Since its first class of six graduates and one honoree in 1748, Princeton University has awarded over 80,000 diplomas. This collection contains 213 original diplomas and photostats, including executed diplomas as well as blank, sample or spoiled diplomas.

Walker Bleakney was a renowned physicist who served as a Princeton professor of physics (1932-1969) and chairman of the physics department (1960-1967). This collection consists of Bleakney's papers, including published and unpublished reports, drafts of articles, graphic data and photographs of experiments, and other material concerning Bleakney's defense-related research on shock waves at the Princeton Gas Dynamics Laboratory, as well as lecture notes and correspondence.