To the Editor:

Princetonians have two opportunities coming up to learn about one of Princeton’s early visionaries. The Veblen name is most commonly associated with Thorstein Veblen, the famous economist and social critic. But his nephew Oswald’s legacy shines as bright, extending beyond the world of ideas and taking multiple physical forms across our fair town.

Who is Oswald Veblen? Well, imagine Princeton without the Institute for Advanced Study, Albert Einstein’s long residency, the Institute Woods, and Herrontown Woods. Veblen’s vision, initiative, and persistence played an instrumental role in making all of these possible.

Called a “woodchopping professor” of mathematics, he combined a midwesterner’s bucolic sensibilities with the European heritage of his ancestors and his English wife Elizabeth. This combination can be seen in the many European scholars he helped bring to America during the Nazi rise to power, and the hundreds of acres of Princeton’s woodlands he worked to spare from development.

This combination, too, can be seen in the house and farm cottage he and Elizabeth donated to the county, which now stand boarded up at the edge of Herrontown Woods. The 1920s prefab house has European touches in its balconies, woodwork, and woodland setting.

This Sunday at 11 a.m., as part of the Princeton Public Library’s Environmental Film Festival, I’ll present a portrait of Veblen’s multifaceted legacy, and discuss efforts to save the house and farmstead they left in the public trust. More information on the film festival’s last weekend of films can be found at princetonlibrary.org, and additional information on Veblen is at VeblenHouse.org.

In addition, the Institute for Advanced Study is currently hosting an exhibit on Veblen’s legacy at their archive’s reading room (library.ias.edu/archives).

Stephen Hiltner

North Harrison