Lecture launches exhibit and book
An author of the updated history of Princeton's Graduate School will discuss his work in a lecture at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19, in the Betts Auditorium at the School of Architecture.
James Axtell, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Humanities at the College of William and Mary, will speak on "Reading and Writing the History of a Graduate School." The lecture will mark the opening of a new exhibition at the Firestone Library that chronicles 100 years of graduate education at Princeton.
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"The Princeton Graduate School: A History," originally published in 1978, was written by three authors: the late Willard Thorp, a long-time faculty member in the English department; Minor Myers Jr., a 1972 Graduate School alumnus who is president of Illinois Wesleyan University; and Jeremiah Finch, former professor of English, dean of the college and secretary of the University.
"Celebration of the University's 250 years followed by the centennial of the Graduate School makes it important to recognize and highlight the place of the school within Princeton University," writes John Wilson, the current dean of the Graduate School, in the book's second foreword. "When we discovered that only a few copies of the Thorp-Myers-Finch 'History' remained available, several of us, including long-time dean Theodore Ziolkowski, thought the opportunity presented itself to bring the study down to the present time and re-issue it."
The new edition has been revised and expanded with accounts of the dramatic growth of graduate education after World War II. The original chapter seven has been replaced with three new chapters, drawn largely from manuscripts written by Myers. The manuscripts were prepared for the original edition, but not published at that time. They were located in the University Archives, according to the new book's editor, Patricia Marks, a 1972 Graduate School alumna and an editor in the University library. Chapters seven through nine now describe the Graduate School from 1928 through 1969.
Axtell's chapter 10, entitled "Rounding Out a Century," brings readers up to the present day. It highlights such issues as the new student demography, the shift in funding sources for graduate education and changes in programs.
"It is safe to predict that the Graduate School will continue to earn fuller recognition as a distinctive and vital feature of Princeton's identity in the 21st century, immediately through the products and events of the centennial, but ultimately, as any educational institution should, through the careers, involvement and generosity of its alumni, who number nearly 20,000 around the world," Axtell writes.
The publication of the new edition was supported by the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni. The 436-page illustrated book is available for $35 through Princeton University Press or the Princeton University Store.
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November 13, 2000 Contents • Big
dreams makes a big difference : Project
55 • UW
drive kicks off • Rewards
of teaching inspire students • Display
paints vivid portrait of graduate life • Calendar
of events
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