How Oswald Veblen Quietly Created Einstein's Princeton

On Thursday evening, Sept. 4, historian Cindy Srnka and I (Steve Hiltner) gave a talk to a standing room only crowd about two extraordinary people, one of whom audience members surely knew very well, and another they may have never heard of. The talk was hosted by the Princeton Public Library. 

A videotape of the talk is in the works, but in the meantime, below is my portion of the talk. 

Oswald Veblen was a mathematician and visionary who had a huge impact on mathematics in Princeton and beyond in the first half of the 20th century. But his influence went far beyond mathematics. He also had an impact on the development of computers, and on the lives and careers of countless scholars. He and his wife Elizabeth can even be said to have founded the open space movement in Princeton.

"He was a little deceptive … He had a rather hesitant way of speaking, very tentative and diffident, but he really was an extremely forceful man. I think he played a great part in building up the Department at Princeton. He's not the only one who helped, but I think he was one of the strongest forces in that."

– Deane Montgomery, mathematician, IAS

FLYING UNDER THE RADAR

That you haven’t heard of Oswald Veblen and his extraordinary legacy has to do with his uncanny ability to fly under the radar. Though he played a vital role in building the math department in Princeton from small beginnings in 1905 to a world center in 1931, he was never the department chair. And though it was his vision that triumphed in the evolution of the Institute for Advanced Study, he was never director. His aim was to advance mathematics and the careers of talented mathematicians, and he worked tirelessly behind the scenes to achieve that. He did not mind being overshadowed by the great mathematicians he brought to Princeton–people like Hermann Weyl, John von Neumann, and Kurt Godel.

“I think the nicest part about Veblen is that however great a mathematician he was, and he certainly was a great mathematician, he recognized greatness in mathematicians and in scientists, and as far as I know he had no envy for people who were greater than he.”

-Hermann Goldstein, mathematician and computer scientist

UNCLE THORSTEIN

Perhaps related to this, from an early age, he had become used to living in the shadow of his highly prominent Uncle Thorstein, the famed economist, social critic, and author of the Theory of the Leisure Class. No matter how much Oswald achieved in life, he would continue to be confused with his famous Uncle Thorstein. 

FLEXNER-CENTRIC HISTORY OF THE IAS

Oswald Veblen’s greatest achievement, realizing his dream for a mathematical institute through the Institute for Advanced Study, also long lay hidden because it was the Institute’s founding director, Abraham Flexner (standing in the middle in the photo), whose version of events prevailed. 

Flexner, who had a tendency to take credit for things, wrote an autobiography. Veblen did not. Though Flexner and Veblen worked closely to develop the IAS, they ultimately came into conflict. Whether out of revenge or self-absorption, Flexner managed to write Veblen out of the story of the Institute’s development, and the story of how Einstein came to Princeton.

BIOGRAPHIES OF EINSTEIN

For some reason, perhaps for the sake of a simplified storyline, Abraham Flexner’s version of events was taken as gospel in Einstein biographies. The story of Oswald Veblen was lost.

STEVE BATTERSON

And so the story of Oswald Veblen slept in the archives of the Institute for Advanced Study and the Library of Congress. But in 2007, mathematician Steve Batterson wrote an article entitled “The Vision, Insight, and Influence of Oswald Veblen.” His aim was to refamiliarize readers with Veblen, the renowned mathematician who by the time he retired in 1950 had become known around the world as the “Statesman of Mathematics.”

I first came to appreciate Veblen’s significance when I began research for a book on the origins of the Institute for Advanced Study. In discussing my project with others it became evident that Veblen’s contributions were largely unknown to the mathematicians of today. Oswald was frequently confused with his more famous uncle, economist Thorstein Veblen.

- Steve Batterson, 2007 

HERRONTOWN WOODS AND INSTITUTE WOODS

By coincidence, it was also 2007 when I first learned about Veblen, not through mathematics but by happening upon a house out in the woods, up along the ridge in northeastern Princeton. One thing I’ve done in Princeton is conduct plant inventories of most of the nature preserves, and back in 2007 I was in Herrontown Woods when I came upon a house in the forest, boarded up, abandoned. The preserve was neglected as well, with trails overgrown. I contacted the county, which owned the preserve at the time, and learned that the Veblens had donated Herrontown Woods–nearly 100 acres in their time–as Princeton’s first nature preserve in 1957. Finding that house made me curious. Searching the internet, casting names into google to see what came up, I became something of a history buff. My research into the Veblens became my window into an era I otherwise would have known little about. In 2013, a few of us formed the Friends of Herrontown Woods, began reopening the trails, and fought successfully to keep the house from being demolished. The Veblens had donated the house to become a museum, gathering place, and library, and that is the dream of our nonprofit as well.

Several years ago, on the other side of town, Cindy Srnka had her own discovery of Oswald Veblen, due to her interest in the Institute Woods.  

Now, if you go to the Institute Woods, you may come across these four plaques that list the wonderful donors and open space groups that helped purchase a conservation easement to protect nearly 600 acres of the woods in the 1990s. Left unmentioned is the person who talked the Institute into acquiring that land half a century earlier. As Cindy learned as she researched the Woods at the Institute archives, without Oswald Veblen’s efforts and advocacy in the 1930s and 1940s, there would have been no Institute Woods to preserve.

