Legends in the Landscape: Myth as

Material Culture at Dartmouth College

Charles H. Wade, Independent Scholar

Abstract: Dartmouth College, a member of the elite Ivy League, was founded in 1769 in
Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth is famous for its strong sense of community and tradition.
Its traditions arose from the intertwining of history and legend and are often evident in material
form in the College’s cultural landscape. This paper examines Dartmouth’s Old Pine, a purportedly
mystical tree from the early days of the College that died in 1895. The preserved stump of the
Old Pine subsequently transitioned from a natural feature to a cultural artifact. New traditions
grew from the remains of the Old Pine in the form of the Class Day ritual and the erection of
Bartlett Tower. The interplay between these artifacts in Dartmouth’s landscape contributed to
the development of a particular sense of place at the College. Through the years, social changes
at Dartmouth generated controversies over class, racism, and exclusion in reference to Class Day,
which consequently modified the meanings of the artifacts and rituals traditionally associated
with the Old Pine. This paper argues that, despite these changes, old traditions and elements
of socioeconomic class remain embodied in Dartmouth’s cultural landscape and material culture
aids in defining a place identity less evident than the one purported from the College’s historical
record and folk tradition.

Key words: material culture, ritual, legends and myths, cultural landscape, elites, Dartmouth
College

Introduction
Tucked away upon a hill in a more secluded area of the campus of Dartmouth
College, in a setting known as the College Park, one finds a memorialized tree
stump, an old stone tower, a statue of Robert Frost, various plaques on rocks, and
a natural amphitheater. On this hill rests the stump of the Old Pine (alternately
the Lone Pine) and Bartlett Tower, a site that houses some of Dartmouth’s most
important folk culture. To this day it serves as the spot for Class Day, a graduation
ceremony that has involved many generations of Dartmouth graduates, but
has also been the subject of considerable controversy. The folklore surrounding
the Old Pine and the rituals of Class Day are some of the most mysterious and
captivating Dartmouth trademarks. Perhaps most intriguing is the fact that the
Old Pine that was once standing in this clearing died and Dartmouth cut it down
over 100 years ago. But considering the lore and ritual involving the Old Pine,
one could almost forget that the tree no longer stands, as its memory still lingers
in Dartmouth’s landscape.
Dartmouth alumnus and anthologist Robert Graham (1990, 214) explains
the seemingly mystical characteristics of the Pine:

28 Material Culture
 [T]his glade [where the pine was] echoes of legends full of a wonderful,
benign magic that touches even the coolest of contemporary cynics.
This stump, petrified with preservatives, is all that remains of the Old
Pine, sentinel and symbol of the College almost from its founding; yet,
to the present, it serves once a year, like some Druidic altar, as the focus
of a profoundly moving moment in the communal life of each successive
Dartmouth class.
Commenting on the cultural significance of trees more broadly, geographer Kit
Anderson (2003, 3-5) professes that big trees are important factors in landscape
and the experience of place, reflecting cultural identity, notions of the sacred,
concepts of nature, social relations, and individual or group memory; all of which
applies directly to the Old Pine. To trace the origin of the Old Pine requires a
referral to the early history of the College, where one discovers that the tale of
the Old Pine, like several other components of Dartmouth’s culture, involves the
complex intertwining of fact and legend (Graham 1990, 214).
The factual basis for this paper begins with Congregationalist minister Eleazar
Wheelock (1711-1779), who founded Dartmouth College in 1769 in Hanover,
New Hampshire, in the west-central part of the state along the Connecticut River.
King George III granted the charter to Wheelock to found a school under the
premise of educating and training Native Americans to become missionaries to
their respective tribes, though few actually graduated in the beginning. The school
received its name from its chief benefactor, British statesman William Legge, the
Second Earl of Dartmouth. Dartmouth is distinctive for its inclusion as one of
the nine American Colonial Colleges and its membership in the exclusive, elite
Ivy League.1 Of paramount importance to this study is the need to understand
Dartmouth’s rich traditional atmosphere and its fervent reverence for these
traditions (see Hill 1964; Kemeny 1979; Graham 1990; Lathem and Shribman
1999). Campus journalist Deborah Klenotic (2007, 4) explains, “There’s scarcely a
building or patch of turf at Dartmouth that isn’t memorialized by legend, history,
or tradition.” Also relevant to this study is the fact that, for a time, Dartmouth’s
unofficial athletic mascot was the Indian, until it later adopted the nickname the
“Big Green,” in reference to the school’s colors.
This paper examines the role of material culture in elite landscapes and places
through a case study of Dartmouth College. Through a hermeneutic engagement
with, and analysis of, texts including cultural landscapes, artifacts, and primary
and secondary sources based on a year of field and archival research, I present, from
the perspective of someone unaffiliated with Dartmouth, a case study of how an
elite culture both utilized specific artifacts and how that material culture embodies
attributes of place, identity, and class. I draw upon a number of perspectives
and theoretical viewpoints, mainly those of primary archival and secondary
historical sources from Dartmouth to scholarly literature on elite landscapes of
the northeastern United States (Duncan and Duncan 2004; Meinig 1979; Peet
1996; Roper 2011; Wade 2009), anthropological theories on ritual (Moore and

Vol. 45 (2013) No. 2 29

Figure 1. The Old Pine, about 1890. Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library.

Myerhoff 1977; Turner 1982; Manning 2000), the cultural significance of trees
(Davies 1988; Anderson 2003), cultural constructions of special and mystical places
(Tuan 1974, 1990; Relph 1976; Chamberlain 2001), and the cultural appropriation
of Native American culture (Deloria 1998; Huhndorf 2001; Algeo 2009). Upon
tracing the development of the changing meanings of cultural landscapes, artifacts,
and practices at Dartmouth within the context of the College’s intense tenacity
for tradition, my key research question is that if Dartmouth traditions are so
strong, why did those involving the Old Pine falter in the face of change? Or did
they? From my research, I believe that while this traditional aspect at Dartmouth
may have been modified over time, it did not actually fail. I argue that, despite
changes at Dartmouth over the years, elements of social class and power remain
embodied in Dartmouth’s cultural landscape and material culture, regardless of
changes that would otherwise permanently alter the College.

