American Historical Ephemera & Photography

13 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. silver gelatin photograph on cardstock mount, partially affixed to board and matted (rich tonality, some toning rop rint, triangular loss to top left corner of print and mount, with crack to board mostly hidden under mat). A portrait of the 1899 Princeton Tigers football team.

The Tigers represented Princeton University in the 1899 college championship football season. The team finished with a 12–1 record and was named as the national champion by the Billingsley Report and Parke H. Davis. This team photograph was taken just after the final game of the season, 25 November at Yale Field, New Haven, CT. The rivalry resulted in a win for Princeton, 11–10. As reported in The New York Times the following day, Sunday, 26 November 1899:  “Princeton Prepares to Celebrate. PRINCETON, Nov. 25. — There was great rejoicing in Princeton to-night over the football team's victory at New Haven. When news of the result was received bells rang, cannon crackers were heard, and there were cheers everywhere. Soon there were cries of 'everybody get wood,' and on every side eager students and townspeople alike began to cart wood to the historic cannon at the rear of Old North for a bonfire to greet the victors.”