On This Day

Our series highlighting a digital collection or item relevant to this day in history, by Monica Erives, Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow.

On this day in 1992, President James O. Freedman made an announcement which would drastically change the Dartmouth College Library. At a press conference in the Wren Room of Sanborn House, he announced a gift of $30 million to build “a facility appropriate for the twenty-first century” and to allow the Library to “make its own vision of the future.” A pivotal point in the history – and future – of the College, the gift enabled the construction of Baker’s “companion” library, Berry, which was to combine “the best of traditional collections and service with the unlimited advantages of present and future technology.”

This is just one chapter in the Library’s storied past, from its origins as Eleazar Wheelock’s personal collection to the “precarious” years of the College/University conflict, when the Trustees considered selling library collections to pay legal dues. Much of this history has been documented in The Woodward Succession: A Brief History of the Dartmouth College Library, 1769-2002 made available via the Digital Books Collections.

For an even briefer history, take a look at Baker-Berry: A Library for All Reasons from the Digital Publishing Collection, which was published to celebrate the completion of Berry Library in 2002.

On This Day

Our series highlighting a digital collection or item relevant to this day in history, by Monica Erives, Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow.

Sixth Earl of Dartmouth arriving in Hanover on Oct. 25, 1904. Main street in background.

On this day in 1904, the Sixth Earl of Dartmouth arrived on the Dartmouth campus. Dartmouth College was named after the Second Earl of Dartmouth for his important early support of the college, contributing the initial £50 for the establishment of the school and helping obtain another £200 gift from the king. Since then the college community has witnessed the occasional Earl of Dartmouth visit. Most recently, the Tenth Earl of Dartmouth in 2009.

College Hall (Collis) crowd at the time of the Sixth Earl of Dartmouth’s visit.

View more images depicting Dartmouth’s early history and connections across the sea in the Photo Files collection.

Dartmouth, Earls of 1st and 2nd

Dartmouth, Earls of 3rd through 9th

On This Day

Our series highlighting a digital collection or item relevant to this day in history, by Monica Erives, Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow.

September 21, 1938 hurricane damage on East Wheelock Street. In the background, Thornton Hall, Dartmouth Hall, and Fayerweather Hall are in view.

On this day in 1938, the Great New England Hurricane made landfall on Long Island. This hurricane, also known as the Long Island Express, was one of the most destructive storms of its kind to hit New England. Few were prepared for the storm due to its high speed and erratic movement. Approximately 600 people were killed and vast swaths of forest were damaged by extreme winds.

Hurricane damage on Main Street in front of College Hall (Collis).

These images show only some of the hurricane damage done to the Dartmouth College campus in 1938. View more photos of the 1938 New England Hurricane by visiting the Dartmouth Photographic Files, a diverse collection of approximately 80,000 photographs related to the Dartmouth College area, dating back to the 1850s.

Sources:

Wikipedia – 1938 New England Hurricane

The 1938 Hurricane along New England’s Coast

On This Day

Our series highlighting a digital collection or item relevant to this day in history, by Monica Erives, Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow.

On this day in 1995, Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital (MHMH) was demolished. The Hospital was built in 1893 by Hiram Hitchcock in honor of his late wife, Mary Maynard Hitchcock. It was located to the north of Dartmouth’s campus and emptied just a few years prior to its demolition for relocation to Lebanon, NH. On demolition day, many gathered to hear Dr. James Varnum, President of MHMH, deliver some parting words. An article from the Dartmouth Medicine Magazine (2010) recounts his speech:

“The buildings had been essential, he said, but it was the people inside those buildings who made the hospital such a warm environment. When he returned to the Hanover location just after the move to Lebanon, he found that without those people, the buildings no longer felt so welcoming. ‘The life and spirit had moved to our new facility,’ he said. ‘It was time to move on.'”

Today, if you’re strolling by Maynard parking lot, you can spot a plaque indicating the original site of the hospital on the southeast wall of the Geisel Admissions building.

These images come to us from The Dartmouth College Photo Files, a diverse collection of approximately 80,000 photographs related to Dartmouth College, Hanover, and the surrounding area. Dating back to the 1850s, this collection is the perfect place to explore nearly all aspects of past Dartmouth College Life.  View more MHMH Demolition images in the Photo Files Collection or take a look at the Image of the Week series for more blasts from the past.

On This Day

Our series highlighting a digital collection or item relevant to this day in history, by Monica Erives, Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow.