“Historical” and Historical Background of the Old Pine,

Class Day, and Bartlett Tower
Eleazar Wheelock discovered that when he came to Hanover in 1770, the township
was densely wooded, including pure tracts of white pine of substantial height and
girth along the rivers and the Hanover Plain. Over the years, the College cleared
land, but patches of trees remained, most notably a group on a hill northeast of the
campus green. These trees were shorter and more crooked and therefore less useful
than the other pines, as they were not optimal for building purposes (North 1967,
3-4). From this group, one particular tree, subsequently nicknamed the Old Pine,

30 Material Culture
gained fame in Dartmouth history and lore (North 1967, 4) (Figure 1). Graham
(1990, 214) recounts that it was a comparative runt among the other giants, but
it stood out because its trunk and main branch were bent and twisted, though it
garnered affection because of the marks of its struggle for survival. The Pine also
stood out because it probably could not have been classified in the same cohort
of towering trees around Hanover, as it was only about 71 feet tall in maturity
(North 1967, 4-5; Graham 1990, 214). Nonetheless, “it grew to be a rugged,
stalwart, unmistakably independent sort of tree, suitable indeed to become the
very symbol of Dartmouth” (North 1967, 5).
The actual age of the Pine is disputed. Arboriculturists estimated that it
originated around 1783, although tradition maintains that it was “already a
flourishing young tree of twenty-five or so” by 1769 (Hanover Gazette 1922; North
1967, 4). Defending this questionable point, alumnus William North (1967, 4),
a compiler of history and lore for the Pine, argues that its age is less important
than the fact that the tree’s growth coincided with the evolution of Dartmouth
College. Geographers similarly argue for the necessity of folklore and legend to
creating places, as Yi-Fu Tuan (1990, 435) maintains that to understand human
reality better, it helps to see people and their works as combinations of realism
and fantasy, as “[c]ulture is a product of imagination and fantasy” (443). Jonathan
Smith (2007, 197) reminds us that “humans are place-making creatures who
make a location into a place by both building and storytelling.” Although many
of the “facts” behind the Old Pine are ambiguous, they are nonetheless critical to
understanding the significance of the role of legend in Dartmouth’s culture. The
intricacies of how the Pine became such a prominent Dartmouth symbol are also
uncertain. Still, it is widely visible on past and contemporary College imagery,
including the weathervane on Baker Library, the College seal, Dartmouth’s flag
(Figure 2), some Dartmouth stationery and apparel, Dartmouth doctoral robes,
and in the form of a “stump” lectern for formal College events (North 1967, 5;
Valley News 1967; Graham 1990, 215).

Figure 2. The Old Pine on Dartmouth’s flag. Photo by author.

Vol. 45 (2013) No. 2 31

 Indeed, legend has it that the College celebrated the Pine in song and ceremony
as far back as the eighteenth century (Graham 1990, 214). Anderson (2003, 150)
explains that, over time, trees can acquire symbolic meanings and generate images
of power, allowing for deep and enduring messages in human societies. The legend
behind the Old Pine also traces back to the early days of Dartmouth College.
One particularly early legend is that of the Three Indians: at some indeterminate
point in early Dartmouth lore, three Indian students completed their studies and
allegedly gathered around a favorite pine of theirs and composed and sang a song
entitled “When Shall We Three Meet Again?” (also known as “Three Indians”)
to commemorate their friendship, their sadness at parting upon graduation, and
their pledge to return someday to meet again (North 1967, 5; Graham 1990, 214).
Although the exact date of the song’s composition, the identity of its
composer(s), or when it was first sung is unknown, it was already customary for
seniors to sing it by the Old Pine during graduation before the end of the eighteenth
century (Graham 1990, 214). The Pine was an established student social space
within the first half of the nineteenth century (North 1967, 9), and the earliest
recorded reminiscence of it came from James Loy of the Class of 1833, who wrote,
“The Old Pine was standing, of course, in my day, and there were stories current
then about some class which graduated just before I entered college gathering
about the tree and singing ‘Auld Land Syne’ before parting” (Hanover Gazette
1922). John Ordroneau of the Class of 1850 wrote, “I have known [the Pine] since
1846 and never approached its hoary presence without a feeling of reverence, for
I recognized in it a member of the ancient nobility of pines” (Hanover Gazette
1922). Dartmouth historian Wilder Dwight Quint (1914, 223) mentions a certain
“worship” of the Pine beginning in the 1840s.
Some legends claim that Indians planted the Old Pine (Kemp 2002), but more
reliable Dartmouth College histories raise the fact that there was only one Indian
in Hanover between 1782 and 1785 and none between 1785 and 1800, though
the Three Indians legend was solidified by 1812 (North 1967, 8). In fact, it was
not until 1970 that three Native American students graduated from Dartmouth
together (Clark 1993). Given these points, there is no sufficient evidence that any
Native Americans had a significant presence at Dartmouth at this time or that they
played a role in the establishment of the Old Pine as a College icon. Regardless
of the veracity of these legends, North (1967, 8-9) argues that the legend does not
require literal interpretation, as the important point is that the legend endured and
focuses on a real tree. The accuracy or inaccuracy of the tale, however, did not
prevent the College from building (literally and figuratively) additional legends
and traditions around the Old Pine.
Growing out from the Old Pine legend, another Dartmouth tradition called
“Class Day” emerged, which also has a legend associated with it. As the story goes,
the hilltop of the Old Pine was once hunting ground for three Abenaki Indian
communities (Graham 1990, 215). Each year, as the groups seasonally migrated,
the chiefs from each group met to pledge their return in friendship and, the legend

