Alfred Hitchcock Presents...

"The Brain is the material organ of all the Intellectual and Moral manifestations. Of the nature of the mind, or soul itself, but little is known beyond what Revelation has unfolded. Chemistry in vain has been invoked to test for its essence; and the most accurate anatomists have failed to point out its domicile, or discover its mode of union with the body."

We couldn't believe this one. Earlier this week for an Anthropology class, "The Values of Medicine," we looked at 19th-century Dartmouth Medical School theses. One group of students stumbled on "Influence of the Mind on Disease" by one Alfred Hitchcock written in 1837. We were sorry to learn he was no relation, but clearly a precursor to his more famous namesake: they shared a fascination with the curiosities of the mind, but worked in different media.

Come see this and other medical theses by asking for DA-3, Box 10932. Also enjoy this posting featuring a 1832 thesis on Tight Lacing.

A View from Pemberley

This week marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, perhaps the most beloved novel in the English language. We have two copies of the first edition "By the Author of Sense and Sensibility." One of the fun things to do in Special Collections is surround a favorite novel with contemporary books that give you insights into the world of its original readers. One such book is Humphry Repton's Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (London: T. Bensley for J. Taylor, 1805).

 

Repton's treatise on English landscapes would have fit right in at Mr. Darcy's Pemberley House library. The lavishly produced book uses flaps to show before and after views of improved landscapes. The pictures give you a sense of what Elizabeth Bennett and her aunt and uncle may have seen as they "found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House."

Come in and behold the grounds that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy may have strolled in their happy dotage by asking for Rare SB471.R427 1805. And don't forget the first edition of Pride and Prejudice: Rare PR4034.P7 1813.

A Real John Hancock

Sometimes a person is so inextricably linked to a specific event or time that it can be a little jarring when you find evidence of them in a completely different context. John Hancock is one of those people. The famous, though apocryphal, anecdote about his signature and King George's spectacles is so well known that seeing the same signature on a document that is not the Declaration of Independence can produce a brief moment of "wait, that doesn't belong here."

The other document in question is an affidavit by John Wheelock from March 4, 1790 attesting that, for a consideration of £658, he is discharging all claims on the funds collected by Nathaniel Whitaker and Samson Occom that had been deposited with the Society in Scotland for use of the Moor's Indian Charity School through June 15, 1789. Wheelock was then president of the School, having succeeded his father Eleazar, and the funds in question had been raised to cover any expenses incurred by the School. The document is certified by Hancock as Governor of Massachusetts.

Ask for Mss 790204.1.

Tell Us Your Story

Have you ever considered what it was like to be a black man attending Dartmouth in the 1950s? Or to be a Native American leaving home for the first time to attend Dartmouth in the 1970s? Or to be an international female faculty member whose first language is not English in the 1990s? Or to be a returning veteran working or teaching at Dartmouth in the 1960s? Or to be on a journey of discovery of your sexual identity while enrolled or teaching at Dartmouth in the 1980s?

Rauner Library is looking for narratives such as these. During this month in which we honor the life and work of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Rauner Library is launching a new oral history project. It's called "Dartmouth's Community and Dartmouth's World" and its goal is to document how the Dartmouth community has been transformed over the past sixty-eight years since the end of World War Two. The lens through which we will be examining this transformation is the concept of the insider and outsider and how those roles have been altered over the years by the increasing diversity of the student body, faculty and staff, as well as the alumni body.

Here are a few paragraphs from the stories we've collected thus far:

"At Dartmouth I always associated as the outsider of the group that I was aligned with. I think it was a way of me getting attention or being noticed. I was the most conservative member of the gay students that I would hang around. I don't know if I actually ever joined the Gay Students Association officially. When I was here at Dartmouth, there was an incident I recall where the Dartmouth Review published the names of the members of the Gay Students Association. And so that terrified me, and I did not want my name on a list. So that kept me from joining. But I did find people that would accept me, but then I always chose to sort of be the odd one out. I can think of a number of instances like that." (Class of 1986)

"You know, there were times when I wanted to reach out to people outside of my social group, and I felt like they were going to - They weren't going to give me the time of day because they thought I was, you know, a rich white kid in a fraternity who played lacrosse. [Laughter] And, you know, he's a jerk, so I don't really want to talk to him." (Class of 2012)

