November Midday Program
January 3. Princeton, New Jersey. They take the field. One side wearing blue uniforms. The other red. A victory today . . . but the series isn’t over. There will be more contests.
Is this the famous first intercollegiate football game ever played? Nope.
This contest took place nearly a hundred years after Princeton squared off against Rutgers, and while the combatants may have brought bands along, there were no cheerleaders nor hotdog vendors present.
It was 1777 and it was a battle in a war that was made inevitable by the printing press. Newspapers led to incendiary pamphlets which led to a Declaration, whose rare original Dunlap prints are among the most precious of American documents.
Gabriel Swift, Librarian for Early American Collections at Princeton University, will reveal a stunning collection of materials drawn from the library’s exhibition Nursery of Rebellion: Princeton & the American Revolution. His program will focus on traditional and new modes of celebrating, curating, and collecting on the theme of American independence.
Though he isn’t a loyalist, Gabriel does root for a team that wears red (well, crimson & cream), having been graduated from Indiana University, where he also was awarded an MA in history and an MLS.
Why not show your colors by registering today for this online presentation and Q&A? We make a confident Declaration that it will be a fast-paced, informative, and entertaining hour!
Please forward this notice to anyone who may find it of interest.
Even if you can’t attend at the scheduled time, if you’re interested, please register. After the program, we’ll send an email to all registrants, asking if you’d like a link to the complete recording. That way you can see the program even if you couldn’t attend live, ran into technical issues, or simply wanted to watch it again.
.png)
