hibben wrote five books about philosophy. His first was Inductive Logic, followed by The Problems of Philosophy and Introduction to the Logic of Hegel. Logic Deductive and Inductive became a widely used textbook in American colleges, and Philosophy of the Enlightenment was his most esteemed work. He went on to write A Defense of Prejudice and Other Essays in 1911 and The Higher Patriotism in 1915.

Hibben's relationship with his predecessor, Woodrow Wilson, had deteriorated after Hibben sided with Wilson's opponents during the graduate college controversy. The dispute had divided the University, and the search for a successor to Wilson lasted 15 months. Once elected, Hibben immediately addressed the issue, uniting the two factions. He announced that he represented "no group or set of men, no party, no faction, no past allegiance or affiliation — but one united Princeton." He consciously sought the help of faculty who had sided with Wilson and encouraged them to continue the former president's work. Hibben was frequently described as a calm, patient, and temperate man, and these qualities undoubtedly helped him to unify the University. His task was eased when the trustees decreased Dean Andrew Fleming West's autonomy by subjecting the Graduate School to the president's authority. During the First World War, Hibben offered University resources to the federal government, including access to buildings and laboratories for army, navy, and aviation training schools and research programs. Only 60 undergraduates were not in service by the fall of 1918.

Hibben enhanced the curriculum by extending the preceptorial program to the sophomore class and, in 1923, by initiating the four course or upper-class plan of study, which gave students freedom to do independent reading in a particular subject instead of taking a fifth course. The reading was followed by a senior thesis and a comprehensive examination, an innovation that soon became a hallmark of a Princeton education. Other changes in the curriculum were achieved through the reorganization of academic departments. Hibben separated Psychology and Philosophy and divided the Department of History, Politics, and Economics into three separate units. In 1922 he limited enrollment and established a system of selective admission. In the same year, the Department of Oriental Languages and Literatures was founded, and three schools were added during his presidency: Architecture in 1919, Engineering in 1921, and Public and International Affairs in 1930. In order to help freshmen adjust to campus life, Hibben created a pool of faculty advisors. He also established the Council on Undergraduate Life in 1930, allowing undergraduates to discuss problems and concerns.

During his tenure, the budget grew and enrollment increased by almost a thousand students. The faculty grew by 73 percent and received salary increases, pensions, insurance, and a minimum pay scale owing largely to Hibben's effectiveness in increasing endowments. Between January 1912 and June 1932, endowments increased from approximately five million to 24 million dollars. The number of buildings on campus doubled, including ten dormitories, which encouraged students to remain in Princeton on weekends. Other construction projects resulted in five new undergraduate dining halls, the north court quadrangle at the graduate college, six new classroom and research buildings, Palmer Stadium, Baker Rink, McCosh Infirmary, McCarter Theatre, and the University Chapel with its nave named in Hibben's honor. Yet another feature of this explosive growth, which reflected a general economic expansion, was the doubling of books in the Library.

Hibben belonged to more than 60 educational, international, and patriotic societies, and many honors were bestowed on him, including admission to the French Legion of Honor in 1919. He served on the advisory board for the American Defense Society and the National Security League, and he was a member of the Naval League of the United States, the United States Junior Naval Reserve, and the executive committee of the League to Enforce Peace. A promoter of world peace, he was decorated by a number of foreign governments and received honorary degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh, Yale, Columbia, Rutgers, Lafayette, Brown, Harvard, the University of Toronto, McGill, and Princeton. One year before his death, alumni established the Hibben Loan Fund of $1,000 per year to aid deserving undergraduates. In June 1932 Hibben resigned after 20 fruitful years as president of Princeton University. Sadly, he died in an automobile accident the following year, an accident that also fatally injured his wife.

The Hibben records are divided into five subseries. Four are based on the form of the material, namely, Subject Files, Correspondence, Addresses and Publications, and General Materials, and one consists of a box of documents relating to the interim administration of Edward D. Duffield, who served as Princeton University's acting president from 1932 to 1933. A biographical sketch of Duffield accompanies the description of this subseries.

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At 43, Harold W. Dodds was Princeton University's third youngest president. He was also the second layman to hold this office, following Woodrow Wilson; however, both men were sons of Presbyterian ministers. Born June 28, 1889 in Utica, Pennsylvania, Dodds was the son of Alice A. Dunn and Dr. Samuel Dodds, professor of Bible at Grove City College and professor emeritus of biblical doctrine at Wooster College. The couple had three sons: LeRoy, Harold, and John, all of whom went on to earn doctorates.

Harold graduated from Grove City College in 1909 with Phi Beta Kappa honors, taught high school Latin and English for two years, and received his M.A. from Princeton University in 1914 and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1917. In the same year he attempted to enlist in the Army but was rejected due to poor vision. On December 25, 1917, Dodds married Margaret Murray of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In 1918 Dodds wrote Procedure in State Legislatures. He worked for the United States Food Administration during World War I and became assistant professor of political science at Western Reserve University from 1919 to 1920. Deciding to apply political science in a practical manner, Dodds left the University to become secretary of the National Municipal League and editor of its magazine, the National Municipal Review. He later served as the League's president from 1934 to 1937. In 1925 Dodds acted as an adviser to the Tacna- Arica Plebiscitary Commission, chaired by General John J. Pershing, which attempted to arrange a plebiscite to end Chile and Peru's dispute over the towns of Tacna and Arica. He also drafted Nicaragua's Electoral Law of 1923 and helped supervise its 1928 elections. In 1935 he arbitrated an electoral dispute in Cuba. Dodds was also a lecturer at Purdue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and New York Universities prior to joining the faculty of Princeton University in 1925.