"And I can tell you that coming from a segregated school system in the Washington, DC, area, where we weren't even allowed to go into the theaters until late in the game and then had to sit in the balcony, I didn't know what to expect [when I arrived at Dartmouth]. This was my first venture into a, quote, "white," unquote, world. And so I went with all the prejudices that one would think about. I realized somewhere in the second half of my freshman year that I was my own worst enemy from that standpoint, because I went expecting people to be prejudiced against me, and so I looked for that. And if you look for prejudice and discrimination, you'll very easily find it. And then I woke up one morning and realized, You're your own worst enemy, so why not accept people for who they are and how they treat you, as opposed to what you expect or anticipate? From that point on, I was able to adapt to the environment much better and be much more responsive to what the school had to offer." (Class of 1959)

"I think when you're unaffiliated, you either find some sort of extracurricular thing that provides a community. Or your community is just your friends. And I feel like that's - I don't feel I have a community. I just feel like... I guess in a way... I think if I had to pick something as my community, I would say it's the Womenʼs and Gender Studies department." (Class of 2012)

Come tell us your story.

Dartmouth Class of 1947

Visit the site to read completed transcripts or to contact Mary Donin who is managing the project.

An Inaugural Parade

The Inauguration celebration will take place this Monday, marking the beginning of Barack Obama's second term. His victory over Mitt Romney proved the importance of winning female voters (Romney had the majority of male votes, but Obama garnered 54% of the female vote, leading to his victory).

With this in mind, we can appreciate the importance of another Inauguration Day—Woodrow Wilson's on March 4th, 1913. On this day, women from across the country marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the steps of the Treasury Building where they performed an allegorical pageant in support of women's suffrage.

The pageant was designed and directed by Hazel MacKaye, and "illustrated those ideals towards which both men and women had been struggling through the ages and toward which, in the suffrage creed, they would with cooperation and equality, continue to strive." MacKaye demonstrated these ideals by showing Columbia using a horn to summon the personifications of Justice, Charity, Liberty, Peace and Hope to aid her in the "New Crusade" of women. These characters appeared in robes of rose, violet, and white, and the pageant incorporated dance and the star spangled banner. It culminated in a colorful tableau--a striking contrast to the black-coated gentlemen occupying the White House next door.

Celebrate this year's Inauguration and relive the suffragist fight by asking for Boxes 209 and 217 of The MacKaye Family Papers (ML-5).

Posted for Lucy Morris '14

Ladylike and Manly Books

We often think of genre literature as gendered--romance for women, westerns for men--but we don't usually see books themselves as explicitly gendered. In this case, it is hard not to notice. These are two conduct, or etiquette, books from the late 18th century: the first edition of Chesterfield's Letters (London: J. Dodsley, 1774) and an American edition of Mrs. Chapone's Letter's on the Improvement of the Mind (Boston: Isaiah Thomas, 1783).

Guess which is written for men and which is for women. The Chesterton is such a manly book. Imposing in stature, with a title page filled with, well, titles, it is too large to hold comfortably and seems at home on a gentleman's library table. The Chapone's two slender volumes are designed to fit neatly in a young woman's hand. They are portable and suggest a more intimate reading. In a way, they are fulfilling their missions--Chesterton is trying to make a gentleman out of his son with his Letters, and Mrs. Chapone is trying to produce ladies. The differing reading experiences would have conformed to the 18th-century distinction.

Take a look by asking for Val 825C42 S83 and Presses T363c.

Making a Compromise with the Public Taste

This week the "American Curmudgeons" exhibit has opened at Rauner Library. Running from January 7th until February 28th, the exhibit displays materials related to Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, and H. L. Mencken. We're especially excited about one of the items we discovered while preparing the exhibit, namely a letter from H. L. Mencken to Ezra Pound written in August of 1917. Sadly, we have only the first page of the letter.

Mencken, in addition to his role as relentless journalistic scourge of bumbling idiots and pretentious fools, was the co-editor of several influential literary magazines, notably The Smart Set and The American Mercury. He was as untiring in his support of writers and journalists in whom he saw merit as he was in castigating those who in his opinion were utterly without talent. In this letter, written during his tenure as co-editor of The Smart Set, Mencken puts his influence to work, recommending various writers to another influential editor, Ezra Pound of The Little Review.

In the body of the letter, Mencken plays upon the slogan of The Little Review, "Making No Compromise with the Public Taste," by stating that financial obligations require his own magazine to make aesthetic compromises constantly in order to sell copies. Mencken's literary acumen is evidenced here by his assertion that Pound has been "getting some excellent stuff" into his magazine; only seven months later, the first chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses would be published within its pages, marking the first appearance of one of the most important novels of the century.

To see the letter now, come over to Rauner and take a look at the exhibit. Starting in March, ask for MS-693 Box 1. To see copies of The Little Review, ask for Rare AP2 .L647.