Princeton Invites Campus Portrait Suggestions

Published Oct. 20, 2017

The University is asking for recommendations for up to 10 new portraits to be commissioned that will reflect the “increasingly diverse Princeton community.”

The new Portraiture Nominations Committee will collect ideas and recommend subjects, using criteria that include association with Princeton; representation of diversity; and excellence and achievement in the past 75 years in a particular field, “in the nation’s service and the service of humanity,” or in contributing to the culture of the University.

Since the mid-19th century, the only routine additions to the campus portrait collection have been those of the presidents and deans of the Graduate School and the engineering school.

To submit a recommendation, visit https://evp.princeton.edu/portraiture -suggestion-form.

The portrait initiative is part of the work of the Campus Iconography Committee, which was created in response to a suggestion of the Trustee Committee on Woodrow Wilson’s Legacy at Princeton.

Since the mid-19th century, the only routine additions to the campus portrait collection have been those of the presidents and deans of the Graduate School and the engineering school.

The University also plans to create walking tours to tell some of the lesser-known stories of Princeton’s history, establish physical and virtual historical markers on campus, and integrate those histories into student-orientation materials. Campus officials are also working to renovate campus sites “to reflect and connect with the diverse campus community,” including the EQuad Café and spaces in the residential colleges.

Published in the Oct. 25, 2017, Issue

2 Responses

Janice Stultz Roddenbery *77

6 Years Ago

Not All White Males

The article on the efforts of the Portraiture Nominations Committee (On the Campus, Oct. 25) refers to portraits of the presidents of the University and the deans of the Graduate School and of the School of Engineering currently on display around the campus. I think it’s important to note that those portraits are not entirely of white males.

When it comes to diversity among the student body, the Graduate School was way ahead of the undergraduate college. In 1972 my fellow residents in graduate-student housing at 15 Dickinson St. included people of African, Hispanic, and Asian descent, as well as several other women, one of whom was openly lesbian.

Beginning in the last quarter of the 20th century, the portraits of the deans of the Graduate School have included a woman (Nina G. Garsoïan) and an African American (Albert Raboteau). The countenance of former Graduate School dean Sanjeev Kulkarni will soon grace the walls of Procter Hall.

Visiting the Convocation Room in the Friend Center, one can admire the likenesses of a female engineering school dean (Maria Klawe) and two Asian American deans (Hisashi Kobayashi *67 and James Wei).

The portrait of Princeton’s first woman president, Shirley Tilghman, has joined those of her venerable predecessors in the Faculty Room in Nassau Hall.

I encourage students and alumni to visit the University’s portrait galleries. They effortlessly present a pretty picture of increasing diversity among Princeton’s leaders.