COMPUTERS

“Princeton’s computing story begins not with Alan Turing, Alonzo Church, John von Neumann, or Albert Einstein, but with Oswald Veblen”

-Jon R. Edwards, “An early history of computing at Princeton”
Alan Turing Centennial

2012 was another big year in rediscovering another facet of Veblen’s legacy. Princeton University hosted an Alan Turing Centennial to celebrate the birth of the brilliant mathematician Alan Turing, who is considered the father of theoretical computer science. I missed the conference, but was astonished to later learn that Oswald Veblen had been celebrated at the conference for his computer-related ballistics work for the military in WWI. 

George Dyson, who grew up at the Institute, included a chapter on Veblen in his book Turing’s Cathedral, and David Alan Grier had also written about Veblen’s military service, in an article entitled "Oswald Veblen Takes a Uniform: Mathematics in the First World War." In addition to Veblen's ballistics work in WWI, it was his decision in 1943, as chief scientist of the Army Ballistics Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland during World War II, to fund the development of what became known as the ENIAC: the first general-purpose electronic computer.

FINE HALL

I encountered another lost story of Veblen at an extraordinary building on the Princeton University campus now called Jones Hall. 

If you go there you will see beautiful oak paneling, a common room where great mathematicians and physicists once gathered, and a famous quote by Einstein above the fireplace. 

You may find tourists looking for Einstein’s first office. It would be understandable to think that the building was designed by an architect. And yet, read the oral histories of the math department, and you learn that it was Oswald Veblen who designed what was originally called (Old) Fine Hall, named after Henry Fine, who was the first and only chair of the Princeton math department from the turn of the century until he died tragically in 1928. The Joneses, wealthy friends of Henry Fine, provided the funding for this “palace of mathematics.”

“Every little door knob, every little gargoyle, every little piece of stained glass that has a word on it, was something that Veblen personally supervised,”

 - Herman Goldstine

The Fine Hall that opened in 1931 was a dream Oswald Veblen had been dreaming and refining for many years prior. Veblen, who had traveled many times to Europe and studied closely the architecture and workings of its great universities, incorporated elements particularly from Oxford and Gottingen. Wanting to advance mathematics, Veblen designed a building that would meet the physical, emotional, and social needs of the scholars who would use it. Prior to the building of Fine Hall, most math professors lacked offices and had to work out of their homes. Fine Hall served as home not only to the math department but also the Institute for Advanced Study for its first eight years. The building’s size, comfort, and design, reflecting Veblen’s vision, was a critical component in making Princeton uniquely attractive to Einstein and other great scholars.

Elyse Graham, in a Princeton Alumni Weekly article entitled "Adventures in Fine Hall," quoted Veblen on his approach:

Veblen wanted the mathematicians in Fine Hall to be able to "... group themselves for mutual encouragement and support. [It had to be a place where] the young recruit and the old campaigner [could have] those informal and easy contacts that are so important to each of them." However he also wanted a room reserved for professors since "... not always understood by those who try to bring about closer relations between faculty and students [is] that in all forms of social intercourse the provisions for privacy are as important as those for proximity."

DISPLACED SCHOLARS

There was another facet of Veblen’s career I had not been aware of. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Veblen sprung into action to help find positions for displaced European scholars, not only in Princeton and at the newly formed Institute, but across the country. Elyse Graham has done some wonderful research on this, and Cindy will treat you to some of these stories.

WHO WAS OSWALD VEBLEN

So, who was this Oswald Veblen who achieved all these extraordinary things? Born and raised in Iowa, Oswald was the oldest of eight children, raised by a father who was the oldest of ten children. Oswald’s grandparents had immigrated from Norway and homesteaded in Wisconsin and Minnesota, building a progression of farms. Oswald’s father taught physics and math at the University of Iowa. He came from a family of educators and deep thinkers. Oswald graduated from the University at age 18, and despite his youth, won prizes in math and sharpshooting. He brought from the midwest a love of the outdoors, and a freedom from the conventions, formality, and prejudice that burdened some eastern establishments. Women, African Americans–he would in his career be an advocate for great mathematical talents like Emmy Noether and William Claytor.

HENRY FINE

Oswald Veblen arrived in academia at the dawn of the American century, when University education was in its infancy. The University of Chicago had opened its doors only eight years prior. And when Veblen arrived in Princeton in 1905, Woodrow Wilson and Henry Fine were ushering in a new era for the University. A host of young mathematical talent came through Princeton. Some stayed, while others went on to lead math programs at other institutions.

THE BRITISH CONNECTION

Through his marriage to Elizabeth Mary (“May”) Richardson, who had grown up in Yorkshire, England, Oswald fell in love not only with Elizabeth but also with England. 

Elizabeth’s brother Owen, a physicist and future winner of the Nobel Prize, would become an invaluable connection for Oswald to the highest levels of European science.

GENEALOGY

One novel way of measuring Oswald Veblen’s legacy as a mathematician is through the Mathematics Genealogy Project.

EINSTEIN’S OTHER OPTION

I want to mention the California Institute of Technology, which throughout the 1920s had been trying to attract Einstein to California. Einstein had options beyond CalTech and Princeton, but these were the main two that I know of.