32 Material Culture
Figure 3. The Old Pine today, with Bartlett Tower in the background. Photo by author.

holds, after smoking peace pipes together, they ceremonially broke them to seal
their pledge (Graham 1990, 215).
Some Dartmouth students from the early nineteenth century reportedly met
informally in small groups (not as a whole class) for ceremonies around the Old Pine
and smoked pipes (North 1967, 9-10). However, 1854 appears to be the historic
origin of the Class Day exercises with the class joining hands and singing “When
Shall We [All] Meet Again?” around the Old Pine (North 1967, 10). The second
meeting in 1856 included a reading of chronicles and prophecies along with the

Vol. 45 (2013) No. 2 33

Figure 4. The tablet at the foot of the Old Pine stump. Photo by author.

smoking of the pipe (North 1967, 10). It was this meeting that formalized Class
Day as an official Dartmouth event at the Old Pine, with variations evolving
over the years (North 1967, 11). It is unclear from the early ceremonies if students
passed around a single pipe, used individual pipes, or even the specific kind of
pipe they used, but it was student custom to break pipes against the Old Pine,
and subsequently scramble to collect fragments as mementos, from about 1870
until that tradition ended in 1893 (North 1967, 11; Kemp 2002, 7). Dartmouth
student Kendra Kemp (2002, 7) notes in her senior thesis that it is unclear exactly
when the pipe smashing tradition began; students used many different versions
of the pipe in graduation exercises during the nineteenth century, though records
do not mention the smashing of pipes. Dartmouth’s 1883 yearbook mentions the
first record of a pipe used in connection with Commencement and lists one class
officer as the “custodian of the pipe” (Kemp 2002, 7).
The Class Day tradition and the Old Pine legend firmly established themselves
in Dartmouth culture to the point where the Pine became “almost inseparable from
the name of Dartmouth, and the Old Pine itself had become a living guardian
of the traditions and ideals of the College” (North 1967, 12). The status of this
tradition changed when, in 1887, the Pine was struck by lightning and damaged.
In 1892, a “whirlwind” broke the Pine’s main branch. After this damage, the

34 Material Culture
alumni began to take notice: “As if it were an old friend, the word passed around
among the alumni, ‘The Old Pine is dying’” (Hanover Gazette 1922). Dartmouth
tried to save the tree, but after a series of failures, the College cut down the Old
Pine in 1895.
Alas, the Old Pine did not survive beyond the nineteenth century — at least
not as a whole tree. Instead of uprooting the entire tree, the stump was chemically
preserved. The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine (1912, 348) explained that “to
perpetuate the memory and keep vital the host of traditions which cluster about
the Old Pine,” the College took action in 1912 to preserve the stump and “to cause
to grow on the same spot a ‘probable son of the Old Pine.’” Dartmouth College
laid concrete to encircle the stump and filled the space inside with cinders and
sand to protect it against decay, dampness, and fire (Dartmouth Alumni Magazine
1912, 348). On the stone circle, they attached a tablet (Figures 3 and 4), reading:

“LEST THE OLD TRADITIONS FAIL”

THIS TABLET MARKS THE OLD PINE
CONTEMPORARY WITH THE LIFE OF THE COLLEGE
AND GUARDIAN OF ITS TRADITIONS.
HAVING BEEN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING IN 1887
AND BY A WHIRLWIND IN 1892 IT WAS
CUT DOWN IN 1895. REPLACED IN 1912
Dartmouth may have been preparing for the eventual loss of the Old Pine,
however. “[H]aving sensed the end was near for the Old Pine,” (Graham 1990,
215) the College erected Bartlett Tower slightly north of the stump (Figure 5) to
create, as its plaque reads, “a landmark more enduring than the Old Pine” (North
1967, 12) (Figure 6). President Samuel C. Bartlett, for whom the tower is named,
suggested the idea for the monument.
A legend behind the tower claims that Bartlett, while walking with his son
Samuel on campus one day, came upon a rock and the boy envisioned it as a
place to build a castle to brighten up the area’s gloomy appearance (Berry 1980).
This caught Bartlett’s imagination and construction of the tower began. A highly
controversial president, Bartlett “imposed utter traditionalism upon taking office
in 1877” (Meacham 2008, 18). Young Samuel dedicated the tower to his father
who rescued the College from “financial despair” and considered the tower to be
a permanent tribute to the Old Pine (Berry 1980, 5). He solicited donations from
students to erect “a lasting monument of their devotion to their Alma Mater,”
with the site chosen to be near the Pine (Berry 1980, 5). Undergraduate classes
constructed the 71-foot tower, built of native New Hampshire stone, with a copper
roof, and 86 stone steps inside, between 1885 and 1895 (Berry 1980; Meacham
2008, 132).
Some criticism of the tower surfaced even during its construction, as some
students denounced it as a “sentimental farce” and it became a target for graffiti
and some anonymous “poetry” carved into its walls (Berry 1980, 5). Indeed,
Patricia Berry (1980, 5), a student writing in a column for the Dartmouth College

Vol. 45 (2013) No. 2 35

Figure 5. Bartlett Tower. Photo by author.

newspaper, suggests that the notion of the tower replacing the Old Pine is a
misconception and argued that the tower was “more of a daydream” for Bartlett
than a monument to the tree.

