Known for his role on the NBC television series Law & Order, award-winning actor Sam Waterston will speak to the Princeton University Class of 2024 on May 27 on Cannon Green.

Waterston, whose career has spanned more than five decades, has starred in countless television, film, and stage roles and has been nominated for Emmy, Academy, and Tony awards. In February he stepped down from his celebrated Law & Order role as district attorney Jack McCoy after appearing in more than 400 episodes since 1994.

At least two of Waterston’s roles have Princeton connections: he played Nick Carraway in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and played physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in a 1980 BBC miniseries. He also played Hamlet on Broadway, and Abraham Lincoln on stage and television. more

Dear Readers,

Welcome to your Spring issue of Princeton Magazine.

Experience Princeton, the new nonprofit group that is promoting Princeton and its merchants as a visitors’ destination, has “Bloom Local” as the theme for this season, and its logo is marked by some flowers. The same could be said for this issue of Princeton Magazine, for you will find that our writers have uncovered a wonderful array of new things to do and know about from our wonderful location in the middle of the Garden State. The other aspect of these discoveries is the uncovering of some unknown heroes and heroines related to each.

Since we see spring as being marked by new blooms, you will enjoy Ilene Dube’s story “Mad About Tulips,” which takes you all the way back to 1554 when tulips were introduced to Europe by the emperor to the sultan of Turkey, who sent the first bulbs to Vienna. It turns out that tulips have no scent, no taste, and the most beautiful ones are that way because of diseases, yet for centuries  the tulip was a marker for wealth and today it is a critical component in the economy of the Netherlands. more

Emily Roebling’s Invaluable Contributions to the Brooklyn Bridge and Women’s Rights

By Wendy Greenberg

A bronze statue of John A. Roebling in an armchair, with a diagram of a suspension bridge on his lap and books and blueprints beneath his chair, sits in the Cadwalader Heights neighborhood of Trenton. On one side, a relief panel depicts the Brooklyn Bridge — his masterpiece, referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

But the story of the Brooklyn Bridge, with its iconic suspension cables and arches, its design inspired by a church in Germany, is not one man’s work. In fact, its story also involves a woman: Emily Warren Roebling, the wife of Roebling’s son Washington. more

How Their Beguiling Beauty Led to a Financial Crisis in 17th-Century Holland

By Ilene Dube

“The tulips are too excitable,” wrote Sylvia Plath from a hospital bed where she’d been given a bouquet to help her recover from an appendectomy. They are “too red in the first place, they hurt me.… The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals.”

For Emily Dickinson, the tulip “put on her carmine suit.”

Erica Jong wrote:

Mother, you are far away and claim
In mournful letters that I do not need you;
Yet here in this sunny room, your tulips
Devour me, sucking hungrily.

Rare is the poet who hasn’t lavished the bell-shaped flowers with words.

Despite their effect on us, tulips are only the third most popular flower in the world, according to facts.net, after roses and chrysanthemums.

But several hundred years ago, the fever for tulips unleashed mass hysteria, resulting in a financial crash. People sold businesses, mortgaged homes, and invested life savings in flower futures. It has been compared to the cryptocurrency frenzy.

 more

Rowan University’s Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park Museum

By Donald H. Sanborn III

Kenneth Lacovara

A fossil park and active research site in Mantua Township is the home of  a soon-to-open museum that will use cutting-edge technology to offer visitors an unsparingly authentic glimpse into the distant past.

Rowan University’s Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park Museum will open this year in “early summer,” says its founding director, Kenneth Lacovara, Ph.D. Asked what he most wants the public to know about the museum, Lacovara promises, “It’s not like any other place in the world,” and visitors are in for an experience “like no other!” more

By Taylor Smith

“When I was six, I had a chicken that walked backward and was in the Pathé News. I was in it too with the chicken. I was just there to assist the chicken, but it was the high point of my life. Everything since then has been anticlimax.”

—Flannery O’Connor

As the well-known Southern writer Flannery O’Connor states, there was just something unique and entertaining about her brood of fowl. Somewhat of a recluse and a complicated figure herself, these birds filled the void of human companionship and were reliable stalwarts during her eventual success as an author.

While some may research backyard chickens and chicken breeds singularly for the purpose of fresh and ready egg production, those that are attracted to the traits and tendencies of fancy chickens are most likely drawn in by their comical behaviors, odd feather placement, and pastel array of eggs. Just like regular chickens, fancy chicken varieties need tender loving care. However, once a bond is formed between owners and their birds, the chickens often become part of the family. Many backyard farmers are quick to point out how comforting and unique the relationship between children and fancy chickens can be. more

Interview by Lynn Adams Smith

Princeton University Professor Sam Wang has published more than 100 articles spanning neuroscience, elections, and democracy reform. A central feature of his research is the use of statistical tools for complex data sets. In 2004, he pioneered methods for the aggregation of state polls to predict U.S. presidential elections. In 2012 he recognized new, systematic distortions in representation in the U.S. House of Representatives, leading to the creation of the Princeton Gerrymandering Project. In 2020 he founded the Electoral Innovation Lab, whose mission is to create and apply a practical science of democracy repair.

Here, he answers a few questions as this year’s election draws near. more