In the early 1930s, as the Nazis rose to power, ultimately driving jewish scholars out of German universities and putting a price on Einstein’s head, it was not a given that Einstein would end up coming to Princeton. 

Physicist Robert Millikan had been courting Einstein for ten years, and hosted him at CalTech during three winters beginning in 1931. CalTech was attractive to Einstein, beyond the weather. 

Scientists there had done research that supported some of Einstein’s theories. At nearby Mt. Wilson, imminent astronomers like Edwin Hubble had access to the largest telescope in the world at that time. Einstein had also become good friends with Charlie Chaplin.

I was heartened to see that CalTech historian Diana Buchwald, in a 2023 presentation about Einstein in California, credited Oswald Veblen with attracting Einstein to New Jersey. Dr. Buchwald's presentation suggested another reason why Einstein chose Princeton: his progressive politics, his pacifism and outspoken concern about racial injustice, repeatedly caused friction with the more conservative donors at CalTech.

“In Pasadena, Einstein went to see Upton Sinclair, a writer who described and criticized the injustices of brutal capitalism and its terrible effects of poverty among the working class. They had in common abstinence from alcohol and meat. Einstein also went to see the movie All Quiet on the Western Front, based on a book that was banned in Germany at the time. He also wrote to the governor to exonerate the labor leader Tom Mooney who had been falsely convicted and sentenced to death of the San Francisco preparedness day bombing of 1916. The press, the governor, and Millikan expressed their displeasure to Einstein for doing these things and associating with these people.”

–Diana Buchwald

COLLECTED IMPETUSES

While researching this presentation, I collected a list of factors that likely played into Einstein’s decision to move to Princeton.

• Displaced from Berlin and his beloved country home in Caputh
• World-class math department at Princeton University
• Newly formed Institute for Advanced Study
• Good impressions of Princeton in 1921
• John D. Davies, PAW-"when Albert Einstein landed in New York in 1921, he told reporters he wanted to lecture at Princeton because its faculty first gave his theories American support."
• Relationship developed with Veblen over time
• (Old) Fine Hall accommodations and community
• Turned off by more conservative community of donors at CalTech
• More rural, Carnegie Lake (loved to sail)
• Einstein's notorious love of informality in dress and demeanor

LANDMARKS AROUND TOWN

There are a few landmarks in town that honor Veblen’s legacy, including a residential cul de sac named Veblen Circle just up from Einstein Drive. 

The University recently named the South Terrace of Prospect House in honor of Veblen. 

Most meaningful for me and for our nonprofit is the living legacy of Herrontown Woods, and the Veblen House that patiently awaits restoration. You can learn more about our work through our websites, and come take a walk at Herrontown Woods (600 Snowden Lane), as Einstein would when he came to visit the Veblens. 

HerrontownWoods.org

https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfHerrontownWoods

https://www.instagram.com/herrontown_friends/

An "Einstein's Begonia" Musical Debut

On the afternoon of September 7, the line of fans extended out the door as I smuggled the star of the show into the Princeton Public Library's community room for the debut of a musical called "Einstein's Begonia." I imagined outstretched hands clamoring for a piece of the coveted house plant that traced its lineage back to the begonia Einstein had left behind after he died in 1955. Fortunately, this most special of angelwing begonias made it to the stage unscathed, to pose ever so patiently while singer/songwriter Rebecca Pronsky led her 7 piece group through a progression of witty and moving songs about a leafy piece of Einstein's legacy. The Friends of Herrontown Woods had suggested the library host the show, and co-sponsored the event. 

How many musicals have a plant as the main character? And in this case, the plant isn't out to do damage, like in Little Shop of Horrors. Rather, this begonia is lonely, trying to understand where it came from and where it's going, now that the beloved man it thought of as a father is gone.

The musical began its life as a song cycle, ostensibly about a plant with provenance, yet the lyrics touch upon feelings deep within us. Behind a plant's facade of static green, Rebecca finds a dynamic world of growth and longing. In Am I You?, there's the deep desire to belong, to be a part of something greater than ourselves, to find one's true home. Sessile Vessel is a saucy number about just how dynamic a plant can be while stuck in the ground. Only a Plant first explores the downside of being stuck in a pot, then morphs into a rant about cooking and consumption from a plant's perspective. Particularly clever is another song's lyric, "everyone wants a piece of me," referring to the way cuttings of the stem are used to propagate this popular house plant.

As someone who works with plants, I've long felt that the plant world is the physical manifestation of our inner world. There's a point where we stop growing physically, and yet we continue to grow inside--spiritually, intellectually, emotionally. A tree does that for all to see, from the day it sprouts to the day it dies, each year extending its roots and branches, adding a new flush of leaves, building on what it was before.

Though the lyrics have a lot of word play and references to high intellect, the musical never loses its connection to gut feeling. The song Relativity embeds human emotion in the language of physics. Einstein's Constant becomes a song about the need we all have for stability and support as we seek to grow. In Hybrid, Einstein's Begonia finds through her origins a liberating way forward. 

