Doing What Has to Be Done

This coming Monday, November the 11th, is when the United States of America celebrates Veterans Day. This federal holiday shares the date with holidays celebrated by other countries such as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. Whereas those holidays traditionally mark the anniversary of the end of World War I, Veterans Day celebrates the service of all US military veterans. Dartmouth has historically seen significant participation in wars that have involved the United States, especially the world wars. In World War I, a total of 2,672 Dartmouth alumni were in uniform as well as another 700 in the Student Army Training Corps on campus. The number of Dartmouth participants in World War II was even greater; a guesstimate by the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine in August of 1942 affirmed that more than 6,300 alumni would have enlisted within the year.

Here at Rauner we have an amazing collection that bears testimony to and honors the memory of military veterans who served during that war. This collection of World War II narratives contains letters, postcards, V-mail, newsletters, transcripts and newspapers clippings of personal narratives of Dartmouth men involved in World War II. The narratives, mostly in the form of letters, document the lives and activities of Dartmouth affiliated men and women in civilian life, military training and in active military duty in all theaters. Many of the narratives are short, but some provide details about life during the war. The letters were sent to various members of the Dartmouth community and collected into a group following the war, most likely by Maude French and Harold G Rugg. The primary recipients are Alan Ackerman Beetle, Class of 1936; J. (James) Moreau Brown, Class of 1939; Maude French, Art Librarian; Harold Goddard Rugg, Assistant Librarian; Herbert Faulkner West, Professor of Comparative Literature and William Maynard, Professor of Romance Languages. Also included are an assortment of pamphlets, guides and ration books.

In a letter that Ernest M. Hopkins addressed to "Dartmouth Men in the Armed Services," dated December 20, 1944, the President of Dartmouth College at the time emphasizes the "mingled feelings of pride in you, anxiety about you, and affection for you that we here have for you there." For each one of the alumni in service at the time, Hopkins goes on to say that he realizes "what it means that among the thousands of you who serve, some live daily amidst deadly hazards, other in suffering of mind or body or in dire discomfort, and still others in demoralizing boredom. This knowledge makes us living comfortably at home very humble concerning the little that we can do but vicariously very proud because of the spirit in which you are doing what has to be done." Today, we feel the same measure of humility and gratitude for all who have and continue to put themselves in harm's way while serving their country.

To see the World War II Narratives collection, come to Rauner and ask for MS-460. To see Hopkins's letter to the alumni servicemen, ask for the World War II vertical files.

"Camouflaging" Mrs. Hapgood

On September 27, 1918, the Dartmouth Board of Trustees officially appointed Elizabeth Hapgood instructor in Russian, making her the first woman to be appointed to the faculty. It was not a noble effort on the part of the College to diversify its faculty or a movement for gender equality. Instead it was a decision made out of desperation, fraught with worry and angst.

You see, Dartmouth wanted to start teaching Russian. World War I and the Russian Revolution demonstrated a need for government officials and business people with an understanding of the culture and ability to speak the language. Dartmouth was ready to help create these future internationalists, but they hit a problem. They couldn't find any men capable of teaching Russian.

By happenstance, there was a highly qualified, 24-year-old Russian speaker with teaching experience in Hanover at the time who was available. The only difficulty for Dartmouth was that she was a woman--and that kind of freaked them out. Louis Dow, who headed the Department of Romance Languages, and President Ernest Hopkins sent a flurry of memos back and forth lamenting that there was not a man to teach Russian, and debating the future consequences of putting a woman on the faculty. At one point, Dow exclaimed, "I wish there was some way of 'camouflaging' Mrs. Hapgood." They finally relented and made the hire, but not after some disturbing soul searching.

To learn more about the hiring of Elizabeth Hapgood and the stories of other women who broke through Dartmouth's faculty gender barrier, come to the Woman on the Faculty: A Dartmouth Centennial conference this Friday, November 8th, at Occom Commons!

After that, you can learn more by asking for the Elizabeth Hapgood Affliates File, and the correspondence between Dow and Hopkins in DP-11, Box 6743, Folder 20.