Eclipse Edition Road Information for the 1932 total solar eclipse

On this day in 1932, a total solar eclipse cast a shadow over a large portion of New Hampshire situated in its path of totality. This eclipse edition map, created by the New Hampshire State Highway Department, shows the center and limits of totality within NH, along with road and construction information for the exciting solar eclipse day. Sadly, Hanover was not within the lines of totality, but I’m sure it was still quite a sight to see! Not to mention it was a much shorter drive to view totality than last week’s solar event.

This map comes to us from The Granite State in Maps, 1756-2003 Collection, where there are over 600 unique NH maps – snapshots in time of the granite state.

View more solar eclipse items in the Dartmouth Digital Collections.

On This Day

Our series highlighting a digital collection or item relevant to this day in history, by Monica Erives, Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow.

A biography of Oliver Hazard Perry. Includes a reprint of his famous victory note.

It is not given to many men to win deathless fame before they are thirty. But Fate decreed that a youthful commander in the United States navy should be one of those favored mortals.

On this day in 1785, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, best known for his War of 1812 victory on Lake Erie, was born. Perry’s decisive victory, which he achieved with limited forces and a lack of resources, is remembered to this day and is where the famed military expression, “We have met the enemy and they are ours,” originates. Not long after his victory on the Erie, Perry succumbed to yellow fever and died on his thirty-fourth birthday, August 23rd, in 1819. Over the years, many have written about Perry, his naval upbringing, and the victories that gained him fame. The article pictured above, from the Canaan Reporter, commemorates Perry over a hundred years later in 1935.

This digital item comes from the Correspondence of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry Collection, where you can find correspondence between naval officers, friends, family, and peers of Commodore Perry. The collection is conveniently indexed by subject and biographical period for those looking to explore particular aspects of his memorable life.

On This Day

Our series highlighting a digital collection or item relevant to this day in history, by Monica Erives, Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow.

On this day in 1771, Eleazar Wheelock, founder of Dartmouth College, wrote a “strongly worded rebuttal” in response to a letter from Samson Occom, a member of the Mohegan Tribe, Wheelock’s former student, and an instrumental fundraiser for the college. In his letter, Occom communicated his dismay in learning there were few to no Indians at the college:

Your having So many white Scholars and So few or no Indian Scholars, gives me great discouragement – I verily thought once that your institution was Intended Purely for the poor Indians with this thought I cheerfully ventured my Body and Soul, left my Country my poor Young Family all my Friends and Relations, to Sail over the boisterous Seas to England, to help forward your School, Hoping, that it may be a lasting benefit to my poor tawny Brethren.

Image of Wheelock's August 15th Letter to Occom

Wheelock’s Aug 15th Letter to Occom

Wheelock responded:

You discover very great Ignorance of my plan, my object, my reasons, my motives, my views and prospects, and as great a degree of uncharitableness as of ignorance. You show no degree of brotherly and Christian Sympathy towards me in my long and weary travail, notwith standing your nation have been invariably my chief object…

It was this year, 1771, when Occom and Wheelock’s close relationship came to an end. To read the entirety of these letters, visit The Occom Circle — a scholarly digital edition of handwritten documents by and about Samson Occom (1723-1792) with both diplomatic and modernized transcriptions for ease of reading.

Occom’s letter to Wheelock |  Wheelock’s letter to Occom

On This Day

Our series highlighting a digital collection or item relevant to this day in history, by Monica Erives, Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow.

Man taking temperatures of sea water, 1914 – Stefansson Collection of Arctic Photographs

On this day, August 1st, in 1882 commenced the 1st International Polar Year (IPY), a year when nations come together to coordinate intensive scientific research in the polar regions. This event was yet another indication of the changing incentives for polar exploration during the 19th century, from those motivated by the discovery of new sea routes to those powered by scientific discovery. The 1st IPY committee set out to establish 13 Arctic and 2 Antarctic stations, all of which were established except one. William H. Hobbs, a geologist and leader of four expeditions to Greenland, sums up the variety of research undertaken during this inaugural polar year in a reference file from the DLP’s Encyclopedia Arctica:

In addition to meteorological and earth magnetism observations, most stations carried out studies of the aurora and of electrical earth currents. Some of them made regular observations of the tides and of ocean temperatures, Many of them also made ethnographical, zoological, botanical, and geological observations of greater or less importance.

To learn more about the First and Second International Polar Year, visit The Encyclopedia Arctica (Volume 7) or simply explore the visual wonders of early arctic exploration by visiting The Vilhjalmur Stefansson Collection of Arctic Photographs.

And if you just can’t stop there, read about the 4th and most recent IPY, which occurred from 2007-2008.