The story of how Brooklyn-based Rebecca Pronsky and scriptwriter Alexis Roblan brought the show to Princeton is worth telling. Rebecca and I each separately learned of the existence of Einstein begonias in 2021. My first encounter with the plant and the lineage behind it came in an email from the Princeton Public Library's Kim Dorman. Since I blog about nature and Einstein-related history, she wondered if I might be able to track down an Einstein begonia for a friend of hers. Never having heard of an Einstein begonia, I began looking online to find out more. Turned out it was a thing. When Einstein died, he left behind an extraordinary legacy of course, but also an angelwing begonia that his secretary, Helen Dukas, proceeded to make cuttings of to give to friends, many of whom were mathematicians and physicists. Cuttings of the begonia then spread from home to home, office to office, in Princeton and beyond. Via the internet, I found a friend who had an Einstein begonia, Vicky Bergman, whose husband was a physicist. She gave me some cuttings to give to Kim’s friend. I posted about all of this on my blog, and started getting thousands of page views. One of the comments was from Rebecca, who said she was composing a musical about the plant.

Rebecca told me how she first encountered an Einstein begonia:

My story is actually that just after my father passed away, I went to visit his 90 year old cousins in Cranford, NJ and we were taking a walk in their garden when they pointed out a plant and said “and that’s Einstein’s Begonia.” They told me what they knew about it but I had so many more questions. Still I was immediately inspired to write from the point of view of the plant losing it’s “father,” since I was going through something similar and I had a lot of experience with plants. It was instantly clear to me that this would be my next project. I was looking for info on it to begin drafting the plot of the show and came upon your post, so that’s how I think we were initially connected!

To convert a song cycle into a full blown musical, Rebecca and Alexis wanted to learn as much as they could about the route the begonia took from Einstein's home out into the community. I was able to track down the origin story thanks to Norma Smith, whose husband also is a physicist, and Rebecca mapped out lineage. The Princeton Alumni Weekly took an interest and wrote an article about Norma, Rebecca, and the begonia. I guess you can say we recovered a story that might otherwise have been lost, and Rebecca has used it to create a new story. 

What began as a librarian's email to me about Einstein begonias led four years later to a performance of Einstein's Begonia at the Princeton Public Library. Janie Hermann, curator of events at the library and in the photo below, coordinated all the aspects, from the sound system to managing the waitlist for the sold-out show.

EINSTEIN’S BEGONIA was named a semifinalist in the 2025 O’Neill National Musical Theatre Conference. The performance at the library was a reading of a work in progress. The next step for Rebecca and Alexis is applying for musical theatre development and reading opportunities. A return to Princeton for PiDay has been discussed, but nothing confirmed as yet. In the meantime, read more about the show and listen to the songs here.

Photos by Inge Regan and Janie Hermann

The Veblens' Original Vision for Herrontown Woods, Veblen House and Cottage

I was asked what we know about the original vision for Herrontown Woods, Veblen House, and Veblen Cottage. Here are quotes collected from articles, meeting minutes, and the Veblens' deed and will.

The year was 1957, and Oswald and Elizabeth Veblen had just donated 81 of their 95 acres to create Mercer County's first nature preserve, up along the ridge in northeastern Princeton. In the post-WWII boom, farm fields were getting gobbled up by housing subdivisions. Someone needed to step up, and it was the Veblens who did. In a NY Times article about the donation, Elizabeth Veblen said, 

"There is nowhere around here that you can get away from cars and just go walk and sit." "Princeton when we came here in 1905 was a lovely village." She explained that the donation was made "in hope that a little bit of this outdoor atmosphere can be preserved." 

In the same article, Mercer County director of parks and rec, Richard J. Coffee, said of the new arboretum: 

"Eventually, we envision a nature museum, a system of trails through wooded areas, with trees and other plants labelled." He said that the county hoped to provide lectures and opportunities for nature study.

The actual deed, dated July 22, 1957, stated that

The foregoing premises hereinbefore described, excluding and reserving the portion thereof which the Grantors retain, is conveyed to the County of Mercer, in the State of New Jersey, to be used perpetually by the said County of Mercer, for the following purposes, and to be known as "HERRONTOWN WOOD", to wit:

(a) The maintenance of a park, wildlife, and plant sanctuary;
(b) The conservation of natural resources, including the watershed, and the stimulation and development of public appreciation of the values of wildlife and plants;

(c) It is specifically reserved by the grantors that the nature trails shall not be used for horseback riding.” 

A couple interesting aspects here. "Wood" suggests a British influence, as in the english author A.A. Milne's "100 Acre Wood." The Veblens accumulated and donated very nearly 100 acres. The name soon shifted to "Woods." Item (c) may refer to the horseback riding that once was common in that area of Princeton--something the Veblens clearly thought harmful to the land. 

The system of trails was built, and the County constructed a one-room building for nature study near the parking lot. But the Veblen Cottage, which was part of the original land donation, remained unused. After Oswald Veblen died in 1960, Elizabeth continued to live in the Veblen House on 14 acres adjacent to Herrontown Woods. 

When Elizabeth died in 1974, she bequeathed Veblen House and its 14 acres to Mercer County. The language in the will is a bit minimal and oblique:

"and in addition thereto I give and bequeath all of my pictures, radio receivers and phonograph records to the said County, to be kept by it in the house herein devised as a part of the proposed library and museum of Herrontown Wood."