Día de Muertos at Dartmouth

Today, as many people celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico and elsewhere (including an altar in Berry Main Street), we want to take a moment to honor two brothers from the town of Gomez Palacio, Mexico. Alfonso Estrada, Jr. (right), and his younger brother Cesar (left) were both members of the class of 1951 who came to Dartmouth to major in business before attending Tuck and Thayer, respectively. After graduating with their masters' degrees in 1952, the two men returned to their home country and became successful while working in the hotel, public works, and soap-making industries. According to our records, these brothers are two of the earliest Dartmouth students from our neighbor to the south. We are grateful for their time here on campus and we are glad that their stories are a party of our story, if only for a relatively brief period of their lives.

To learn more about the Estrada brothers, come to Rauner and ask to see their alumni files.

Tales from the Old Burying Ground

We are very excited to announce the launch of a second podcast series related to items that can be found in our collections; items that will lead you straight to ... the Dartmouth College Cemetery.

Rauner’s Ilana Grallert has been giving tours of the cemetery for several years and has become the resident expert on all matters cemetery. This year, she and Colleen Goodhue of DCAL have produced a podcast entitled Tales from the Old Burying Ground--Stories inspired by the Dartmouth College Cemetery. Each episode is conceived, written and narrated by a Dartmouth College student.  There are stories about blackmail, emancipated slaves, fraternities and murder. Part of the 250th celebration, the eight-part podcast will launch, fittingly, on Halloween with new stories being released weekly.

Over the years we have highlighted several aspects of the cemetery including the story of William Worthington Dewey and the journal he kept of the deaths in “the vicinity of Dartmouth College,” as well as Arthur H. Chivers, Class of 1902 and professor of botany at Dartmouth College who painstakingly reconstructed the entire layout of the cemetery.

Other blogs about the cemetery include the story of the Risley family, stonecutters who created many of the descriptions on the 18th century and early 19th century stones and “Trembling for the Relics of Their Dead,” the story of a group of Dartmouth College Medical School students who were caught graverobbing.

Lies Hunt In Packs

 The word GREED is printed in bold black letters down the golden spine and all over the golden cover of this stunning little square book. Inside, the pages are filled with lithographs made by Claire Van Vliet and printed by Eystein Hance-Olsen at SKHS in Oslo on Zerkall Butten paper. Published by the Janus Press in Vermont in 2013, this handsome volume is one of many that belong to Rauner Library's Presses collection. The collection itself is truly amazing, spanning nearly the entire history of printing in the West, from the Aldine Press in the late 1400s to artists' books printed this very year.


Van Vliet's book is an artistically powerful tour de force that decries the sort of greed and corruption that caused the Great Recession. The book contains four lithograph portraits, each representing a group of people intertwined with power, wealth, and exploitation: Propagandists, Lobbyists, Bankers, and Joe Public. On the facing page, various adages and details outline the vices that have perpetuated the suffering of the 99%. Some of the quotations that seem especially relevant to our current political situation are found on the page for Propagandists: "A lie said often enough becomes truth" and "Lies hunt in packs" are particularly apropos.

To look at Greed, come to Special Collections and ask to see Presses J268vagr.

Portable Fuchs

In 1542, Leonhard Fuchs published his great herbal. We have a copy of that first edition. It is a beast of a folio, richly illustrated and dense with text made for serious study. But it couldn't easily be carried into the field for easy reference, so seven years later, an octavo edition was printed in Lyon for portability.

We were just able to acquire a copy with hand-colored images throughout: De historia stirpium commentarii insignes (Lyon, 1549). One of the reasons we love this little edition is that it provides a wonderful contrast with the original edition in the classroom. Students can immediately see how form and function interact in a printed book.

As an aside, Fuchs is always fun to use because his herbal was placed on the index of forbidden books by the Catholic church--not because it contains any heresy, but because Fuchs had joined the Protestant Reformation.

To see the first edition, ask for Rare QK41.F7 1542. For the colored edition, request Rare QK41 .F7 1549.

