The College of New Jersey’s academic tradition reaches back to 1855 when it was established by the state legislature as the New Jersey State Normal School. It was the first state-established teacher training school in the state and the ninth in the nation. Governor Rodman Price promoted the idea of a training institute for New Jersey’s teachers and mobilized support among influential state leaders. Located on Clinton Avenue in Trenton from 1855 until the early 1930s, the Normal School flourished in the latter 1800s, expanding both its academic offerings and physical facilities. In 1925, the first four-year baccalaureate degree program was established. This change marked the beginning of TCNJ’s transition from a normal school to a teachers’ college and was accompanied by a change in physical surroundings. In 1928, a beautiful 210-acre tract of land in Ewing Township, then known as Hillwood Lakes, was purchased as a new site for the College.
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Content warning: The materials include inaccurate, derogatory, and/or offensive depictions of people indigenous to the area and references to minstrel show performances.
The Annual Report began as a report submitted to the New Jersey State Legislature in 1855, and later to the New Jersey State Board of Education. The earliest issues contain essays and remarks by the school’s principals; descriptions of the Normal School and Model School curricula and courses; information about admissions standards; college finances; rules about student life and behavior; and lists of students, faculty and staff.
From 1855 to 1907, the publication was named Annual Report. Then from 1908-1933, it was named Annual Report and Catalogue (or Catalog). In 1930, separate Bulletins were issued for extension courses.Then, beginning in 1933-1934, the name of the publication changed to Bulletin and no longer contained “Annual Report” in its title. This new State Teachers College Bulletin was serialized to four issues per academic year: the first issue contained the first semester extension courses, the second was the main course catalog, the third published the second semester extension courses, and the fourth contained the summer school courses. This format was fairly consistent into the 1950s until the school published graduate bulletins later in the decade. In the 1960s, separate bulletins were published for field services and guides for applicants. In the 1970s, another issue was added for continuing education courses.
Of special note, the parameters of the academic year changed many times before settling on the current format of the school year beginning in autumn and finishing in the summer of the following year. For many issues of the Annual Report, the year began in what we would now consider the second or Spring semester. Often, the Bulletin contained the summer session in the year previous or following. During both world wars, issues had combined years likely to save paper. In more recent years, the Graduate Bulletin was issued with a different volume numbering system than the others in the series.
The content of the Annual Reports during the Normal school years contained a good deal of information about faculty updates, student life and activities, as well as photographs of buildings, classrooms, and groups of students. The Bulletins were structured more like a typical course catalog, but all graduates’ names continued to be printed until 1956.
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State Board of Education of New Jersey Fifty-Fourth Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal School at Trenton and the Accompanying Documents for the Year Ending June 30th, 1908.
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State Board of Education of New Jersey Fifty-Fifth Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal School at Trenton and the Accompanying Documents for the Year Ending June 30th, 1909.
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State Board of Education of New Jersey Fifty-Sixth Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal School at Trenton and the Accompanying Documents for the Year Ending June 30th, 1910.
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State Board of Education of New Jersey Fifty-Seventh Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal School at Trenton and the Accompanying Documents for the Year Ending June 30th, 1911
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State Board of Education of New Jersey Fifty-Eighth Annual Report and Catalogue of State Normal School at Trenton and Accompanying Documents for the Year Ending June 30th, 1912.
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State Board of Education of New Jersey Fifty-Ninth Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal School at Trenton and Accompanying Documents for the Year Ending June 30th, 1913.
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State Board of Education of New Jersey Sixtieth Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal School at Trenton and Accompanying Documents for the Year Ending June 30th, 1914.
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State Board of Education of New Jersey Sixty-First Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal and Model Schools at Trenton for the Year Ending June 30th, 1915.
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State Board of Education of New Jersey Sixty-Second Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal and Model Schools at Trenton for the Year Ending June 30th, 1916.
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Sixty-Third Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal School at Trenton 1917-1918.
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Sixty-Fourth Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal School at Trenton 1918-1919.
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Sixty-Fifth Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal School at Trenton 1919-1920.
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Sixty-Sixth Annual Report and Catalogue of the State Normal School at Trenton 1920-1921.
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New Jersey State Normal School Trenton Sixty-seventh Annual Report and Catalogue 1921-1922.
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New Jersey State Normal School Trenton Sixty-eighth Annual Report and Catalogue 1922-1923.
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New Jersey State Normal School Trenton Sixty-ninth Annual Report and Catalogue 1923-1924.
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New Jersey State Normal School Trenton Seventieth Annual Report and Catalogue 1924-1925.
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New Jersey State Normal School Trenton Seventy-first Annual Report and Catalogue 1925-1926.
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New Jersey State Normal School Trenton Seventy-second Annual Report and Catalogue 1926-1927.
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New Jersey State Normal School Trenton Seventy-third Annual Report and Catalogue 1927-1928.
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State Teachers College and State Normal School, Trenton, New Jersey, Seventy-Fourth and Seventy-Fifth Annual Report and Catalog, 1928-1929, 1929-1930.
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State Teachers College and State Normal School Trenton, New Jersey Seventy-Sixth Annual Report and Catalog 1930-1931.
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State Teachers College and State Normal School Trenton, New Jersey Seventy-Seventh Annual Report and Catalog 1931-1932.
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State Teachers College and State Normal School Trenton, New Jersey Seventy-Eighth Annual Report and Catalog 1933.