Tag Archives: tiger

Coloring Cotsen: Tigers Sis Boom Ah!

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The weekend before Princeton’s commencement, jovial alumni return to town for Reunions and to reminiscence on their time spent on campus as students. To commemorate their annual return and celebrate the Great Class of 2026, we wanted to share several iconic tiger images from our Special Collections for Coloring Cotsen.

The tiger is a common mascot for many schools, colleges, and professional sports teams in the United States, but Princeton University is the first academic institution to officially start using the tiger nickname. In the early 1880s, Princeton’s football players would wear orange and black striped jerseys, socks, and knit caps during their games. Sports writers at the time began calling the team “tigers” and the moniker was quickly adopted across campus.

Tigers are now a regular part of life at Princeton. Tiger sculptures appear on and around campus buildings, magazines and publications have tiger related names, and university cheers and songs include tigers in the lyrics. Princeton’s fight song, “The Princeton Cannon”, was written in 1906 by J. F. Hewitt and A. H. Osborne, both members of the Class of 1907. Hewitt and Osborne incorporated “And Nassau’s walls with echo with the Princeton Tiger’s roar” in the song’s intro and the verse lively proclaims “Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Tigers sis boom ah!”

We extend our heartiest congratulations to the Class of 2026! Rah! Tigers sis boom ah!

KPop Demons

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The Collection of Korean Folk Paintings (Kyonggi University Museum, 2001). Princeton University Library.

A very hearty congratulations to KPop Demon Hunters for winning two Golden Globes this weekend – Best Animated Feature Film, and Best Original Song!

Not to say my daughter and I are bias, but we believe that KPop Demon Hunters is the best animated movie of all time. Not only does it have a next level soundtrack, is it beautifully styled, well written, and moving. It’s also an incredible representation of East Asian culture, both historic and modern. And today we’re celebrating that culture with minhwa, historic Korean folk art traditionally created by anonymous craftsmen and untrained artists. Specifically, we’re looking at kkachi horangi, a genre of minhwa that depicts magpies and tigers.

In KPop Demon Hunters, one of the main characters (Rumi) is repeatedly visited by a supernatural blue tiger (Derpy) and a six-eyed magpie (Sussie). Derpy is a sweet bumbler, Sussie is a tad more watchful and world-weary.

Image from Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, 2025

Both hearken back to kkachi horangi paintings in which the tiger represents authority and the magpie represents the common man. The paintings were meant to be satirical images of the feudal hierarchy at the time, so the tiger was often depicted with an intentionally stupid expression, while the magpie was given a more dignified appearance.

Image from Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, 2025

Following the suggestions of colleagues Minjie Chen, Cotsen Children’s Library Cataloging Team Leader, and Flora Kim, Metadata Operations Specialist, I tapped the the Princeton University Library catalog to acquire The Collection of Korean Folk Paintings (Kyonggi University Museum, 2001). This three-volume set features an incredible array of art, but it was the tigers and magpies I was seeking. Here are a few more images:

The Collection of Korean Folk Paintings (Kyonggi University Museum, 2001). Princeton University Library.

The Collection of Korean Folk Paintings (Kyonggi University Museum, 2001). Princeton University Library.

For those wishing to see more gorgeous images of tigers and magpies, please visit this exhibit on Korea Minhwa Association’s site. If you’d like to see Derpy and Sussie immortalized at Macy’s 2025 Thanksgiving Day parade, you’ll find them here.

Many thanks to Minjie Chen and Flora Kim for their knowledge and expertise! 

Tigers in the (Mobile) Makerspace

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We do plenty of children’s programs in our gallery space, but this fall we did a special event for a different demographic – Princeton University students! We’ve had a ton of amazing undergrads contribute their talents to Cotsen over the years, and we definitely wanted to send our love back. What better way to show it than historic tigers from the University archives?

The event was a collaboration with our colleagues at the Princeton University Library’s Makerspace, which is housed in the Lewis Library and features a multitude of ways for students, faculty, and staff to gets hands-on experience with artistic equipment and have creative collaborations.

Makerspace Specialist Ariel Ackerly made our gallery the first stop on her innovative “Mobile Makerspace” initiative, bringing a 3D scanner, custom stickers, button makers, and a Cricut machine to the Cotsen Library. She’s planning to visit other destinations on campus too!

There were two sets of images available for stickers and buttons. The first were Pokemon-esque folk tale creatures from a 2016 Cotsen event. Drawn by student Aliisa Lee, the cartoon creatures were paired with their historic tales. The most popular was Moon Rabbit from China. If you’d like to read more about the event, read the tales, and see more illustrations, you’ll find all that here.

moon-rabbit-artwork-by-aliisa-lee The second set of illustrations were from the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, which holds the University archives. Library Collections Specialist April C. Armstrong provided a number of amazing historic tiger images from the Princeton University collections, including the three you see below. April also wrote a fantastic blog post this week that features a brief history of Princeton’s tiger, as well as more interesting tiger images from the vault!

Tiger pasted on the inside cover of the scrapbook made by Charles H. Shick, Princeton Class of 1892. Mudd Manuscript Library. Scrapbook Collection (AC026), Box 161.

1911 postcard series by Christie Whiteman. Mudd Manuscript Library. Historical Postcard Collection (AC045.)

From The Quindecennial (i.e., 15th annual) Dinner of the College of New Jersey (Princeton) Class of 1878, 1893. Mudd Manuscript Library. Princeton University Class Records, Box 10.

The Mobile Makerspace event was a huge success, with students (and staff!) stopping by to try equipment, ask questions, and get a fabulous button or sticker to take home.

Many thanks to Ariel Ackerly for making this event happen! A big shout out to April C. Armstrong at Mudd Library for the historic Princeton University tigers, and to Brianna Garden for digitizing them. Additional thanks to Brandon Johnson, Office of Library Communications, for the event images!