Editing James Stewart (section)

==Early life and education ==
[[File:Stewart&#039;s Family 1918.jpg|thumb|upright|right|The Stewart family in 1918]]
[[File:Alexander Stewart hardware store.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Stewart (right) outside his family's hardware store, 1930]]
[[File:Stewart Logan Dana Triangle Club 1930.jpg|upright|right|thumb|With [[Joshua Logan]] (c.), 1930]]
James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania,{{sfn|Fishgall|1997|p=19}} the eldest child and only son born to Elizabeth Ruth (née Jackson; 1875–1953) and Alexander Maitland Stewart (1872–1962).<ref>{{harvnb|Eliot|2006|p=348}}; {{harvnb|Fishgall|1997|pp=22–24, 239}}; {{harvnb|Smith|2005|p=19}}</ref> Stewart had two younger sisters, Mary (1912–1977) and Virginia (1914–1972).<ref>{{harvnb|Eliot|2006|p=15}}; {{harvnb|Fishgall|1997|p=349}}</ref> He was of Scottish and [[Ulster Scots people|Ulster-Scots]] ancestry.<ref name="Eliot 2006 11–12">{{harvnb|Eliot|2006|pp=11–12}}; {{harvnb|Fishgall|1997|p=20}}</ref> The Stewart family had lived in Pennsylvania for many generations.<ref name="Eliot 2006 11–12"/> Stewart's father ran the family business, the J. M. Stewart and Company Hardware Store, which he hoped Stewart would take over as an adult after attending Princeton University, as was the family tradition.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|2005|p=19}}; {{harvnb|Eliot|2006|pp=14–17}}; {{harvnb|Fishgall|1997|pp=21–23}}</ref> Raised a [[Presbyterian]] by his deeply religious father, Stewart was a devout churchgoer for much of his life.<ref name="Eliot 2006 2">{{harvnb|Eliot|2006|p=2}}; {{harvnb|Eyman|2017|pp=258, 271}}; {{harvnb|Dewey|1996|p=77}}; {{harvnb|Fishgall|1997|p=27}}</ref>

Stewart's mother was a pianist, and music was an important part of family life.{{sfn|Eliot|2006|p=15}} When a customer at the store was unable to pay his bill, Stewart's father accepted an old accordion as payment. Stewart learned to play the instrument with the help of a local barber.{{sfn|Eliot|2006|pp=14–15}} His accordion became a fixture offstage during his acting career.{{sfn|Dewey|1996|pp=230, 344, 390}} A shy child, Stewart spent much of his time after school in the basement working on model airplanes, mechanical drawings, and chemistry—all with a dream of going into aviation.{{sfn|Eyman|2017|pp=35–38}} He attended the Wilson Model School for primary school and junior high school. He was not a gifted student and received average to low grades. According to his teachers, this was not from a lack of intelligence, but due to being creative and having a tendency to daydream.{{sfn|Fishgall|1997|p=30}}

Stewart began attending [[Mercersburg Academy]] prep school in the fall of 1923, because his father did not believe he would be accepted into Princeton (his father was a member of the class of 1898) if he attended public high school.<ref>{{harvnb|Eliot|2006|pp=25–32}}; {{harvnb|Fishgall|1997|p=33}}</ref> At Mercersburg, Stewart participated in a variety of extracurricular activities. He was a member of the track team (competing as a high jumper under coach [[Jimmy Curran]]),{{sfn|Adams|2017|pp=75–78}} the art editor of the school yearbook, a member of the [[glee club]],{{sfn|Dewey|1996|p=80}} and a member of the John Marshall Literary Society.{{sfn|Eliot|2006|p=27}} To his disappointment, he was relegated to the third-tier football team due to his slender physique.{{sfn|Eliot |2006|p=27}} Stewart also made his first onstage appearance at Mercersburg, as Buquet in the play ''The Wolves'' in 1928.<ref>{{harvnb|Eliot|2006|p=31}}; {{harvnb|Fishgall|1997|p=40}}</ref> During summer breaks, he returned to Indiana, working first as a brick loader and then as a magician's assistant.<ref>{{harvnb|Eliot|2006|p=27}}; {{harvnb|Dewey|1996|pp=82, 90}}</ref> Due to [[scarlet fever]] that turned into a kidney infection, he had to take time out from school in 1927, which delayed his graduation until 1928.<ref>{{harvnb|Dewey|1996|p=32}}; {{harvnb|Fishgall|1997|p=38}}</ref> He remained passionate about aviation, with his interest enhanced by [[Charles Lindbergh]]'s first solo transatlantic flight, but abandoned visions of becoming a pilot when his father steered him towards Princeton.{{sfn|Quirk|1997|p=14}}

Stewart enrolled at Princeton in 1928 as a member of the class of 1932, majoring in architecture and becoming a member of the [[Princeton Charter Club]].<ref>{{harvnb|Dewey|1996|p=12}}; {{harvnb|Eliot|2006|pp=32, 38}}</ref> He excelled academically but also became attracted to the school's drama and music clubs, including the [[Princeton Triangle Club]].<ref>{{harvnb|Fishgall|1997|pp=42–44}}</ref><ref>[https://www.princeton.edu/~triangle/content_page/history.html "Princeton Triangle Club"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002221003/http://www.princeton.edu/~triangle/content_page/history.html |date=October 2, 2011 }}. ''princeton.edu''. Retrieved January 11, 2011.</ref> Upon his graduation in 1932, he was awarded a scholarship for graduate studies in architecture for his thesis on an airport terminal design,<ref>{{harvnb|Eyman|2017|p=40}}; {{harvnb|Fishgall|1997|p=48}}</ref> but chose instead to join [[University Players]], an intercollegiate summer stock company performing in [[West Falmouth, Massachusetts]], on [[Cape Cod]].<ref>{{harvnb|Eyman|2017|p=42}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=On the Campus |journal=The Princeton Alumni Weekly |volume=29 |issue=28 |page=874 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QBJbAAAAYAAJ |access-date=August 8, 2019|year=1928 }}</ref>