Another Dartmouth history blog

If you're interested in learning more about Dartmouth history, the Rauner Library blog has a great collection of Dartmouth and New Hampshire related posts. I've enjoyed reading about all sorts of topics from the story of why Dartmouth's color is green to a description of the first commencement. It's an invaluable resource for anyone looking to learn more about Dartmouth history.

Lest the Old Traditions Fail?

As time goes on, it is only natural that some traditions fade away and are replaced by others. In terms of Winter Carnival, the polar bear swim has replaced the Psi U keg jump, which itself replaced the ski jump on the golf course, but the Snow Sculpture has remained the constant centerpiece of Winter Carnival.

Unfortunately, despite the massive amounts of snow this year, the 2011 snow sculpture was merely adequate. Compare the 1972 snow sculpture with this the one from this year.

Snow Sculpture - 1972 (From the Dartmouth Flickr Account)

Snow Sculpture - 2011

While during the last two years the conditions for the Snow Sculpture were less than ideal (it was unseasonably warm in 2009 and in there was not enough snow in 2010), this year presented a great opportunity to build an impressive snow sculpture.

I don't know why there is less participation than in days past. While it's easy to blame general student laziness, I think the reason is a bit more complicated. The last two years of small snow sculptures have made it so the majority of students on campus don't feel any connection to building the snow sculpture. The active, enthusiastic freshman in 2009 is now an apathetic junior, and has gone 3 years now without working on the snow sculpture. It's a pity, but in this day of Facebook and Youtube, it takes work to get people interested in working outside. Hopefully, the next few years will see a renewal in interest in the snow sculpture, or the snow sculpture could disappear forever.

Life Goes to a Party

In the past, Dartmouth's Winter Carnival used to be known as the Nation's premier winter party. Hundreds of girls from college all over the north-east would come to Dartmouth's winter wonderland for an exciting weekend of parties, dancing, and winter sports.

Skier Dick Dorrance flies through the air as part of the Ski Jump Contest

In 1937, Life magazine, as part of its regular feature "Life Goes to a Party", visited Winter Carnival, and took pictures of the festivities.

The last Snow Queen was crowned in 1972, the same year coeducation began

No Dartmouth Weekend is complete without a proper dance party

While some things have changed, (there are no more tuxedo balls anymore, or a Winter Carnival Queen for example) some things remain the same. Amazingly, AD still remains one of the top socials spots on campus, although the boys in 1937 didn't have the Animal House mystique.

I wonder when the fraternities stopped having tuxedo balls? Certainly, no fraternity dressed up in white tie for formal today.

Another tradition that seems to have fallen by the wayside is the Snow Sculpture contest held by the Fraternities each year. I know that Fraternities still made sculptures up until the mid-80s, (Sig-Nu got in trouble in 1985 for their sculpture of a woman's breast being pierced by a sword) but by the 90s the tradition had died out. Unfortunately, apathy, not change, proves to be the enemy of most Dartmouth traditions.

You can look at the Complete articles here:
Life Magazine: February 22, 1937

Dartmouth Songs

Searching around on the internet, I found out that the Office of Alumni Relations has an online booklet with the lyrics of many Dartmouth songs.

You can find it here:

Alumni Songbook

The Class of 1965 website has recordings of many of the tunes featured in the booklet. The recordings are from a 1965 record by the Glee Club which was sold at James Campion's shop.

This is the link:

Reflections of Dartmouth LP

It's great that this record is now preserved in mp3 format and now available for all.

Orientation - 1947

Even as I write this post, Dartmouth's newest class, the '14s, have been arriving in Hanover to embark upon their freshman Outing Club trips and enjoy the great outdoors. Here we have a video from the Dartmouth archives chronicling orientation in 1947.



1947 was the first "normal" year at Dartmouth following World War II, and Dartmouth enrolled a record number of students that year.

As soon as the video starts, I was amazed to see the students stepping off the bus in jackets and ties, and the students were similarly dressed in the classroom. Nary a t-shirt to be seen throughout the whole film.

There are some nice shots of Main Street, including the now long-gone Campion's haberdashery, and the College Bookstore.

One "tradition" that I was amazed to see was that freshman, wearing their beanies, were required to help upperclassmen with their luggage at the beginning of the year. I can't imagine something like that happening today, but the thought of the unlucky '14s carrying my boxes around is not a bad one.

The video also shows a model for a performing arts center which would have stood where the Hopkins Center stands today. Designed along the lines of Webster Hall, personally I would have preferred it to the modernistic and ugly Hop.

The video ends with scenes from the famous Freshman trips, although the trips of yesteryear feature a lot more flannel and a lot less flair that those of today. However the point of the trips is the same; to introduce them to the wonderful countryside of New Hampshire and to welcome students to the best college in America

Aegis Ads from 1942

I recently bought a 1942 Aegis and I was amazed by its excellent condition and interesting photographs. (I plan to post some pictures in a future update.) I was especially amazed by the plethora of advertisments in the back of the year book, which ran the gamut from clothing stores to car garages.

Here are a series of the nicest advertisements in the Aegis.



F.R. Tripler was a New York based Haberdasher which folded in the early 1990s. I couldn't find out much else about the store on the Internet but apparently it was fairly stuffy.




Rogers Peet was another New York based Haberdasher that also closed in the 1980s. At one point, they had 12 stores in the New York area, but changing fashion doomed the firm.




Campion's of Hanover was the local haberdasher for Dartmouth College until it closed in the early 1990s. It was known for its Dartmouth specific ties, some of which can still be found on eBay. The current Campion's is a women's clothing shop.



This ad by J. Press specifically targets Dartmouth men, who it assumes will be soon part of the workforce, and thus buying J. Press. Of the four advertisers, only J. Press is still around, and it's target audience today is certainly not the college men. Personally, I'd be quite surprised if anyone on campus owns anything by J. Press.

Unfortunately, changing fashions doomed any men's clothing store that relied upon college students for survival. J. Press was able to adapt by targeting other markets, including Japan but most were not so lucky.

A tour of the Library

According to the Dartmouth website, this was an excerpt from a movie created for Prospective students at Dartmouth focusing on a tour of Baker library.




A delightful little piece, the movie opens with a view of Main Street and soon transitions to the Library itself. The video highlights all of the important parts of Baker library, some of which, like the Tower Room and the Periodical Room still remain.

In fact, as I was watching this, I was struck by how similar the library looked today, and some areas, such as the stacks, have not changed at all. In fact the biggest change I saw was that the College had removed the card catalog in the entrance of Baker Library.

In fact, I bet if a '55 were to wander into Baker Library today, he'd find himself still very much at home.