By "pictures," she may have meant the many photos taken by Oswald in the 1950s, documenting the house and grounds. We have been able to get digital copies, and helped get most of the slides moved from a county attic to safer storage at the IAS archives. They serve as a valuable documentation of the Veblens' era. The radio receivers and phonograph records, and reportedly Elizabeth's ashes as well, may have been lost when a water pipe broke in the basement of a county building in Trenton. The will's words "part of" suggest that the Veblens envisioned the House and Cottage, and perhaps other structures as well, such as a hay barrack that was torn down by the county around 2008, as complementary components of the Herrontown Woods experience. 

The timing of Elizabeth's death may have affected what happened, or didn't happen, to the Veblen House and Cottage. Also in 1974, the County received a donation of what would become Howell History Farm. The County put its resources into developing that property. In Princeton, though, the nation's upcoming bicentennial generated considerable local civic energy, some of which was directed towards Herrontown Woods. 

On Nov. 15, 1974, Herrontown Woods Citizens Advisory Committee, consisting of many of Princeton's most active environmental advocates, met with Deane Montgomery, Oswald Veblen's close friend and colleague who was administering the Veblen estate. Attending: the Blairs, the Macholds, the Henkels, Deane. Not present: the Reeds, the Clark G Travers, the Formans. 

In the meeting minutes, Deane Montgomery described the Veblens desires this way: “the main building as a nature museum, and the cottage as a library-retreat”

The Committee itself had this view: 

“The committee feels the large Veblen house could be developed as a natural bird, wildlife sanctuary. It could be the center of conservation activities in Mercer County being made available to garden clubs, environmental and conservation groups as a meeting area.
The cottage should be restored as a library study center of the natural environment. It was recommended that both structures be made available to county employees to live in and to be responsible for routine up-keep.”

Two garden clubs split their Bicentennial spirit and civic energy between Herrontown Woods and the Princeton Battlefield. In 1975, Rosanna Jaffin of the Garden Club of Princeton envisioned a project to restore the Herrontown Woods Cottage Garden, describing the Cottage as:

"left by Professor and Mrs. Veblen to serve as an environmental study center and small library for the Herrontown Woods."

The Dogwood Garden Club focused on the Veblen House garden. Included in 1975 correspondence to the Club's Mrs. Harold B. Law was the Advisory Committee's expectations for the Veblen House:

“Mercer County Park Commission is planning to develop the house as a nature library-meeting area, and since the Dogwood Garden Club had expressed interest in working on Mrs. Veblen’s garden some time ago, we felt it was now time to reopen the project.”

Mercer County repaired the Veblen Cottage in 1976, but it remained unused. The Veblen House was rented to arborist Bob Wells, who raised his family there. The first floor of the Veblen House was to serve as periodic meeting space for the Dogwood Garden Club. In 1998, rather than make needed repairs, Mercer County decided to get out of the landlord business. It closed up Veblen House and other historic houses in the County, ushering in an era of vandalism and neglect. Though suffering broken windows and periodic break-ins, the Veblen House and the original portion of the Veblen Cottage were spared by good roofs. In 2017, Mercer County began preparations to demolish the Veblen House and Cottage. The Friends of Herrontown Woods advocated for their preservation, and convinced Princeton municipality to accept transfer of Herrontown Woods from the County. In 2020 the town leased the buildings to FOHW.

In the intervening years, FOHW and Princeton have reversed 25 years of neglect, and put the buildings on a positive trajectory. Largely through FOHW and this website, the unique features of the House and Cottage, and the extraordinary local, national, and international legacy of the Veblens, have been researched and documented. Through initial charitable donations, FOHW was able to stabilize the House and replace rotted boards, underpinned the foundation, dried out the basement, and repointed the field stone basement in the Cottage. Princeton financed removal of asbestos from the House, in the process exposing the fascinating, unique structural logic of this 1920s prefab. After review, the NJ Historic Preservation Office affirmed the George Dauer House (a.k.a. Veblen Cottage) is eligible to be listed in the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, and said the Veblen House might be as well, after more research is done. Windows and doors have been inventoried. Electricity, wifi and surveillance are in place. Drawings for the House and stabilization plans for the cottage are being finalized. 

The vision today is very much in line with the visions expressed in the 1950s and '70s. The Friends of Herrontown Woods keeps the trails open, manages the preserve for native plant diversity, hosts yoga classes during warmer months, along with events that promote learning and community. We see the House as a place for meetings, talks, and other gatherings. The Cottage, where Oswald Veblen would read, or hang out with Einstein and other friends, is envisioned as a place for nature study, books, games, and displays about the preserve's history.

The Veblens were not self-aggrandizing. Though they certainly could have, they didn't name the preserve after themselves. They deserve many times over to be known and remembered, and so it is fitting that the museum component not only be about nature, but also about the Veblens and those who came before them: the Whiton-Stuarts who moved the House to Princeton from Morristown, and the small-holder farmers who built the Cottage. These varied histories run the gamut from wealth to subsistence farming, from great intellect to physical labor. These are the stories that have drawn us to these very patient buildings, and moved us to make something of them for Princeton and beyond.

Some related posts:
Beautiful Features of Veblen House

Oswald Veblen's Extraordinary Legacy Honored at Princeton University

On October 22, 2025, Princeton University's President Eisgruber presided over a dedication of spaces at Prospect House for "for exemplary individuals who helped to shape the University and the world." Among those honored was Oswald Veblen, for whom the South Terrace is now named.

