The Generous Spirit of the Class of 1976
Fifty years ago, the Great Class of 1976 donned tricorn hats and suspenders to march in their first alumni P-rade as a tribute to the “Spirit of ’76,” celebrated on the bicentennial of America’s founding that year. Their class spirit and their generosity have—like the commitments of so many other alumni—dramatically influenced the Museum’s growth and impact. When the 1,045 members of the class graduated in front of “thousands of perspiring parents, relatives and friends” outside Nassau Hall on a hot June day shortly after the P-rade, The New York Times reported that they were the largest class in the University’s then 230-year history. Although Princeton’s undergraduate class sizes have since increased, the outsize influence of the Class of 1976 continues to be felt in public life (Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is a member), on campus (Class of 1976 Hall was named in honor of their thirty-fifth reunion), and in the Princeton University Art Museum, where their names grace the walls and their contributions as volunteer leaders and donors endure.
Photo: Kristina Giasi
Class of 1976 alumni who visit the Museum will find ample evidence of their cohort’s generosity as they traverse the Loevner Artwalk, cross and ascend the Nancy A. Nasher & David J. Haemisegger Family Entrance Hall & Grand Stair, and visit the John Cecil & Celia Felsher Viewing Room—all spaces named by members of the class who contributed to the new building’s construction. Currently, Class of 1976 alumni comprise 20 percent of the Museum’s Advisory Council, which provides insights and advice to the director and helps network with alumni and other friends. They include John Cecil, Alice (Nonnie) Cooney Frelinghuysen, David Haemisegger, and Nancy Nasher. Advisory Council member Cathy Loevner and the late Doris Fisher, honorary member of the Advisory Council, were made honorary members of the class thanks to their contributions to its work.
Photo: Kristina Giasi
“Certain Princeton classes stand out for the ways in which their lifetime passions align with the Museum’s work, and the members of the Great Class of 1976 are exceptional in this regard,” notes James Steward, Nancy A. Nasher–David J. Haemisegger, Class of 1976, Director. “It is an honor to have the support of so many, and in particular a privilege to hold the directorship endowed by Nancy and David, whose shared life journey began at Princeton.”
In fact, the ambitious goals for the new Museum were met largely due to the remarkable generosity of the Class of 1976 and their families. Nancy Nasher and David Haemisegger and their children, and the Fisher Family, of which Robert (Bob) Fisher is also a member of the class, are among a small group of lead donors whose exceptional generosity was instrumental to the success of the building project. As Steward says, “Whether by coincidence or synergy, without these extraordinary classmates there would be no new Museum.”
Bob Fisher credits renowned professor and former Museum director Peter C. Bunnell (1937–2021) with inspiring his interest in photography, as well as his enduring relationship with the Museum. “Bunnell was my teacher and sparked my lifelong passion for collecting photography,” he said. “During his time at the Museum, he taught me how to truly see and appreciate the details of an original print. Those years at the Museum were a defining part of my education and remain a cornerstone of my connection to Princeton.”
Fisher has donated more than twenty works of photography to the Museum’s collections. Bob, together with his brothers, William (Bill) ’79—also a member of the Museum’s Advisory Council—and John ’83, and their families, recently gifted the Museum Richard Serra’s Easy Rider (2002), newly installed to the south of the Museum.
Photo: Jennifer Garey
Other members of the class have also enriched the Museum’s holdings. Michael Rips ’76 gave the Museum an eclectic group of nearly forty objects that span regions, styles, and time periods. A recent donation from Nancy Peretsman ’76 and her husband, Robert Scully ’72, Kondō Takahiro’s Wave (2022), was displayed in the exhibition Princeton Collects, as were two promised gifts of Nonnie Cooney Frelinghuysen ’76 and her husband, George Frelinghuysen ’73. The purchase of Fitz Henry Lane’s Ship in Fog, Gloucester Harbor (ca. 1860), on display in the Wilmerding Pavilion of American Art, was made possible in part by the support of Celia Felsher and her husband John Cecil, both Class of 1976. A collector of mostly American art, Cecil attributes his lasting interest in the subject to an entry-level survey course: “Like thousands of undergraduates before me, my first exposure to art at Princeton was ART 101, which was a fantastic, eye-opening introduction to the world of art.”
Cecil appreciates that his service to the Advisory Council gives him opportunities to expand his knowledge of the Museum’s growing collections. “One of the things I like most about the Advisory Council is listening to the curators talk about the new objects that they’ve acquired or that have been given to the Museum. It’s so interesting to learn about where the art sits in history and what it represented at the time it was made,” he said.
A self-described “Art Museum groupie” during her years on campus, Nonnie Cooney Frelinghuysen, the Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, believes that her formative experiences at the Museum shaped her life trajectory. “Our freshman year was the fall of 1972, which was the year of the Museum’s groundbreaking exhibition on the Arts and Crafts movement in America,” she said. That exhibition helped introduce her to the field of American decorative arts that is now her specialty. The Museum also gave Frelinghuysen the opportunity to organize an exhibition related to her senior thesis. “It was my first time curating, which made me realize that bringing these works alive for other people was something that I very much liked to do,” she added.
Frelinghuysen suspects that the Student Friends of the Art Museum group may have been responsible for the Class of 1976’s sustained interest in the Museum. “It was the cheapest organization you could join—the drinking age was eighteen and members were invited to all the openings—so we had the largest membership of any student organization. Maybe they were not all members for the right reasons, but it definitely brought a lot of students into the Museum!”
A Princeton resident for more than forty years, Cathy Loevner describes the Museum as “a valuable gift to the community.” She says that its profile in the region has grown in the past decade and a half. “One thing I’ve noticed since James Steward became director is that he’s made such an effort to make people in the community aware that the Museum is there and to let them know what’s going on, whether it’s through the banners on Nassau Street or the publicity surrounding the opening of the new Museum.”
Photo: Kristina Giasi
Loevner’s involvement with the Museum began more than fifteen years ago, when she joined the Docent Association, a group of volunteers who have provided educational experiences for the broader community since 1967. Her strong association with the Museum inspired Loevner and her husband, David ’76, to contribute to the construction of the new building. “For me the experience of being a docent has just so enriched my life. It is intellectually stimulating; it is an opportunity to meet new people and engage with them all the time—and that has really made me connected to the Museum and its mission. When the trustees decided that they thought it was time to build a new Museum, David and I just assumed that we would give a gift as a way of giving back,” she said.
Photo: Jeff Evans
