Faculty, graduates, and guests at the 233rd Commencement will have the pleasure of hearing from Pulitzer prize winning historian David McCullough, but once upon a time, speaking duties went to every graduating senior at the College.
The practice of having each graduate deliver a 10 minute address ended in 1863 with the end of the presidency of Nathan Lord. Lord instituted the policy in 1839 in an effort to lessen individual competition and create a more egalitarian ceremony. "Ambition and emulation are selfish principles," Lord said. He also eliminated class rankings, awards and honors.
Many traditions have evolved or become extinct since the first Commencement in August, 1771. Four seniors, all transfers from Yale, graduated that year. Since the College did not yet have any trustees, the four men received unsigned diplomas. Roughly 60 guests were present for the ceremony, which was held around the Lone Pine.
John Wentworth, governor of New Hampshire, was in attendance. Wentworth generously provided rum to be served on the Green and all the ingredients for a banquet of roasted ox. However, according to Dartmouth tradition, the chefs were far too intoxicated to prepare the meal.
Wentworth was the first of numerous famed persons to attend and/or speak at commencement. This year, McCullough will be joining a group which includes Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Bill Clinton, and writers Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Composer Leonard Bernstein, anchorman Walter Cronkite and of course Mr. Rogers have all delivered keynote addresses at past Commencements as well.
When Eisenhower spoke and received an honorary degree in 1953, over 10,000 came to the ceremony. The President took the opportunity to not only address the graduating class but also to speak out against McCarthyism.
"We have got to fight [Communism] with something better, not try to conceal the thinking of our own people," Eisenhower said. "They [Communists] are part of America, and even if they think ideas that are contrary to ours, their right to say them and their right to have them in places where they are accessible to others is unquestioned or it's not America."
Professor Jere Daniell '55 noted in an interview with The Dartmouth that he vividly remembers the presence of the Secret Service at the 1953 Commencement. A member of the Green Key Society, Daniell was behind the platform when a massive dog darted out from Baker Library. As Daniell recalled, the dog's paws barely touched the ground before an agent on each side of it lifted it right off the ground.
Secret Service agents were present under caps and gowns, and armed agents were stationed in Baker Tower.
The actual ceremony has maintained roughly the same format since 1953. By then, Commencement was conducted entirely in English. Latin was the official language until 1827. In fact, before anyone spoke in English, the announcement "in lingua vernacula" (in the vernacular language) was made. The 1807 Commencement Program listed 10 to 20 speeches in Latin, Hebrew, Chaldaic, French and English.
Beginning in 1939, due to the increasing size of the graduating class, only one student spoke. The Commencement Committee selected a student to deliver the "Valedictory to the College." Now, the valedictory is delivered by the student with the highest grade point average.
The location for Commencement is another factor that has been constantly changing. Over the course of 232 years, commencement has been held everywhere from its current location in front on the Green, to the BEMA to the gym.
When President Clinton delivered the keynote address in 1995, Commencement was moved to the football stadium to accommodate the increased crowd.
According to Daniell, "the boldest decision they have made was to have no back-up site." By having graduation outside rain or shine, the College avoids the chaos that results from moving the ceremony inside at the last minute and having to distribute a limited number of tickets. However, as Daniell also noted, the decision reflects the optimistic Dartmouth spirit.
That spirit was present at Commencement in 1998 " when it poured throughout the entire ceremony, which was still held on the Green.
Commencement almost always has a celebratory atmosphere. The first Commencement 1771 was a community-wide event. Booths and tents on the Green were filled with medicines, food and drinks. Horse races and side shows also took place on the periphery.
In 1872, an observer noted that keynote speaker Walt Whitman was wearing a "flannel shirt with a square-cut neck, disclosing a hirsute (shaggy) covering that would have done credit to a grizzly bear" as opposed to a traditional cap and gown.Whitman, a native New Yorker, claimed to have thoroughly enjoyed his time in "a beautiful New England village, 150 years old " everything comfortable but very Yankee."
Some of the most memorable Commencements have taken place in the shadow of war. One particularly poignant Commencement was the 178th when, among the Class of 1947, 542 veterans of World War II received their diplomas. Daniell also noted that, "there were always some heady times during the protests (of the late '60s)."
"I've come to enjoy Commencement, and I'm not a ritual person at all," Daniell said.
Daniell commented on how much he enjoys seeing families as he processes in for Commencement. "Parents put so much into the education of their kids," he said.
The families of those students graduating in the 233rd Commencement on the second Sunday in June are sure to take pride in their loved ones as they shake President Wright's hand, receive their diplomas and take place in all the pomp and circumstance that characterizes the Dartmouth graduation ceremony.