Clay Pipes and the Class Day Controversy

Though some may agree with Berry’s (1980) point, North (1967, 13) maintains that
tradition held firm and Class Day persisted through the years as students continued
to break pipes and, while the tree itself no longer stood, “the Old Pine continued
to hold its place in men’s minds as the traditional symbol of the College.” Graham
(1990, 215) (Figures 7 and 8) describes the ceremony in a more modern context:

36 Material Culture
Figure 6. The plaque on the side of Bartlett Tower. Photo by author.

[O]n the day before their Commencement, the seniors gather for Class
Day in the natural amphitheater just over the cliff to the east. There
they smoke clay pipes symbolic of their friendship as a class. Then, when
Class Day ceremonies are finished, they troop up the cliff and, in waves,
break their pipes upon this ancient stump — signaling their will to
remember, to hold fast their friendships, and to return to this magic place
where in some measure they left their youth and gained their maturity.
This version of the graduation exercise, however, did not outlast Graham’s
depiction for long.
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, along with a rapidly diversifying
Dartmouth came diversified ideas, and some began to question and criticize the
Class Day ceremony. The increasing diversity at Dartmouth began under the
presidency of John Kemeny in the early 1970s, when women undergraduates gained
admission in 1972 and the College began to actively recruit Native Americans
by 1973 (Kemp 2002, 10). Before this time, Dartmouth was a predominantly
white, male student body. By 1987, Native American students in particular began
to openly criticize the breaking of clay pipes during Class Day and, in 1992, they
decided to protest the ceremony, citing that it was sacrilegious to smash clay pipes
and that Dartmouth was being disrespectful toward Native traditions (Clark 1993;
Kemp 2002, 12). Controversy ensued throughout the Dartmouth community as
to whether to continue, modify, or discard the tradition, and College publications
voiced a range of opinions.

Vol. 45 (2013) No. 2 37

Figure 7. Class Day, 1919. Students sit with pipes in hand as they listen to a speaker in Indian costume.
Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library.

Figure 8. Smashing pipes on the stump of the Old Pine, Class Day, circa 1983. Courtesy of Dartmouth
College Library.

38 Material Culture
 Speaking against the ceremony, Kemp (2002, 14) asks why Dartmouth students
felt the need to uphold the tradition when they were aware that it was offensive
to some students. Kemp (2002, 14) also argues that the concept of “Dartmouth
tradition” is skewed because it follows that of the white, male-dominated College
of years past through the fusion of the uncivilized savage and the white male
intellectual, which is entrenched into part of Dartmouth’s institutional identity
through the College’s motto, Vox Clamantis in Deserto [The voice of one crying
in the wilderness], another manifestation of the mentality “that Dartmouth men
are both savage and civilized.”
As the controversy surrounding the pipes waned, a student committee voted
unanimously to end pipe smashing for the 1993 Class Day (Kemp 2002, 16).
Instead, they opted for a candlelight ceremony, though the traditional ceremony
was not completely eradicated (Kemp 2002, 16). Pipes were still available for
purchase by seniors and about one-quarter of the class that year bought pipes to
smash against the stump (Lakhman 1993; Kemp 2002, 16-17). Kemp (2002, 17)
argues that the seniors who bought and smashed the pipes actively disregarded
the culture of Native American students by attempting to fit into an antiquated
Dartmouth and its concomitant concept of the rugged-yet-civilized intellectual
man. Looking further into the question of tradition and what it means at the
College, Kemp (2002, 17-18) explains that, at Dartmouth, students often blindly
follow traditions without regard to their meaning or how they originated, claiming
that students follow traditions because (a) they are fun or amusing, and (b) since
they participated in the tradition, they feel obligated to pass it on to subsequent
generations of students.
Early in the fall term of 1992, the Dartmouth administration got involved in
the issue and began considering how to handle the tradition. Students also voiced
their opinions through student media. Kemp (2002, 21) claims that, regardless
of their opinion, most students contributed constructively to the discussion.
This attitude contrasted with that of some of the older alumni who vehemently
opposed to the discontinuation of the ceremony in light of the College’s profound
recent changes, namely Dartmouth becoming coeducational, the introduction
of sororities, the banning of the Indian as their College mascot, and the more
aggressive recruitment of non-white students (Kemp 2002, 21-22).
Then, on April 27, 1993, the College’s flagship student newspaper, The
Dartmouth, ran the story “Clay pipes Ended,” (Chiu 1993) reporting the
committee’s decision to end the tradition. Kemp (2002, 25) and Kochansky
(1993) both refer to sources that address the point that Dartmouth traditions do
not always cater to all kinds of Dartmouth students. One of Kochansky’s (1993)
sources remarked, “Some of the traditions that are still around today were started by
white, upper-middle class men, and may not be as important to blacks, women, or
poor people.” Kemp (2002, 25) similarly states how change at Dartmouth College
may have created a need among some students to hold on to the tradition because
people wanted to maintain a certain status quo, as administrators like Kemeny

Vol. 45 (2013) No. 2 39

were trying to change the status quo by actively changing the demographics of
the College.
It is difficult to imagine how, after having been around for well over 100
years, a strong tradition such as the breaking of clay pipes on Class Day could
have ended so abruptly. Just a few years before, it was a highly regarded tradition,
at least according to some records. A press release on June 11, 1987, announcing
the upcoming Class Day ceremony, warmly describes the event:
The “peace” pipes will be distributed to seniors during annual Class Day
ceremonies Sunday, June 13, in the Bema, a natural amphitheater on the
college campus. The students, after puffing on tobacco-filled pipes, climb
a nearby hill and break the pipe on an old tree stump. Shards are shared
with friends as keep-sakes. (Dartmouth News 1987)
Five years later — to the exact day — another press release by the same source
solemnly reported, “Dartmouth seniors have decided to not include a clay pipe
ceremony in this Saturday’s Class Day activities, because the 121-year-old tradition
is offensive to certain Native American tribes” (Dartmouth News 1992). The
story mentioned how Native American students and some of their classmates
threatened to walk out of the ceremony if the pipe smashing was repeated that
year (Dartmouth News 1992).
I find that the motivations behind the criticism and cancelation of the Class
Day ceremony are questionable. The fact that the ritual went on for so long without
much protest indicates that there may not have been a substantial voice to protest
the ceremony, as it is now established that Dartmouth did not begin to become
more diversified until the early 1970s. But why is it that Dartmouth waited until
people complained before they saw any flaw in the ceremony? And why was it
that people who were not Native Americans at Dartmouth suddenly felt the need
to speak out against the practice if it was common knowledge beforehand that
Class Day was insensitive to Native cultures? It is also notable that the College did
not act on the matter until substantial conflicts of interest emerged. The growing
influence of political correctness in the 1990s, coinciding with a diversifying school,
pointed to the changing meanings of these revered artifacts and traditions at a
rapidly changing Dartmouth.

