When she was chosen as Queen of the Snows at the 1972 Winter Carnival, Margee Farnum Cullinan, then a freshman at the all-female Colby Junior College, told the Associated Press that being recognized by the Dartmouth community was the greatest thrill of her life. Her title gained historical signifigance the following year when, due to the growing national feminism movement, the College ended the tradition, making Cullinan Dartmouth's final Queen.
"Is it one of the most exciting things I've done?" Cullinan asked in an interview with the Dartmouth. "Yes, because I feel like I'm part of Dartmouth's history. Good or bad, I'm part of Dartmouth's history."
Today, Cullinan, whose late husband Bill Farnum was a member of the Class of 1973, still considers winning the modified beauty contest a thrill.
"I had a blast!" Cullinan said. "I remember thinking at first, 'Wow, I don't know what it means, but that's great.' Then the judges said I had to be at the ski competitions the next day to hand out trophies and represent all these people. I began to feel like it was a huge honor."
When Cullinan came to Hanover that year, she was one of many in a long-standing tradition of female visitors. After the introduction of Carnival Ball in 1915, Carnival weekend was marked by the presence of almost two thousand women in Hanover. Droves of buses, cars and trains brought women to campus from colleges across the Northeast, including Wellesley College, Vassar College, Radcliffe College and Skidmore College.
"Thanks to the girls, Carnival's success does not depend on the weather," Sports Magazine quipped in 1947.
Though women were on the College's campus most weekends, the winter festivities made Carnival particularly enjoyable, said Dave Elders '63, whose wife, Marta Elders, was the 1963 Carnival Queen.
"It was kind of magical. Those were the weekends that were the most romantic, the most appealing, and I think they probably impressed the girls the most," Elders said.
As time went on, the green and white scarves that served as Carnival invitations came to be coveted by college girls around the country.
In 1968, friends of that year's Carnival Queen, Barbara Jean Harris, took extreme measures to ensure she made it to Hanover from Oakland, Calif.
"She came to Dartmouth as a surprise to her date, whose fraternity brothers sold pints of their blood to raise money for her plane fare and mailed it to Barbara without telling [her date]," the Valley News reported.
This Carnival-related frenzy drew the attention of national press, including The New York Times and the Boston Globe. In 1972, Playboy shot its "Playmate of the Month" issue at the Carnival and offered the brothers of Bones Gate fraternity half a keg of beer to sculpt a snow-and-ice playmate on their lawn.
Women also participated in events such as the Girls' Snowshoe Race and Girls' Rope Pull.
Beginning in 1923 as a costume competition at the Carnival's masquerade ball, the Queen of the Snows contest did not take its traditional form until 1928, when judges began choosing a winner from a "Queen's Court" of approximately 45 women.
"From the fairest and loveliest of breathtaking Carnival beauties will be selected the one who most typifies the atmosphere and spirit of this Dartmouth Outdoor Carnival of ice and snow," proclaimed a Carnival brochure in 1928.
In a 1949 issue of The Boston Herald, Bill Cunningham '19 described the contest in an article titled "No Easy Task to Pick Queen."
"The trophy room of the gymnasium looked like a Hollywood casting office as this bevy of beauties assembled. Except, that is, that they were all in ski attire," Cunningham wrote.
Marta Elders, on the other hand, remembers being judged for more than just looks.
"You didn't have to get dressed up, but there were a series of questions they'd ask you -- philosophical questions, in terms of what was important to you, people that you thought had changed the world," Elders said. "Clearly appearance was part of it, but there was some thinking involved."
The coronation ceremony of Carnival Queens was often an elaborate affair. In 1950, 20 skiers sped down specially-built slides as fireworks punctuated the Queen's debut. In 1971, a skydiver placed the crown on the Queen's head after plummeting 3,500 feet to the Green.
Amidst the public hoopla, the Queen's date often played "second fiddle," Dave Elders said, but he was happy that his then-girlfriend's win earned the respect of his Phi Delta Alpha fraternity brothers.
"All the brothers thought it was really cool, so from a social standpoint, you feel like a big deal. It was terrific to have your date be Carnival Queen," he said.
All of the Carnival weekends were special, according to Marta Elders.
"There was kind of a fun gleefulness to it. It was a time of not worrying, not caring about things," she said. "The world wasn't stressed yet. It was a good time. Bitter cold, but a good time."
The feminist movement that stimulated the introduction of coeducation at Dartmouth in 1972 also ended the Queen of the Snows tradition the following year. The Winter Carnival Council cited "changing attitudes toward the role of women in contemporary society" when announcing its decision to discontinue the contest.
The choice came as no surprise to the College community, according to Cullinan. The level of enthusiasm surrounding the contest had decreased drastically over only a few years, with just 13 girls volunteering to participate in 1971.
By that time, even the tone of the judges' questions had changed.
In 1971, the Newark Sunday News reported, "One of the questions asked of Miss [Ellen] Weiss by Professor Frank Smallwood was, 'Do you consider me a male chauvinist pig because I'm judging this contest?' Miss Weiss replied, 'If I were not in this contest, yes, I would.'"
After the advent of coeducation, many local newspapers reported that Dartmouth women could not properly enjoy Carnival because Dartmouth men treated them with little respect compared to guests and mocked female classmates with the taunt "co-heads, co-hogs, go home."
Lynn Anderson, a student at Dartmouth summer programs in 1969 and 1970, remembers no such problems, describing her male classmates as "gentlemen" and "accepting" when she visited for Carnival.
"I have very fond memories of Carnival," Anderson, a frequent visitor throughout her college years, said. "I didn't really pay attention to the fact that I was there all the time compared to women just coming for the weekend. I was just excited to be at Dartmouth, period."
Anderson's appreciation for Carnival did not carry over to the Queen tradition, however. When her friends nominated her to represent Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity in the contest, she refused to participate.
"I took it as a backhanded compliment, a bit of a slight," Anderson said. "It wasn't like you were being touted as a good student or somebody who was going to go someplace, you were being judged on social issues. I don't think the girls were into that any more."
After reminiscing about all of the fun she had as Queen, Cullinan also recognized the antiquated nature of the event.
"Some of the women were very upset by it, and that's one of the reasons it ended up fizzling out," Cullinan said. "The tradition of the Queen was dying everywhere... I completely understand why. It was a movement into the future."