At Princeton Dodds taught municipal government and public administration. He became a full professor of political science in 1927, and in 1930, he was named chairman of the administration committee of the School of Public and International Affairs. Dodds and his colleagues conducted a financial and administrative survey of the New Jersey government at the request of Governor A. Harry Moore. It was known as the Princeton Survey, and some proposals were enacted into law.

Dodds was elected president of Princeton University in 1933. He served during the Great Depression, World War II, and the postwar period of adjustment, a time of strain for both the University and its president. During the Second World War Princeton University instituted an accelerated program of study to meet wartime requirements. As of December 15, 1941 the Special War Supplement was issued to students, giving them the option to change their programs and elect new emergency courses such as navigation and cryptanalysis. By January 1942 75 percent of students, with the exception of seniors, participated. In 1940 Dodds established a University Committee on National Defense, and the Army, Navy, and Marines stationed hundreds of their reserves on campus for training, causing the number of students to fluctuate widely from month to month. A large percentage of undergraduates who left for service returned after the war, attributable, in part, to the fact that Dodds kept in touch with the absent students and set up the Princeton Program for Servicemen in order to facilitate the continuation of their education. In 1943 the State Department asked Dodds to lead the American delegation to the Bermuda Anglo-American Conference to discuss the problem of refugees.

Princeton University's Bicentennial celebration occurred during the Dodds administration from 1946 to 1947. The celebration included a host of scholarly conferences and three major convocations that renewed scholastic ties after the war. In addition, Bicentennial Preceptorships were established, giving one year of free research time to the most promising assistant professors.

Dodds was noted for his skill at promoting intelligent young faculty and attracting top scholars from other institutions. He received good advice from deans and departmental chairmen and supported them in securing candidates. One of the professors whom Dodds promoted was Robert Goheen, his successor. New departments and programs were created during the Dodds administration, including Music, the Office of Population Research, the Creative Arts Program, Religion, Aeronautical Engineering, and Near Eastern Studies. The Woodrow Wilson School and sponsored research programs were expanded.

New buildings constructed during Dodds's tenure included Firestone Library (1948), Dillon Gymnasium (1947), Class of 1915 Dormitory (1949), Woodrow Wilson Hall, now Corwin Hall (1952), Hayes Engineering Laboratory (1951), and a new building to house Project Matterhorn for the study of plasma physics. Pyne Library was converted to administrative office space, and Chancellor Green became the Student Center. Housing for faculty, graduate students, and staff increased by 312 units. The James Forrestal Research Center was established in 1951 with the acquisition of 825 acres formerly occupied by the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.

Under Dodds income and expenses increased significantly. Thirty endowed professorships were established. The Higgins Trust, shared with Yale, Harvard, and Columbia Universities, increased funds for the sciences. In 1941 Annual Giving by alumni began with contributions totaling $80,000, and by 1957 the amount given annually had increased to $1,281,000. Undergraduate enrollment increased from 2309 in 1933 to 2948 in 1956, and the faculty grew from 327 to 582 in the same period. The largest growth occurred in Graduate School enrollment, which jumped from 293 to 636, due in part to an influx of foreign students.

Dodds grew with the demands of his position, armed with an optimistic attitude towards new problems, a sense of humor, and quiet confidence. He believed that any expert should put knowledge to practical use, noting that "an academic social scientist is improved by some contact with reality." He also championed a liberal arts focus in response to educational trends after World War II, though he also held that a liberal education "should be an education for use." Dodds stressed the importance of religion in a university setting and argued that "there is no avenue to truth which neglects the place of religion as the fountain of those human values which sustain and energize both individuals and a free society."

Dodds was a Republican and a Presbyterian. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Corporation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the General Education Board. In addition, he was one of nine members of the President's Advisory Commission on Universal Training. He was also a director of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the American Philosophical Society.

On June 19, 1957 Dodds retired, but he remained active. He chaired the James Madison Memorial Commission, which was formed to plan the building of the Madison Library of the Library of Congress. In 1958 the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching awarded him a grant that led to his book, The Academic President — Educator or Caretaker? He was also chairman of the Board of Trustees of a corporation established to operate Miss Fine's School and the Princeton Country Day School as one entity called the Princeton Day Schools.

Dodds died October 25, 1980 at the age of 91 in a retirement community in Hightstown, New Jersey. Additional biographical information can be found in a commemorative issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly from December 1, 1980 in box 196, folder 8.

The Dodds records are divided into six subseries: Correspondence, Speeches and Writings, Subject Files, Arthur E. Fox, Edgar M. Gemmell, and General Materials. Together they constitute the largest body of material in this collection of presidential records and, in fact, are roughly three times the size of all the other series put together. This is attributable, in part, to the growth of Princeton University and the increasing complexity of its administration, but sound clerical practices, including a systematic filing system, also played an important role. It should be noted that the division between correspondence (Subseries 1) and subject files (subseries 3) is not absolute and that a significant amount of personal and family correspondence can be found under the latter heading.

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