The Function of Ritual and Artifacts in Cultural Transitions

The debate surrounding pipe smashing at Class Day brings up further themes
about Dartmouth worthy of closer examination, particularly regarding ritual.
Anthropologists Sally Moore and Barbara Myerhoff (1977) introduce the case of
secular ritual, which tends to focus on specific parts or aspects of a given culture
as opposed to the often all-consuming, universal qualities of religious ritual in
many non-industrialized societies. In the American collegiate context, educational
anthropologist Kathleen Manning (2000, 3), who similarly conducted research on
rituals at the elite Mount Holyoke College, maintains that rituals are an excellent
form of embodying meaning in a college’s culture and often express meanings

40 Material Culture
in clearer and more direct ways. While rituals and ceremonies are common in
collegiate contexts, they are far from ordinary activities and serve as more than
the “glue” that holds these societies together (Manning 2000, 2). Rituals, in
their fluid, dynamic, complex, and adaptable forms, are potent ingredients of
cultural demarcation and transformation, serving to simultaneously maintain
and transform campus cultures (Manning 2000, 2).
Anthropologist Victor Turner (1982) devotes considerable attention to the use
of material culture in rituals. Explaining the significance of material culture to such
celebrations, Turner (1982, 15-16) writes that objects “speak” and communicate
messages through visible and tangible qualities such as form, color, texture, size,
and so forth, though their “message” is enhanced when they are recognized as
culturally specific symbols set in specific celebratory contexts. While symbols
represent something else by association, resemblance, or convention, they are most
importantly material objects that represent many “truths” at once, and are often
not recognizable to an outside observer (Turner 1982, 15-16).
The clay pipes used at Class Day were obviously intended to superficially
represent pipes used by American Indians and served as a material representation
of the College’s association with Native Americans in both Dartmouth lore and
history. They also represent an appropriation of Indian culture, or what some
scholars term “going native” (Huhndorf 2001) or “playing Indian,” which is a form
of “recreation” most typically associated with white males (Deloria 1998). Playing
Indian allows whites to contrast themselves against “savage” cultures and also to
use the image of the Indian as an idealized version of themselves to embody the
lost virtues of Western culture (Huhndorf 2001, 6). “Savage” Indians represented
a way for white Americans to be both wild and civilized through enacting Indian
legends and lore through rituals (Deloria 1998), as Kemp (2002) referred to white
Dartmouth males’ creation of the Class Day ceremonies.
Ethnic studies scholar Shari Huhndorf (2001, 14) traces the phenomenon
of going native to the late nineteenth century and cites it as a form of escapism
and nostalgia, derivative of the rapid industrialization of the American economy
at that time and its association with white racial dominance and social progress.
This sentiment developed out of modernizing white America’s desire to return to
a state of “primitiveness” (Huhndorf 2001, 14). Historian Philip Deloria (1998,
7) agrees that with the onset of modernity, whites used “Indian play to encounter
the authentic amidst the anxiety of urban industrial and postindustrial life.” They
accomplished this through playing as an exotic “Other” and playing Indian served
as a pastime among white Americans, even though it was a casual and inauthentic
practice of “Indianness” (Algeo 2009, 6-7).
At Dartmouth, specific references to student cultural activity around this
time are sporadic, but North (1967, 10) refers to “a sort of war dance” enacted at
the 1857 Class Day and the famous poet Robert Frost (1999, 71-72), who briefly
attended Dartmouth in the 1890s, recalled in correspondence in 1915 that due to
his disinterest in academics, “Much of what I enjoyed at Dartmouth was acting like
an Indian in a college founded for Indians,” and then recounting basic collegiate

Vol. 45 (2013) No. 2 41

mischief. Frost’s descriptions of this tomfoolery do not even resemble anything
Native American in nature at all, which likely accentuates the racially charged
connotations of “playing Indian,” though this passage does reflect a certain attitude
present at Dartmouth College around this time.
Considering these points, we must return to Turner’s work on the ritualistic
use of material culture. Turner (1982, 16-17) states that an object used in a ritual
often carries meanings in its form or from the material from which it is made,
though this meaning may not always be obvious to an outside observer. In fact,
celebrations and their related objects are often based on myths, though they
are not always explained by myths (Turner 1982, 18). Meanings behind rituals
might not be clearly perceptible and the “true” or “inner” meaning of a symbolic
object may only be known or shared by the initiated few (Turner 1982, 18-19).
Regarding the totality of the interrelationships between rituals, their meanings,
and their associated material culture, these objects “are the product, center, and
soul of a social group’s self-manifestation,” created to “speak” and be “heard” to
at least the members of the culture they embody and manifest through a variety
of sensory codes (Turner 1982, 19).
Therefore, rituals hold a cultural significance which cannot be divorced from
the cultures that create and celebrate these rituals or the artifacts utilized in their
celebrations, as these ceremonies do not simply reflect collegiate culture, they
actively construct it (Manning 2000, 48). Regardless of the variable interpretations
of Class Day and its symbols, it was enough to create a permanent change to an
old tradition at Dartmouth College. To some, the clay pipes exemplified tradition
and perhaps pride, but to others they signified racism, exclusion, and intolerance.
It is crucial to acknowledge that the pipes were made of clay; they were meant to
be smashed and not intended to be permanent and were thus used by Dartmouth
students as props in their play as Indians, following the legends of the Indians who
reportedly did the same at the site “many years ago.” Indeed, Turner (1982, 21)
observes that any major celebration, because it draws many members of a society
into a sociocultural space for a limited time, also attracts people and groups with
both permanent and fleeting antagonisms.
When a college’s identity is threatened, as it was with the cancelation of the
clay pipe ceremony, the institution has the option of continuing on the same course
or adapting to accommodate change; rituals and traditions are ways “to express
their common beliefs, commit to those values, and buttress their shared purpose”
(Manning 2000, 116). Without tradition, people are denied a meaningful context
in which to function, and they can lose the sense of continuity and place that
only comes with attachments to long-standing collective memories and meanings
(Gross 1992, 62-63). But as it turns out, threats to Dartmouth’s traditions and
institutional identity long precede the Class Day controversy from the 1990s
and trace back to the genesis of and impetus behind the creation of those “old
traditions.”

