The 103-year evolution of Winter Carnival has been marked by setbacks, wild popularity and ever-changing traditions. Since the first “winter field meet” in 1910, Carnival has garnered national attention while providing a sense of community to students and alumni alike.
Fred Harris, a member of the Class of 1911 and a founder of the Dartmouth Outing Club, first conceived of the idea of Winter Carnival, suggesting a “meet or field day” during winter term. He intended for the event to reawaken the Dartmouth community amidst winter’s short days and low temperatures.
When Harris sent a letter to The Dartmouth pitching the idea, the editorial board responded to his idea for the winter festivity with enthusiasm.
“A winter carnival could be made the culmination of the season,” The Dartmouth wrote in its editorial on Dec. 17, 1909. “It is not impossible that Dartmouth, in initiating this movement, is setting an example that will later find devotees among other New England and northern colleges.”
Sure enough, Winter Carnival began attracting people from all across the nation and even the world.
A few months after Harris expressed his idea, the DOC hosted a winter field meet, in which nearly 300 students, faculty and community members assembled to watch and participate in winter sports, such as 100-yard dashes on skis and snowshoes.
The event was renamed “Winter Carnival” a year later in 1911, and the scale of the festivity increased. Fraternities on campus appointed delegates to host a formal dance for Carnival, a tradition that continued until 1932.
The Drama Club performed a play, titled “David Garrick,” on the last day of Carnival, and continued to perform a variety of shows for many years.
Sports such as ski jumping and cross-country racing were added in 1911 as well. Later in 1920, indoor activities such as wrestling, boxing, fencing and gymnastics were introduced to Carnival. The College donated 50 percent of the ticket profits to the Mary Hitchcock Memorial fund, donating $300 to the hospital now known as the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
In the following year, Winter Carnival expanded again, adding a senior reception and basketball game. In addition to the DOC dance, fraternities began to host their own informal parties. Concerts performed by student groups in conjunction with other universities began during the Carnival of 1914.
McGill University participated in the ski relay, snowshoe race and ski jump events in 1915, becoming the first separate institution to take part in Carnival. Other colleges on the east coast began to visit Hanover for the Carnival as well. In 1936, ski teams from Switzerland, Germany, Chile and Canada, plus the Norwegian Air Force Team all participated in Carnival.
Even in its early years, the Carnival began to receive publicity and acclaim.
In 1916, National Geographic gave Dartmouth’s Winter Carnival the title of “Mardi Gras of the North.” Three reporters from Boston and New York visited the Carnival in 1928, recording the jubilant atmosphere and beauty of the natural environment. CBS reported on the 1960 Carnival.
In 1920, in order to manage the ever-increasing influx of visitors, Hitchcock Hall was opened to the public at a rate of one dollar per bed, forcing students to vacate their rooms. The College also attempted to arrange special trains for guests from New York and Boston.
Female students from other universities came to visit the then all-male campus over Carnival weekend. The “Queen of the Carnival” was selected annually from 1923 to 1972, the year the College began admitting women.
F. Scott Fitzgerald and his friend Budd Schulberg ’36 visited the festival in 1939 to write a movie script for the comedy “Winter Carnival,” but Fitzgerald became too drunk during his stay and was fired from the project.
A number of famous skaters including Theresa Weld, Leah Mueller and Willie Frick have also visited over the weekend to perform.
Perhaps the most well known surviving tradition, the Winter Carnival sculpture and theme, started in 1925. The first theme of the Carnival was “Jutenheim Iskarneval,” reflecting the Carnival’s inspiration from Scandinavian winter carnivals.
Former history professor Jere Daniell ’55 said that Carnival experienced a temporary setback due to the breakout of World War II, but continued to maintain its popularity from the early 1930s through the early 1960s.
External factors such as emerging forms of entertainment, evolving attitudes toward gender and the change of the New Hampshire drinking law that set the legal drinking age as 21 led to the decline of the popularity of Carnival, Daniell said. Internally, the switch to the quarter system and administrative concern over the legal liability of hosting so many visitors decreased the scale of Carnival, he said.
After 1961, Daniell said, the DOC no longer organized the theme, poster, the snow sculpture or the Queen of the Carnival judging. The Collis Center for Student Involvement began managing most aspects of Carnival.