Room for a Few Girls: Co-Education in the Dartmouth Outing Club

In 1971, the issue of coeducation that was sweeping the college at large came to the Dartmouth Outing Club. Each campus organization was to inform the College of how coeducation would affect their operations and, as the largest and oldest outing club in the country, the DOC's operations were many. In my research on inclusion and diversity in the Dartmouth Outing Club, I've gathered that while organizational structure has been relatively incorporative, the traditional outdoorsmen culture of the DOC pervaded the club and hindered its ability to integrate women.

Even when the club did make strides in the years immediately preceding co-education, as in the all-female transfer student outdoor orientation trips that occurred summer of 1971, the cultural reality of the DOC undermined efforts. For the transfer student trips, there were only male leaders. The women were also reported to have been given lots of special attention at the lodge by the male crew. In his report as Lodge Manager for summer 1971, Jeff Stimson recommends future lodge managers "invite some girls up for the crew to enjoy the night before [the] trip begins" in order to keep spirits high. Undue attention to women, the lack of female leaders, and the clear sexual connotations that women had for the highest authority in the lodge shows that even when women were given the opportunity to get outside, it was not in the same manner as their male classmates. The DOC was at that time one of the more conservative organizations on campus, and its members were reluctant to change.

Change did come as women matriculated to the college as Dartmouth students in the fall of 1972.

Swiftly, the DOC began integrating. When elections were held for the 1974-75 academic year, Elise Erler '76 was selected as DOC vice president and became the first woman to serve on directorate. She is pictured on top of the rest of the all-male directorate in a human pyramid, clearly in the fold of the social dynamics of DOC leadership. However, despite the progress that women in leadership positions undoubtedly shows, a look at the meeting minutes for the hiking sub-club Cabin and Trail divulges a chauvinistic culture. John Blair Wood '73 included in the minutes from September 22, 1971 a rhyming poem referring to female genitalia. The poem, addressed to a 'Janet', is shown reproduced here on Dartmouth stationary and reads "I might be a ship/in your clit/moored. and under full steam/I'd fill you with cream." The poem was incorporated into the official club minutes, indicating it was read out loud during a CnT meeting. Offensive and brazen, the poem demonstrates a club willing to tolerate––and even laud––sexism. Wood, the author, would move on from being CnT secretary to Chair to eventually president of the DOC. Even when the club made large steps forward, the culture had a while to go in terms of respecting and appreciating women.

In the time after co-education, the DOC sought ways to include women into the fold of activities. Efforts manifested in first year trips, as Directors sought to explicitly recruit women leaders. In 1982, "An Introduction to the Dartmouth Outing Club" featured many women, even female members of the woodsman’s team, thereby undermining original claims in co-education reports that women would serve a merely decorative function in the outdoors. Later on in the 90s, the group "Women in the Wilderness" was formed to increase access to the outdoors in a female dominated space.

While we still have much work to do to ensure women are on equal footing with men outside (and inside for that matter), I am grateful to the women and administrators who came before me and made great efforts so that I might feel comfortable getting outside with the DOC. Their emotional endurance has made it possible for me to go hiking each weekend and feel like a full member of the social and cultural folds of the DOC.

In his thoughts on how co-education would affect the DOC, Joseph Schwartzman '70 wrote: "The Dartmouth out of doors is a big enough place, and I am sure we can easily find room for a few girls." While the DOC did find room for the girls, it is more often true that Dartmouth women made spaces for themselves in the outing club.

And I am so glad that they did.

To see Jeff Stimson's Summer 1971 Lodge Report, ask for the Dartmouth Outing Club records (DO-1), Box 6182, Folder 18. To see the photo with Elise Erler '76, ask for the Outing Club Officers photo file. To read the Schwartzman letter, ask for the Dartmouth Outing Club records (DO-1), Box 6170, Folder 8.

Posted for Mia Nelson ’22, recipient of a Historical Accountability Student Research Fellowship for the 2019 Fall term. The Historical Accountability Student Research Program provides funding for Dartmouth students to conduct research with primary sources on a topic related to issues of inclusivity and diversity in the college's past. For more information, visit the program's website.