42 Material Culture
Ritual, Tradition, and Change in the Early 20th Century
Tensions were apparent as old traditions were threatened with the onset of an
increasingly multicultural Dartmouth and the manifestation of social, cultural,
and economic changes in the United States and rural New England in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Across New England around the turn
of the twentieth century, dramatic social change found its way to the once rural,
agrarian, predominantly white New Hampshire in the form of industrial and
technological growth, greater access to global news and events, and growing
immigrant populations that altered the geography of the region, reducing the
Granite State’s sense of remoteness, and consequently creating a more pluralistic
society (Wright 1987, 1-16). In turn, these changes elicited a strong sense of
nostalgia and desire to return to more “traditional” ways (Wright 1987, 1-16;
Meacham 1998). This shift added more instability to other recent social and
economic problems including the US Civil War and Reconstruction still fresh in
national memory and the Long Depression coinciding with the Panics of 1873
and 1893. Throughout the region, problems such as a perceived decline in social
and economic power, emigration by its talented population, and class conflict
resulted in elites seeking other means of maintaining power, often through the
built environment, with evidence of all of this manifested in the New England
landscape (Meinig 1979, 177-78; Peet 1996; Roper 2011, 303; Wade 2009; Wood
1997). Sociologist Digby Baltzell (1964, 345-46) cites a growing level of elitism
and exclusionary mentalities that grew at the prestigious colleges between about
1880 and 1929 that were derived from perceived threats to an old, established,
Anglo-Saxon lifestyle.
These changes profoundly influenced Dartmouth’s atmosphere around this
time through the introduction of elective courses (departing from the previously
proscribed curriculum), greater department specialization, the offering of a
B.S. in addition to the traditional A.B., and the opening of professional schools
such at the Tuck School of Business, all of which began to attract students
from wealthier backgrounds (Meacham 1998, 4-9). They were also physically
evident in the College’s cultural landscape following an architectural revamping
of the campus between 1893 and 1914 (Meacham 1998, 2). William Tucker,
Dartmouth’s president from 1893 to 1909, understood that places or societies in
transition used the past to inculcate new values and sought to capitalize on the
Dartmouth College’s history and its nostalgic mood at the time; he thus “invented
new traditions to emphasize spiritual institutional loyalty” (Meacham 1998, 18;
2008, 18).
The College became known as the “New Dartmouth” and it was set by
Tucker “on the course towards its present status as an elite academic institution”
(Rago 2004). At the expense of this growth, Tucker became concerned that the
College was beginning to lose its identity and he recognized that loyalty and
affection for Dartmouth were contingent on tradition, custom, and history,
and he self-consciously set out to strengthen and deepen what he called the
Dartmouth Spirit (Rago 2004). “For graduates, Dartmouth was to be the center

Vol. 45 (2013) No. 2 43

of their lives” through a “visceral connection to custom and history” and Tucker
made efforts to preserve the history and heritage of the College through the
establishment of the College’s archives and initiating attempts to preserve the
Old Pine (Rago 2004). Other major College traditions cemented during this
period include the rebuilding of Dartmouth Hall after the devastating fire of
1904, the antecedents of Dartmouth Night in the 1880s and its institution in
1895, and the founding of the Dartmouth Outing Club in 1909 and its trademark
Winter Carnival established in 1911, with all of these traditions subsequently
constructing new landscapes and identities at the College (Wade 2009).
While it might sound somewhat paradoxical to visualize students at an elite
college wanting to “play Indian” or engage in these other seemingly unfitting events
and activities, there was a social and historical basis for them in the interactions
between elite and folk cultures in forging new identities that arose across Europe
and the United States during a prevalent wave of this practice between the 1870s
and World War I (Hobsbawm 1983b). Furthermore, New England elites are
well documented at performing “mystical ceremonies, held at points of symbolic
significance” that reaffirmed their power and status in the face of a changing
country during this historical period (Peet 1996, 35). There is also a long tradition,
particularly among elite groups through their social and financial power, to engage
in mythmaking through the invention of traditions and legends in the creation
of selectively “historical” pasts in part by conserving or creating specific sites,
relics, and icons as signifying landscape elements, often within the context and
revelation of social conflicts (Duncan and Duncan 2004; Hobsbawm 1983a; Peet
1996). Such icons served to reinterpret or create new histories to conveniently fulfill
expectations aroused by their attendant myths (Peet 1996, 35). People can thus
expect traditions to be invented during rapid social transformation that weaken
or destroy a social pattern or when such patterns no longer fit current conditions
(Hobsbawm 1983a, 4-5).
Therefore, people create traditions to shape or alter their surroundings, forming
a society and culture in which to survive and insulate themselves to create stability
(Gehlen 1988; Gross 1992, 66). In reference to the culture of elites, Baltzell
(1964, x) asserts, “The stability of authority in any community depends to a very
great extent on the maintenance of a continuity of cultural traditions.” Thus, as
opposed to a dichotomous relationship, Dartmouth employed a fusion of folk and
elite culture during this transitional time in its history through the invention of
traditions. The ramifications of this period in Dartmouth’s history for creating a
new identity and mythology for itself would be permanent.