The article described Oswald Veblen thusly:

Oswald Veblen (Oswald Veblen Terrace). Veblen was an internationally recognized mathematician who taught at Princeton for 27 years starting in 1905. He played a central role in building Princeton mathematics into a world-renowned department and was instrumental in establishing the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), where he also served on the faculty. Veblen made important contributions to differential geometry and the early development of topology, which found applications in atomic physics and the theory of relativity. He was also known for his humanitarian work during the rise of Nazism in Germany, helping bring Albert Einstein and other top scholars fleeing Hitler’s regime to U.S. academic institutions, including IAS and Princeton.

On the plaque at Prospect House, we were delighted to see that the description of Veblen's many contributions includes mention of the pioneering open space preservation he and his wife Elizabeth achieved. "Veblen left an enduring legacy beyond the campus walls through his preservation efforts that contributed to the establishment of the Institute Woods and Herrontown Woods."

Of the twelve individuals honored, President Eisgruber said. “Their tenacity enabled them to excel. To persevere. To lead. To pursue their passions. To forge new paths. To fight injustices.”

The Terrace is a fitting space to name after Veblen, given his love both of buildings and of the outdoors.

Veblen Cottage Deemed Eligible for Listing on the National Register

It was an honor, and a validation of all our work and advocacy at Herrontown Woods, to have the Veblen Cottage deemed eligible for the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. 

The Veblen Cottage is a unique building in Princeton. In the late 1800s, there were many small farms on marginal lands along the Princeton ridge. As times changed and these farms went into decline, Oswald and Elizabeth Veblen purchased one in 1935, then donated it as part of Mercer County's first nature preserve in 1957. Dr. Veblen had used it as a study and hideaway, occasionally spending afternoons there with Albert Einstein and other friends and colleagues. After Dr. Veblen's death in 1960, the cottage remained boarded up, despite several proposals to use it as a residence or nature center.

A good roof has preserved the two-story portion, and through the advocacy of the Friends of Herrontown Woods (FOHW), the cottage was saved from demolition in 2018 and safely transferred with Herrontown Woods from Mercer County to the municipality of Princeton. Since then, FOHW has taken additional steps to protect the one-story portions, and has restored the field stone basement walls. It is the only remaining farm cottage from that era that has survived in an original condition.

In 2020, the NJ Historic Preservation Office affirmed the cottage's historical importance in a letter to FOHW's architectural historian, Clifford Zink:

"Based on a review of available documentation, it is my opinion as Administrator and Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, that the George Dauer House (a.k.a. Veblen Cottage) is eligible to be listed in the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places under Criterion C as an unusually well-preserved, representative example of the small holder farms (average 30 acres) once common in the area."

Though Oswald Veblen envisioned and largely designed the glorious Old Fine Hall at Princeton University (now called Jones Hall)--first home of both the Princeton mathematics department and the Institute for Advanced Study--he also had a deep appreciation and love for the simplicity of the farm cottage in Herrontown Woods. After all of his travels through 80 years of an impactful life, it was along the red trail near the cottage where he requested his ashes to be spread. 

The Veblen Cottage was the Veblens' first acquisition in the 1930s along the Princeton ridge. As such, it can be viewed as the birthplace of the open space movement in Princeton. Being Mercer County's first nature preserve, comprising 82 acres, Herrontown Woods then served as the nucleus around which additional lands were acquired.

FOHW has developed detailed plans for further structural repairs of the cottage that would lead to its use as a nature center and Herrontown Woods museum. Below is the full letter from NJ Historic Trust, detailing various criteria that were considered for determining eligibility.

CERTIFICATION of ELIGIBILITY

 

Dear Mr. Zink:

 

The preliminary application submitted for the Veblen House and Cottage located at 474 Herrontown Road (Block 2901/Lot 1 and Block 3001/Lot 7), Municipality of Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey has been carefully reviewed. It was augmented by a site visit made by my staff on June 15, 2020. We thank you for the time and the effort to prepare the application.

Based on a review of available documentation, it is my opinion as Administrator and Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, that the George Dauer House (a.k.a. Veblen Cottage) is eligible to be listed in the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places under Criterion C as an usually well-preserved, representative example of the small holder farms (average 30 acres) once common in the area. It was built circa 1874-1875 by George Dauer. The barn and corn crib contribute to the setting of this modest farmhouse. The boundaries correspond with those for Block 2901, Lot 1 for convenience, however, these boundaries would need to be further refined as part of any future nomination effort.

While Oswald Veblen is an individual with unquestionable significance in the area of Mathematics, it does not seem likely that the property could be found to be eligible for its association with him. Application of National Register Criterion B requires that the property be that most closely associated with the individual's useful life (his/her accomplishments/contributions). This requires a somewhat exhaustive context of all of the other places that might be associated with the individual. In the case of Veblen, there appear to be too many other places surviving in the Princeton area, any one of which could prove to have a better claim. These places include, but may not be limited to:

• 76 Alexander Road (Veblen's residence from 1905-1910)
• 58 Battle Road (Veblen's residence from 1910-1941)
• 20 Nassau Street (Veblen's office in 1933)
• Fine Hall, now Jones Hall at Princeton University (Veblen contributed to the design of the first home of the University's math department)
• the Institute for Advanced Studies (Veblen was an early adviser to the organizers of the Institute and became its first professor in 1932 after resigning from Princeton University)

For additional guidance on the application of Criterion B please refer to: National Register Bulletin 32 - Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Properties Associated with Significant Persons https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/NRB32-Complete.pdf

Historic Preservation Office staff were intrigued by the argument offered for the property under Criterion A in the area of conservation. However, insufficient context was offered in the preliminary application to substantiate the claim and earn an eligibility determination. It is possible that additional research would yield the necessary data and future efforts should explore the development of the local park systems (county and municipal) as well as the evolution of the local conservation ethic.

