Princeton University Yearbook 1933 - Bric-A-Brac

15th Feb 2022

The Princeton University Yearbook Bric-A-Brac is produced each year by the Junior Class. The 1933 Bric-A-Brac is a special one because it features the actor Jimmy Stewart, who is pictured twice in the book. Each varsity sport team is also pictured and it is a great study in 1930s collegiate athletics. It is also an interesting look at the environment of the 1930s. There is a Field Artillery Reserve Officers' Training Corps, which was established in 1919 at the request of the War Department. The officers in the Officers' Training Corp also supervised the coaches of the polo and pistol teams. As contrasted to the way college kids dress today, everyone pictured in the book is in a well tailored suit looking sharp.

The four man Princeton polo team below:

The muscular gym team, today what we would call gymnastics:

The varsity crew team with their oars:

James M. Stewart, better known as Jimmy Stewart, entered Princeton as a Civil Engineering major (he wanted to be an architect) and was a “legacy” admission since his father also attended Princeton, graduating in 1898. Stewart attended Princeton and graduated in 1932, with honors. Stewart also served as Princeton’s head cheerleader during his junior year and was active in the Glee Club. He is the tallest most handsome gentleman in the picture below:

Architecture turned out not to be his true love so instead of practicing it, he went into the theater and show business instead. While he was at Princeton he was active in the Triangle Club, a theater troupe founded in 1891. He is pictured with the Triangle Club below, sitting in the front row, far right:

The Princeton pistol team in their formal uniforms, doing a very good impression of State Troopers. Princeton no longer has a pistol or shooting team.

The book also listed school clubs including some unusual ones whose purposes were not stated. These include the Right Wing Club, the Fifth Wheel Club, and the Two-Foot Club.

Among the social clubs were clubs for various prep schools that were feeders into Princeton. The book lists clubs for the Blair Academy, Carteret Academy, the Choate School, Columbus Academy, the Hill School, Haverford School, the Hotchkiss School, the Kent School, the Loomis School, the Lawrenceville School (the largest since at the time Lawrenceville was the primary feeder school to Princeton), the Newark Academy, Pawling School, Phillips Exeter, Pingry School, Poly Prep, Pomfret School, Princeton Prep, Shady Side Academy, St. Paul's School, and the St. George's School.

The three well-dressed gents below made up the 1933 Undergraduate Motion Picture Committee whose purpose was to have a complete filmed record of the activities of each class. The Motion Picture Committee was started the year before.

The Princeton fencing team of 1933 wearing their garb with their well dressed coaches in the background:

The very youthful looking Princeton tennis team with their formal jackets on:

The 1933 yearbook also includes some beautiful hand drawn illustrations of the campus:

The book is a great look back at Princeton during the early 1930s