#p-rade

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The St. Patrick’s Day P-Rade

It’s no secret that Princetonians love parades; thousands descend upon our small town for each annual celebration of Reunions, the capstone of which is the “P-Rade.” Each class wears its own specia…

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This used to be one of the most-celebrated holidays on Princeton University’s campus, with an annual costumed parade, speeches, and other revelry. It was known as the “P-Rade,” a term more commonly associated with Reunions today.

[thewhimsyturtle]

Mom says I am finally big enough to walk in a parade for the first time next weekend!  But first, I will need a costume to fit in.  Time for Mom to start crocheting!

@princetonsocialmedia @justprincetonthings

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The Class of 1904 marched in the 1914 P-Rade with some carrying a banner reading, “UNMARRIED 64 + UNTIED WE STAND WATCHFULLY WAITING.”

Photo from 1916 Bric-a-Brac

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in these days of militant feminism I am well aware that I am taking a perilous position in venturing to deny any privilege whatever to the newly dominant sex. Pray don’t misunderstand me, for I am quite ready to admit that woman has her appointed place in the great scheme of creation; it is her ministering hand that still soothes the fevered brow, it is she who stands ever ready to answer the telephone, upon occasion we may even permit her to supplement the family income by taking in washing. She has won her footing in the market place; we are always glad to welcome her on her infrequent visits to the home; we are not wholly averse to inviting her to enter the polling booth. But, gentlemen of the ‘Old Guard,’ the line must be drawn somewhere, and I would draw it at the Alumni P-Rade; I contend that a woman has no more business in that galley than I would have at a mother’s meeting, unless indeed this is the first insidious step (God forbid!) towards turning Princeton into a co-educational institution.

Van Tassel Sutphen, Class of 1882, in a letter to the Princeton Alumni Weekly, June 17, 1914

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Throwback Thursday: The Princeton University Class of 1973 marching in 1983′s P-Rade. This banner is only partly right; coeducation began at Princeton with graduate students in 1961, and there were women in the undergraduate classes of 1970, 1971, and 1972. However, the Class of 1973 was the first to have undergraduate women in it who spent their entire four-year college careers at Princeton.

Princeton Alumni Weekly Photograph Collection (AC126), Box 6

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Tiger Tuesday: Live tigers are no longer allowed to participate in the alumni’s annual P-Rade for Reunions, but they did make an appearance in the past.

Princeton Alumni Weekly Photograph Collection (AC126), Box 7.

The entire Tiger Tuesday series

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Throwback Thursday: The Princeton University Class of 1982 marches in the alumni P-Rade with a banner urging the institution to admit and hire more minorities, ca. 1982. Princeton Alumni Weekly Photograph Collection (AC126), Box 6

[princetonarchives]

Throwback Thursday: Princeton University’s Class of 1918 at the 1962 P-Rade. Princeton Reunions are next week, and along with it we expect a sea of orange and black to return to campus as it does every year.

Color slide, Princeton University Class Records (AC130), Box 284