If you wish to pursue registration, please contact Andrea Tingey of my staff at either (609-984-0539) or  Andrea.Tingey@dep.nj.gov. 

The Historic Preservation Office advises you to notify the property owner if you intend to nominate this property to the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. To help expedite our review and response, if additional consultation with the HPO is needed regarding the nomination of this property, please reference the HPO project number (20-0977) in any future calls, emails, or written correspondence.

Thank you for your interest in New Jersey’s irreplaceable historic resources. If you have any further questions, please contact Andrea Tingey at 609-984-0539 or Andrea.Tingey@dep.nj.gov.

 

Sincerely,

 

Katherine J. Marcopul, Ph.D., CPM

Administrator and
Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer
Historic Preservation Office
NJ Department of Environmental Protection
501 East State Street, Trenton, NJ 08625
kate.marcopul@dep.nj.gov
T (609) 984-0176 | F (609) 984-0578

Yerkes Observatory's 41" Telescope was Hatched on a Sailboat

Exploration of Veblen House history got me interested in the history of my father and his colleagues in physics and astronomy, which includes some Nobel Peace Prize winners and pioneering women:

There are two scientists named Albert that I know of who loved to sail. One was Albert Einstein, who discovered his now legendary love for sailing at the age of 18 in Switzerland, around the time he was hatching his revolutionary theories of the universe.

 The other was my father, distinguished astronomer W. Albert Hiltner, whose love of sailing grew during his years at Yerkes Observatory, just up the hill from beautiful Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. Neither Albert was discouraged by an inability to swim, though my father at least wore a life jacket, and finally learned to swim at age 60. While my father took to racing sailboats later in life, Einstein actually savored the lulls, when he could pull out his notebook and jot down ideas, or, as described in one article, listen "to the gentle waves endlessly lapping against the side of the boat".

And there are two telescopes I know of that were hatched in a sailboat. Thanks to retired astronomer Adolf Witt, we now know the story. The two telescopes are twins, separated at birth. One resides in the south dome at Yerkes in Wisconsin, the other at the University of Toledo in Ohio. The idea for their creation came while my father was sailing with his friend and colleague John Turin on Lake Erie. Both had gotten their PhD's at the University of Michigan, with my father going on to become director of Yerkes Observatory. John Turin became chair of physics and astronomy at UT. 

What made the two telescopes special was the material used to make the mirrors. Ordinary glass can expand or contract, depending on the temperature inside the observatory's dome. But Owens Illinois in Toledo came up with a glass-ceramic material called CERVIT that could be ground to a precise shape like regular glass, but would not warp as the temperature changed. This zero-expansion quality allowed the telescopes to capture more precise images in the heat of summer and cold of winter.

My father combined a passion for astronomical research with a drive to improve the instrumentation available for astronomers. This played out in the 1960s when he installed two new telescopes at Yerkes and updated the famous 40" refractor in the big dome. In the '60s and '70s, he worked to build new telescopes at Kitt Peak in Arizona and Cerro Tololo in northern Chile.

In the 1980s, after retiring from the University of Michigan, he became project manager at CalTech for the design of two 6.5 meter Magellan Telescopes--twins that now live together in a building on top of Las Campanas in Chile. The 6.5 meters refers to the width of the mirror.

For astronomy afficionados, I include Adolf Witt's full telling of the story of the twin 41" reflecting telescopes below. Full disclosure: they are actually 40" reflectors, but are nicknamed 41" to avoid confusion with the famed 40" refracting telescope at Yerkes.

One other thing about John Turin and sailing. After he died prematurely of an illness in 1973, his wife Sybil became a leader in helping women become part of the sailing world. As this Toledo Blade article describes,

If there is a glass ceiling in the business world, then there was a taut piece of canvas stretched across much of the sailing world. It kept women out of some clubs and made it difficult for them to take part in competitive racing in others.

 Sybil Turin helped change that. 

For anyone curious about Yerkes Observatory in the 1960s, wants to learn more about the twin 41" telescopes, or read about Sybil's breaking of barriers for women in sailing, click on "read more," below. 

Gleanings on Herrontown Woods from the Princeton Recollector

One important window into the past of Herrontown Woods and surrounding lands along the eastern Princeton ridge is through a monthly journal called the Princeton Recollector, founded by architectural historian and preservationist Elric Endersby in 1975. The stories about earlier times in Princeton collected therein are accessible through the Papers of Princeton, an online archive. As reported in TapInto Princeton, Elric died earlier this month at the age of 79. One way to honor his legacy is to highlight relevant stories his publication so fortunately preserved. But first, a little background about Elric and his Princeton Recollector.

