Perilously wrapped around Baker-Berry library, a colossal dragon spews fire through the swirling winds of a blizzard. This year’s “Carnival of Thrones” poster reflects the epic fantasy theme.
From this year’s theme to “A Very Grimm Winter Carnival” to the many ski-themed posters of Carnival’s early days, every year, a unique Winter Carnival fills campus with a buzz of excitement and produces a poster made in the artistic styles of the time. This tradition has created a unique catalogue of posters that displays trends in artistic styles over the past century.
The earliest Winter Carnival poster dates back to 1911, depicting a dark green silhouette of a man ski jumping, contrasted against a creamy backdrop. The poster is a model of the abstract, minimalist trends of the day.
“Advertising posters tend to be bound by stylistic conventions,” said Steven Heller, who authored an article called “The Perfect Poster Storm,” published in the 2010 book “Winter Carnival: A Century of Dartmouth Posters.”
Heller, who is also the co-chair of the Museum of Fine Arts Design program at the School of Visual Arts in Boston, said that Carnival posters from the 1930s and 1940s exhibit a brush technique that “borders on Deco and realism.”
Deco is a visual arts style characterized by vivid colors and bold geometric patterns, often incorporating images of the 1930s and 1940s “Machine Age.”
Advancing into the 1960s, the color schemes and composition of Carnival posters reflected the rise of new artistic trends. The poster from 1969 mirrors psychedelic rock posters of the period. In 1970, the poster is clearly influenced by the pop art pioneered by Andy Warhol throughout the ’60s.
After the 1970s, the posters appear to take a thematic turn.
Art history professor Mary Coffey said that up until the ’70s, poster designs focused on general winter images, then became more illustrational of Carnival themes after that period.
Coffey attributed the changing trend to a “growing emphasis on theme.”
Earlier Winter Carnivals, especially before coeducation at the College, were heavily centered on winter sporting events. Gradually, Winter Carnival became meaningful not only to Dartmouth but also to the surrounding communities.
The movement toward illustrational posters also reflects a search for inspiration from the past. Progressively, entering into the 1980s, the posters increasingly draw upon childhood motifs, including children’s books and fairy tales.
“It seems like a slow infantilization of imagination, moving from students seeing themselves as participating in an adult world to students seeing Winter Carnival as a way to express their childhood fantasies,” Coffey said,
A century’s worth of Winter Carnival posters, kept as archives in the Rauner Special Collections Library, speaks to Dartmouth’s history and the College’s context and interactions with the world beyond campus.
“It reveals a commitment to graphic design of a certain kind,” Heller said. “It shows how graphic style impacted every corner, including Dartmouth.”
Student Opinions
Next time you visit the upper floors of Collis or muster the courage to climb the stairs to fourth floor Berry, look closely at the walls. Inconspicuously, Winter Carnival posters have been integrated into Dartmouth’s campus. They are displayed as works of art, made more valuable by the historical and traditional meaning they bring to the College.
Students who encounter the posters on a daily basis said they do not normally scrutinize the various designs but have noticed a trend in style.
“It’s interesting to contrast the simplicity in the posters of the past and the chaotic nature of those today,” Nathan Busam ’17 said.
Other students recognized a thematic evolution in the posters since their inception.
“In the beginning, the Carnival posters seem very winter sports themed,” Diane Lee ’15 said. “Later on, other themes seem to emerge and the designs also get more and more complex.”
Saaid Arshad ’14 said he sees keeping the posters as a record as something of great value to the Dartmouth community and beyond.
“I feel like these are primary sources, almost like snapshots of history,” he said. “Whether it be the general context of the time or more directly relating to Dartmouth, we can see the thoughts of the people at a specific moment in history.”
Lee said the posters serve as a reminder of Winter Carnival as part of the College’s own history.
Amy Sun ’17 agreed that the posters serve as an important memento of each Dartmouth winter.After graduation, she expects to look back at the posters, remembering each carnival weekend by the images on the glossy prints.
Q&A with Regina Barreca
Regina Barreca ’79 is a English professor at the University of Connecticut. Barreca authored the article “One Student’s View” in “Winter Carnival: A Century of Dartmouth Posters.” She talked Carnival posters and art history in an interview with The Dartmouth.
How are the Winter Carnival posters significant as historical documentation?
RB: The posters are representations of the College as seen through the eyes of people around the same age, always drawn around the same time every year. There’s something fascinating about that.
Do the posters reflect the changes that Dartmouth has undergone in the past century?
RB: In the beginning, the posters reflect the blond Nordic types representing winter athletics. Then they progress to place more and more emphasis on fantasy; creatures that aren’t even human. I think that it’s more imaginative, and I think some of this can be attributed to the College increasing its emphasis on creativity in its curriculum. Consistently, though, the posters are always about the contemporary. In that way the posters will always remain similar.
What were the posters like when you were an undergraduate at Dartmouth?
RB: The posters from 1975 to 1979 were nostalgic in theme. One of them was like a poster from the frontier, from the Old West. I remember there was a poker table, and something about the gold rush. We look back on these posters and we can see what the values of the students were. The poster I just mentioned reflects the rush to Wall Street in the early ’80s. People were also thinking about the old days and yearning for the old days.
