As the nation's ninth oldest college, Dartmouth is older than the United States itself. During its long and rich history, the College has produced countless generations of people who were significant actors in the nation's development, but it has not avoided controversy along the way.
Officially, the story of Dartmouth College begins Dec. 13, 1769. On that day King George III signed the charter that brought the College into existence. But the actual development of Dartmouth was not as simple.
Fifteen years before the founding of the College, the Congregationalist minister Eleazar Wheelock started Moor's Charity School, named after its benefactor Joshua Moore. Wheelock's mission was to educate and convert Native Americans to a Christian way of life.
The school prospered for 15 years in Lebanon Crank (now Columbia) Conn., but then saw a sharp decline in enrollment.Worried his dream might fail, Wheelock decided to move the school further north to be closer to the people he wished to educate.
In order to raise funds for the new school, Wheelock sent Samuel Occom, a Native American student, to England to raise money. Occom returned with a whopping 11,000 pounds. After many towns bid to be the school's site, Wheelock chose Hanover.
Wheelock chose the name Dartmouth College after a major benefactor, the Earl of Dartmouth, in order to satisfy the English donors.
Despite the school's mission to educate "the youth of the Indian tribes of this land in reading, writing and all parts of learning which shall appear necessary for the civilizing and Christianizing of pagans," Wheelock did not recruit Native Americans, but instead focused on teaching whites who could in turn teach the natives.
Because of this failure to fulfill the mission of the College, the English benefactors withdrew their support, leaving Wheelock on his own. The College barely made it, but did graduate four students, including Wheelock's son John, at its first commencement in 1771.
After Wheelock died in 1779, John Wheelock became president of the school.His most important contribution to the Dartmouth we know and love today was the construction of Dartmouth Hall.
In 1796, Nathan Smith wrote a letter to the Dartmouth trustees, suggesting the construction of a medical school at the College.Smith went to Edinburgh, Scotland to learn more about medicine. He returned to America in September of 1797 and began to give lectures on medicine, thus starting the Dartmouth Medical School.
The biggest threat to the College in the years that followed was the state's attempt to take over the school and rename it "Dartmouth University."
In 1818, Daniel Webster '01 argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that the College's charter was inviolable. It was during this case Webster declared, "Sir, you may destroy this little institution, it is weak; it is in your hands. I know it is one of the lesser lights in the literary horizon of our country.You may put it out;but if you do, you must carry through your work! You must extinguish, one after another, all those great lights of science, which, for more than a century, have thrown their radiance over the land! It is, sir, as I have said, a small college, and yet there are those who love it!"
John Wheelock died in 1817, leaving the College without strong leadership. Three different presidents served during the next 13 years.But in 1823, Nathan Lord became the president, a position he held for the next 35 years.
Lord brought discipline to the school, but was forced out of office when he refused to give President Abraham Lincoln an honorary degree because Lord believed the Bible affirmed slavery.
The next president, Dodge Smith, sought to change the nature of the school by forcing students to live with members of the clergy and not other students.
In 1867, Sylvanus Thayer '07 wrote a letter to Dodge Smith suggesting the creation of a "School or Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering."
Thayer, who headed West Point from 1817 to 1833, also gave $40,000 toward the school. It was quickly approved by the trusteesand became Dartmouth's second graduate school in 1871.
Smith's successor was Samuel Bartlett, known for his sour disposition. Because of his unpopularity with students, Bartlett was forced to defend himself to the College at a mock trial -- but won and remained at Dartmouth until 1893.
William Jewett Tucker was the next president of the College.Tucker put running water in the dormitories, supported college athletics, and founded biology, history, sociology, and music departments. Tucker also eliminated mandatory chapel attendance for the students.
In 1900, the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration became America's first graduate business school. Edward Tuck '62 financed the school in memory of his father, Amos Tuck '35.
Tucker was succeeded by Dr. Ernest Fox Nichols in 1909, who left the presidency after seven years to return to teaching.
Ernest Martin Hopkins '01 was inaugurated in 1916 as the 11th president of Dartmouth.Hopkins revised the curriculum into the current system of major and elective courses. He also implemented an admissions process that took into account the personality of applicants rather than just their academic ability.
Hopkins convinced New York banker George Baker to donate $2 million for the construction of a new library.
Hopkins also was responsible for allowing Jose Clemente Orozco to paint the Reserve Corridor of Baker library in the early 1930s.Hopkins supported Orozco's artistic freedom, despite the controversial nature of the murals.
In 1945, John Sloan Dickey '29 became president.Dickey, a diplomat and lawyer, sought to improve the College's academic reputation.
As part of his effort, he brought Princeton University Mathematics Professor John Kemeny to the College in 1954. At the College, Kemeny created the BASIC language program along with Professor Thomas Kurtz.
In 1970, Kemeny succeeded Dickey as president and brought coeducation and the quarter enrollment system, known as the Dartmouth-Plan, to the school. He also established the Native American Studies program, returning the College to its founding principles.
Kemeny removed the Reserve Officer Training Corps from the campus and eliminated the Indian symbol.
After 11 years as president, Kemeny returned to the classroom and was replaced by David McLaughlin '54, who sanctioned the return of ROTC to campus and created the Office of Residential Life.
Also during the 1980s, The Dartmouth Review, a conservative off-campus publication, became a major factor in many controversies.
In 1986, members of the Review destroyed shanties on the Green built to protest the College's investment in South Africa.
In 1990, a quote from Hitler appeared on the masthead of The Review's Yom Kippur issue, once again inflaming campus opinions and causing controversy. In protest of the issue, 2,500 students gathered on the Greenin a "Rally Against Hate." In recent years, its influence on campus has waned, but the paper is still a source of debate at Dartmouth.
On July 18, 1987, James O. Freedman was inaugurated as Dartmouth's 15th president. Freedman, who has been the president of the University of Iowa and the dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, has worked to improve the intellectual climate of the campus.