Elric described the Recollector's mission in the first issue, May, 1975: 

“In a town which so rapidly develops, it is only by passing along these memories from one generation to another that we may understand how we have come to be as we are. Through these pages we hope to affirm the dialogue between older and younger fellow Princetonians, so that together we may preserve our perspective on the elusive qualities which make Princeton a singular place despite the teasing changes of time.”

And who do we have to thank for preserving and digitizing the Recollector so that we would all have access? Back in 2014, Elric wrote to me that the 

"Princeton History Project turned over all of our materials to the Historical Society about 10 years ago. In the meantime a family by the name of Fuchs in the Brookstone area computerized The Recollector."

Here's a wonderful quote from a profile of Elric in the July 27, 2005 Town Topics:

"No satisfaction has been quite like the work with oral history and 'The Recollector' and spending my twenties and early thirties with people who were in their eighties. I talked with 50 to 60 people in Princeton who lived here when Woodrow Wilson was in town. The whole point for me was to gain perspective. I called it 'Periscopic Princeton.' Through their eyes, I could have been a spy in Princeton in 1900."

This legacy of historical accounts, one among several legacies Elric left us, shows the difference one person can make in the world. 

Doing a keyword search of the Recollector for "herrontown" yielded seven articles that paint a picture of life up Herrontown way long ago. For instance, there were things that locals gathered from the Princeton ridge lands that are not gathered today, among them being farm crops. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, much of the ridge was farmed by small-holder farmers. The Friends of Herrontown Woods honors that heritage by growing food in May's Garden on the Veblen House grounds. We also fought successfully to save the one remaining farmhouse from that era. The structure, known now as the Veblen Cottage, has since been deemed eligible to be listed in the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.

In addition to food crops, boulders were quarried, abundant chestnuts harvested and eagerly consumed by schoolchildren, cedar trees and a wild evergreen called ground pine (club moss) were brought home for Christmas decorations. Wildflowers teamed and drinking water sprang from the ground. An article entitled "Mount Lucas School Reunion Rekindles Old Friendships, Revives Memories" documents the memories of those who attended the schoolhouse on Mount Lucas that closed in 1920. Evidence of the small quarries remains, but the majestic chestnut trees succumbed to imported chestnut blight. The cedar trees were shaded out as larger trees took over, and the ground pine appears to have been completely consumed by the expanding deer population.

Here are some quotes from that article about farming up along the very rocky Princeton ridge:

• "This was all fields when we lived up here. We used to haul out these rocks every year when we plowed."
• "Farmer boys worked all the time. There was no time for recreation or sports."
• "Most people went through the eighth grade and that was it. The boys started school in November. Farm work came first."

About local quarries:

• As a boy I had a team of mules that hauled stone from the quarries to the crusher when they built Route 206 with convict labor. They had a convict labor camp up toward Rocky Hill. I have a watch chain the convicts made from horse hair. They wrapped the hair around sticks and made links with it."

About reaping natural bounty:

• "We used to get the water from a large spring with a large beech tree beside it with all sorts of initials. It was always called The Beech Tree Washington was supposed to have camped under it."
• "At lunchtime I used to go up in the Big Woods and pick wild flowers. I got lost once, all afternoon. How I finally found out where I was, was I heard a cowbell."
• "We used to gather chestnuts in the fall. There was a large chestnut tree in the corner of the Mount Lucas schoolyard. We'd eat them in school. There were many chestnuts along this road. We'd boil or roast them at night and eat them with salt."
• "We'd all bring our five-pound sugar bags and every recess we'd hit the woods and fill the bags with chestnuts. And you'd go home and bury them in sand in the cellar. And around Christmas time you had roasted chestnuts, and roasted apples with it."

From a 1979 edition came another story in the Recollector relevant to Herrontown Woods, an article entitled "Margerums Shared Family Christmas." The reference to coal probably makes the era pre-1940s.

"Dad and some of the older boys would go up to Grandpop Margerum’s wood lot in Herrontown to cut down a cedar tree. They would also gather some kind of an evergreen vine that grew there. I do not know what that vine was it was not standing pine but a trailing evergreen vine with lacy, fan-shaped leaves. [Ground pine.] They would gather two large burlap bags full. After they came home Dad would cut some switches from the privet hedge and tie them into rings so that in the evening all the family could work to make wreaths. The younger children pulled the leaves from the vines and placed them in piles on the table. The older ones gathered little bunches of these leaves and tied them around the privet rings. We must have made a dozen wreaths each year. We put one on the front door and one in each of the windows on the first floor. We never trimmed our tree ahead of time because Santa Claus always did that. The day before Christmas we would set it up in a corner of the living room sometimes it would be propped up in a bucket of coal and sometimes Dad would make a wooden stand for it."

And then there's Jac Weller's article in the Recollector about farming the rocky lands along the ridge, entitled Farming Small in Herringtown. Though it makes claims about "Herringtown" that we have been unable to substantiate, we are grateful for the information it provides about the lives of small-holder farmers, such as those who built and lived in what we now call the Veblen Cottage. That article will be explored in a separate post.

Related posts: 

Who Put the Herring in Herringtown? 

Nature Stories Preserved in Elric Endersby's Princeton Recollector