Legends in the Landscape

The pipe smashing tradition, and its sudden cancelation, indicated that Class Day
was more complex than a mere graduation exercise, especially if one considers
the greater geographical and historical context. The Old Pine, in its original
form, ceased to exist after 1895. But in its legendary form it continues to play
an important role in Dartmouth imagery and landscape through its “protected”

44 Material Culture
location on a wooded hill surreptitiously overlooking the campus. Trees, both
literally and metaphorically, can span multiple generations, which accordingly act
as markers for historical and social events: “As links with the past, be it actual or
mythical, particular trees make ideas more realistic and dynamic in the present”
(Davies 1988, 34). Anderson (2003, 149) reminds us that trees are not passive
backdrops for human activities, but active participants in the ongoing creation of
places and landscapes, as well as cultural identities. The role of the tree is especially
significant in the case of Class Day. Though the focus in the past was whether or
not to continue the tradition of smashing pipes, the significance of the Old Pine
itself was rarely addressed in these debates.
Importantly, the location and sociocultural functions of some trees allows
them to play a part in rituals. Anderson (2003, 8) says:
As symbols of the center, specific living trees in the landscape sometimes
take on a sacred character. Yet usually it is not the trees themselves that
are objects to be worshipped; rather, they are the place where the sacred
world can break through into human reality, where communication
with the gods is possible. . . . Certain tree places, either individual trees
or groves, are thus set aside, declared separate, off limits, different from
the ordinary or profane. People will forego material gain to protect such
trees, and mourn trees that are damaged or killed.
Although Class Day could not be accurately described as a “sacred” ritual, there
is certainly a pseudo-spiritual quality to these components of Dartmouth lore,
as the stump of the Pine was preserved and memorialized and it is located in
a secluded part of the campus intended for the Class Day ritual. Dartmouth
alumnus and architectural historian Scott Meacham (2008, 131) notes that after
the decision to preserve the stump, it persisted “as a sort of holy relic, a carefully
tended monument to a symbol.” Trees have long held symbolic value as a means
for elites to control landscapes and spaces (Anderson 2003, 8-9).
To further understand the role of these “spiritual” qualities in their relation
to the Old Pine, consider Paul Chamberlain’s (2001) concept of topomystica or
“mystical place.” Chamberlain’s (2001, 98) research illustrates that there are
places in the landscape that offer spiritual meaning to people’s lives “in a way that
traditional belief systems do not.” Chamberlain (2001, 102) defines topomystica as
“being places of activity that are peculiar, mysterious, or beyond human reason,”
but also as locations where people experience a feeling that a supernatural force
is at work. A typomystica is (1) a place where events are peculiar, mysterious, or
beyond human reason; (2) a place where the cause of these events is attributed
to supernatural power, superimposed upon the site by the human imagination,
creating a genius loci; and (3) where this superimposed supernatural force on
the site can either be beneficial, or threatening, to those who come into contact
with it (Chamberlain 2001, 104). Furthermore, Manning (2000: 9) writes that
power, when expressed through ritualistic acts like those found at elite colleges,

Vol. 45 (2013) No. 2 45

is especially effective when indirect claims to power are made, such as through a
reference to the divine or a “spirit” of some kind.
Following these criteria, the Old Pine fits the attributes of helping to
create a topomystica. For one, the story behind the Pine was never authenticated,
though it was used (or, perhaps, “superimposed”) to give the Pine a sense of awe to
distinguish it from the many other pines in the forests surrounding Dartmouth.
This distinction helped to create a genius loci, or spirit of place, as the hill housing
the Pine was selected for the purposes of a bonding ritual for graduating seniors,
creating a space for memory. For over 100 years this was the site of the major
Dartmouth tradition of Class Day, though some deemed certain qualities of the
ritual to be threatening toward specific groups of students, particularly Native
Americans, which follows Chamberlain’s point of a mystical place not always
being perceived as such by all involved parties. Though some Dartmouth men
may have seen the Class Day site as “beneficial” for a long time, it later held some
“threatening” connotations to Dartmouth’s subsequent multicultural classes.
Over time, the legend of the Old Pine matured, as did the tree, though the Pine
itself eventually died. The death of the tree did not diminish the spirit surrounding
it, however, as some special trees tend to linger in certain cultures’ memories.
Anderson (2003, 149) explains that mature trees capture the imagination and
evoke awe, as over the years they gather stories and legends about them and they
continue to inhabit the landscape in death, either physically or as memories. This
is key considering that the Old Pine did die, but it was memorialized with a plaque
and people tried to preserve it. Therefore, the Pine’s emotional value did not die
along with it. Meacham (2008, 131) writes that the Old Pine became a “locus”
for students’ sentimental connection to the College and that students “attached
as much importance to the stump of the old tree as they had to the tree itself.”
North (1967, 14-15) articulates this sentiment:
[L]ittle remains of the Old Pine itself. A few mementos, carved from its
wood after the tree was cut down, have found their way back to the College
to be preserved in its Archives. Perhaps the most interesting of these is a
chain, of oval links about three inches long, whittled from a single piece
of the soft, mellow wood. … Holding the chain in one’s hands it is not
difficult to believe that on a sunny afternoon nearly two hundred years
ago three Indians gathered beneath the tree of which it once was part and
sang their farewell songs or that somehow, through the years, generations
of Dartmouth men had not infused into this wood some of their love for
the college it once, while living, symbolized.
More recently, Kemp (2002, 9) informs us that “mystical lore” surrounds
the “stump” today and the College has replaced the “bark” on it several times
within the last few decades. This upkeep affirms Dartmouth’s desire to maintain
its traditions, symbols, and connections to the past (Kemp 2002, 9). The
memorialization allows “the supposed remnants” of the tree to maintain a bond to
a past for “a community that no longer needs a link with a time when the student

