That would be Dartmouth Green not Irish Green, despite the time of year. Why Green and how was it chosen? It's a question that has been asked often over the years, and, nearly as often, has elicited a different answer.
The class of 1866 claims that they were the ones who came up with the idea of a school color and were also responsible for choosing the color green. J. E. Johnson '66, wrote a short discourse in the
Bema (a student magazine) in 1917, where he made the claim on the part of his class. According to Johnson, Harvard started the idea of school colors and "passed the buck Dartmouth." A committee of the senior class (the Class of 1866) was appointed to determine a color, but they could not decide. So, they asked the two "best known and best loved young women in town": Sally Smith and Kate Sanborn, the daughter of the president and a professor respectively. The two women decided promptly on green "as being the handsomest of all colors."
Green with envy the Class of 1867 refutes this saccharin story. According to an article by Professor Bartlett published in the
Dartmouth Bi-Monthly, William Ketcham, '67, claims the idea of a school color was brought to Dartmouth's attention by Amherst College. He says that Amherst came up in 1866 to teach the Dartmouth men the new game of baseball and arrived flying the College colors (purple in Amherst's case). Not having a color rankled the Dartmouth team. "Sixty-six did nothing about it, however, and it was not until '67 came to the front as the senior class that anything was done."
Frederick G. Mather, also '67, supports Ketcham's claim that it was their class who chose the color, but he has a different story about how it came about. Mather points to their classmate Alfred A. Thomas as the "originator, promoter and executor of the idea." He claims, and a
Dartmouth article from the time period bears out, that Thomas attended a regatta in 1866 where Harvard and Yale turned out with school colors (crimson and blue), but Dartmouth had no color.
None of the '67s cast much light on why they chose the color green, though there is a claim that it was the only "primary" color left (we aren't exactly sure what they considered "primary," we learned it was red, yellow, and blue in
our primary school). There was no talk of symbolism or meaning behind the choice.
There is less disagreement over the shade of green. And here we have evidence to turn to. In Rauner's collection is a framed ribbon that is claimed to be the original green selected at the mass meeting in (sic) the fall 1866.
So on March 17th you can wear your green whether it is for St. Patrick's Day or because you are a Dartmouth student or alum, or both.
Ask for: Vertical File: Dartmouth Green (color); and
Realia 179, The Dartmouth College Color
In addition to the presidential portrait that each member of the Wheelock Succession sits for during his presidency, the College has another tradition for honoring its former presidents: a mahogany Chippendale-style chair with a seat cover worked in needlepoint, showcasing a variety of symbols representing the president and his administration. No two seat covers are alike nor are the stories and accomplishments behind the symbols. The Ticknor Room in Rauner Library has recently become the new home of fourteen of these chairs after they spent many years serving as the dining room chairs in the President’s House.
We are introduced to the town of Hillsover and Arrowmouth College in What Katy Did at School, by Sarah Woolsey, first published in 1873. Katy’s school was based on the Select Family School for Young Ladies in Hanover, which the author had attended sometime prior to her family’s move from Cleveland to New Haven in 1855.
That would be Dartmouth Green not Irish Green, despite the time of year. Why Green and how was it chosen? It's a question that has been asked often over the years, and, nearly as often, has elicited a different answer.
We have a number of Books of Hours in the collection, but this is one of the smallest, with each of its one hundred and fifty six parchment leaves measuring just over three inches tall and two inches wide. This tiny illuminated manuscript was made for a little girl, probably a young French princess, sometime between 1525 and 1545.
One of the most unusual items in Rauner's collections is a lavishly illustrated and illuminated edition of Don Quixote printed on cork. Published in San Feliú de Guixols (a municipality in Catalonia, Spain) in 1955, the edition marks the 350th anniversary of the first printing of Cervantes' classic. According to the dedication, the text is taken from the 1907 edition with illustrations from the 1780 Real Academia Española edition.
The College Archives collection of theses from the Dartmouth Medical School covers the years 1815 to 1882. Seth Bass' 1815 A Dissertation on the Poisonous qualities and on the Medical properties of the Rhus Vernix and on the Medical Properties of the Magnolia Glauca, includes this beautiful watercolor sketch of a Magnolia Glauca, along with sketches of other magnolias and of the Rhus Vernix. Unfortunately, most of the theses are far less decorative. They do, however, cover a wide range of medical topics and diseases, from diabetes to animal magnetism, documenting the progress of medical knowledge and practice during most of the 19th century.
