#class of 1894

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Menu Monday: As advertised in the Princeton Press, George A. Dohm opened an ice cream saloon across from the college (now named Princeton University) on May 17, 1873. Dohm was already a well-established bakery owner at the time, having operated his Bread and Fancy Cake Bakery since 1868. The advertised "kisses" are meringues, while "macaronies" likely refers to macaroons.

According to a member of the Class of 1894, Dohm's was a popular hangout for students for decades, with the business expansion of the Dohm family soon including a restaurant, too:

There was one long table in the rear room where the students gathered, and every year a new top was placed on it, well fastened down. During the year the Seniors, sitting around this table, would carve their names on the top, cutting them in very deep, so that by the end of the year it represented a fair autograph album of the class. After Commencement this top was taken off, varnished, and fastened permanently on the ceiling or wall of the room.

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On October 3, 1890, a group of Princeton sophomores put these posters up all around Trenton. These "Proclamations," or "Procs," aimed to needle the incoming students. The frosh followed them around town ripping them down, but as the Trenton Times noted, "It is understood that the sophomores will have a copy of this proclamation preserved in the college archives."

Among other things, the proclamations warned incoming students,

1. No Freshman shall be seen out of his room except when absolutely necessary. On such occasions, meeting ANYONE, he will take off his hat, and when meeting a Sophomore, he will take off his shoes also. 2. No Freshman shall carry anything resembling a cane, EXCEPT A TOOTH-PICK, which must be concealed. (Gold heads not allowed.) 3. No Freshman shall ever dare to gaze on the sacred colors, ORANGE and BLACK, much less, shall he ever wear them on his filthy person or have them in the cheesy hole where he drags out his miserable existence. (All Freshmen will at once provide themselves with Green Lamp Shades.) 4. No Freshman shall be allowed to smoke a pipe or cigar. Cigarettes permitted, if not inhaled. 5. Freshmen shall neither enter the Billiard Room nor occupy the Grand Stand. All attempts at cheering and 'chippy chasing' are strictly forbidden.

The Class of 1893 does, in fact, appear to have archived their posters. You can find them in the Princeton University Class Records (AC130), Cabinet 7, Drawer 6, Folder 3.

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Menu Monday: Although at many institutions, one wouldn't expect alumni to have a reunion a year following graduation, Princetonians have long been attached to each other and to their alma mater enough to warrant annual reunions. This is the menu for the Class of 1894's reunion in 1895. (It's their second annual dinner because their first was at the conclusion of their undergraduate careers.) Scrapbook Collection (AC026), Box 179

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Tiger Tuesday: Princeton University’s Society of the Claw resulted from a meeting of the Class of 1894 in 1912. The class claimed to be the first to establish the practice of holding an annual reunion. In order to join the Society as an active member, one had to make a lifetime or a five-year, renewable pledge to attend reunions on an annual basis. No dues or assessments were required of Society members and most funds for its support came from a few wealthy members of the class. The Society's rules also provided for the election of honorary members. 

The Society met annually in the Faculty Room of Nassau Hall, and all members of the class, including those not members of the Society, could attend. Each member received a numbered certificate with a seal. In addition, the Society provided each member with a watch chain charm to serve as a reminder of the pledge. These charms consisted of a genuine tiger claw (the Society obtained one thousand with the help of Princeton missionaries in India) which was attached to a gold (for honorary members) or silver (for active members) mount topped by the number 94 (for the class) engraved with the Society's name and the member's name and number. The Philadelphia jeweler Van Deusen and Stokes produced these charms.

The class planned that the Society would continue in perpetuity, providing that members of other classes could be elected upon a two-thirds vote of the active members, but by the 1920s they seem to have been defunct. 

The most significant contribution of the Society to Princeton tradition was its proposal and funding of the bronze stars place on the stone windowsills of university dormitories in 1920 in memory of war dead from World War I. Society member L. Irving Reichner suggested the idea, and in the space of several months the Society raised $460 to make, engrave and mount the stars.

Tiger claw found in the Memorabilia Collection (MC053).

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There will enter the Class of '94 next Fall a gentleman fifty-three years of age. During the civil war he was in his Sophomore year, and then volunteered. He now intends to return and complete his course.

The Princetonian, April 22, 1891

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Menu Monday: Princeton’s Class of 1894′s second annual Reunions dinner, June 8, 1895. 

Scrapbook Collection (AC026), Box 177

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This 1894 program from Commencement at the College of New Jersey is yet another example of how Princeton was already known by that name before it was technically true (the name was changed to Princeton University legally in 1896).

Princeton University Commencement Records (AC115), Box 3.

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Menu Monday: The Princeton Class of 1894′s fifth reunion dinner, 1899.

Scrapbook Collection (AC026), Box 175

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