Image of the Week

Gallery

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Our series examining an Image of the Week from the photographic files, by Kevin Warstadt, Digital Program Specialist. This week’s image of the week comes from a folder titled “Animals.” Pictured is what appears to be a western diamondback rattlesnake. … Continue reading

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.

Image of the Week

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

This Image of the Week comes from a folder titled “Occom, Samson.”

The SS Samson Occom was a Liberty Ship produced by the California Shipbuilding Corporation. It was launched August 31, 1943.

Th Liberty Ship was the greatest example of American wartime production in World War II. Over 2700 of these ships were produced in just over 4 years. They were primarily used to ship cargo and saw combat only on rare occasions.

The SS Samson Occom was loaned to Great Britain through the Lend-Lease program and ended its life as The Samarinda. The ship was sold to a private party in 1947 and scrapped in 1967.

Sources

http://shipbuildinghistory.com/merchantships/2libertyships5.htm

http://www.usmm.org/libertyships.html

https://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/116liberty_victory_ships/116setting.htm

https://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/2760.html

https://ww2.eagle.org/content/dam/eagle/publications/2013/WorkhorseOfTheFleet.pdf