Monthly Archives: August 2017

On This Day

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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

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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.

Image of the Week

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Our series examining an Image of the Week from the photographic files, by Kevin Warstadt, Digital Program Specialist.

Dartmouth alums preparing to board in White River Junction ca. 1900

This image of the week comes from a folder titled “White River Junction, Vermont.” The image features a number of Dartmouth alums boarding a train in White River Junction.

White River Junction began as a stop for boat traffic used by natives and settlers. The railroad came to White River in 1848 when the “Winooski” traveled to Bethel, Vermont. The railroad in White River continued to expand and at one point featured 14 tracks, making it the largest railroad center north of Boston. The railroads brought many diverse businesses to White River including bread, produce, paper, and chocolates.

Info comes primarily from the Hartford, VT Document Center. Additional information from the Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce, hartford-vt.org, and hartfordhistory.org.

See more images of White River Junction in the Dartmouth Library photographic files.

On This Day

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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

Image of the Week

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Our series examining an Image of the Week from the photographic files, by Kevin Warstadt, Digital Program Specialist.

Zoology Class ca 1940

This week’s photo comes from a folder titled “Zoology Department.”

Students of the natural sciences at Dartmouth didn’t always study under a single department. They once studied at the Chandler School, which did not become an incorporated department until 1892. The Chandler Department then divided into the departments of Zoology, Botany, and Geology, and in 1960 the Zoology and Botany departments combined to form the Department of Biological Sciences. Read more about the history of the department in the Biology Collection Development Policy Guidelines. See more Zoology department photos in the Dartmouth Library photographic files.

On This Day

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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.