46 Material Culture
body looked so different than it does today” (Kemp 2002, 9). I actually touched
the “stump” of the Old Pine and quickly realized that it is clearly not wooden; it
actually feels more comparable to a fiberglass-like material. So, contrary to Kemp’s
point, the tree, real or not, remains a symbol of the College and a link to its past.
Recalling the memory of the Old Pine, it is also important to consider
Bartlett Tower. I disagree with Berry’s (1980) contention that there is only a weak
connection between the Pine and Bartlett Tower, as she seems preoccupied with
criticizing Bartlett’s personal romantic ambitions. That the plaque on the Tower
states that it was erected “as a landmark more enduring than the Old Pine” suggests
that there is some truth to this statement, and one must also consider the Tower’s
proximity to the “stump” of the Pine, looming over it, as if it is guarding the
remains. While Meacham (2008, 131-32) labels Bartlett Tower an architectural
“folly,” he also confirms that it is a “substitute” and a “permanent replacement”
for the Old Pine. It is notable that, at 71 feet, Bartlett Tower is about the same
height as the original Pine. Following Meacham, I submit that, as its own plaque
suggests, the Tower serves as an artifact that “protects” the traditions embodied
within another artifact, the Pine’s “stump.”
The plaque, archival, and historical sources suggest that it was Bartlett’s
intention to build the Tower to provide a permanent, material testament to
the legends of the hill where the Old Pine once stood. Through the sentiment
surrounding the loss of the Pine, and in the face of major changes at the College
and beyond, it may have been an attempt to create order out of disorder (Tuan
1974, 146). Chamberlain (2001, 105) notes that topomystica is irregular in shape
when found in natural topographical features in the landscape, but where sites
lack discernible natural characteristics, or where there is a need to increase the
mystical appeal of a place, geometry is superimposed on the site: “Geometry is
order; order implies design; and design suggests a hidden force, or supernatural
power, is at work.” Bartlett Tower and the “stump,” as planned artifacts, therefore
helped to fill an emotional void as more permanent, material symbols in the
absence of the Old Pine.
Though some saw Bartlett Tower as an overly sentimental attempt by the
College to hold onto an imagined romantic past, it is important to remember that
it is still standing and there has been no serious action to raze or relocate it. Given
that the Tower still stands, I deduce that it still holds some value to the College
and I suspect that its value is somewhat understated. Similarly for the Old Pine,
it may not be standing where it once was, but its importance has not necessarily
diminished. Thus, its absence in the landscape does not immediately render the
Old Pine to be completely “gone” or even totally forgotten. Due to the complexity
and uncertainty of the world outside of a college, perhaps especially within the
context that I discuss here, rituals and traditions “can act as an assurance that
there is order and control” (Manning 2000, 109). Landscapes, especially those
that are highly controlled, are crucial to social identities, and while collective
memories, community narratives, and invented traditions can be performed and
contested, they are “more often stabilized or fixed in artifactual form” (Duncan

Vol. 45 (2013) No. 2 47

and Duncan 2004, 29) as we see in Dartmouth’s College Park. The Old Pine
especially is still an important symbol for the College, and its remaining (though
fragmentary) presence in the landscape and Dartmouth’s continuing use of its
image might imply who remains in control at Dartmouth and who might be
guarding the “old traditions.”

Myth as Material Culture

The artifacts I detail above, and all that they embody and represent, are just a few
examples of the role that material culture plays in the institutional culture and
identity of Dartmouth College. And here we see multiple themes that stem from
these features of Dartmouth’s cultural landscape. Though the memorialization of
an allegedly mystical tree helped to literally and figuratively solidify this legend in
the landscape, it becomes clear through an examination of the historical and social
context that the materialized form of the Old Pine, Bartlett Tower, and the clay
pipes effectively become symbols with multiple, layered meanings (Algeo 2009,
2-3) to a specific culture and, more broadly, a socioeconomic class. In this case,
what was once attributed to folklore was essentially always component of an elite
culture through the appropriation of “Indian” legends and artifacts. Significantly,
some venders in Hanover still sell unofficial Dartmouth Indian merchandise that
is unendorsed by the College (Linsalata 2006; Reid 2007; Wool 2007).
While the tree, the legends, and the pipes superficially sound and appear folksy
and unpretentious, they were, in effect, symbols and material embodiments of
socioeconomic dominance, exclusivity, and Dartmouth’s high status and power.
The impermanence of the Old Pine in particular called for Dartmouth to recreate
it into material form as a memorialized stump and as Bartlett Tower, symbols of
stability and continuity to serve as permanent, material reminders of the values
and status that these components represented in the face of a changing place and
landscape. It is through an analysis of the artifacts of elites that we can learn
more beyond their folk narratives and selective histories to develop new narratives
through the texts of cultural landscapes and their features.
And while these legends may endure in material form, seldom mentioned in
Dartmouth lore is the New Pine. The “New Pine” is located slightly downhill
from the Old Pine and it, like many other Dartmouth monuments, is marked
with a plaque (Figure 9). This tree was planted in 1967 by the members of the
Class of 1927. North (1967, 15) remarks at the appropriateness of a new tree at the
beginning of the College’s third century, “a New Pine, just as tradition says a young
pine stood on the start ridge at the founding of the College.” And the planting of
the New Pine did not go without its own ritual. The local newspaper, Valley News
(1967), reported that, at the ceremony, 125 members of the Class of 1927, with
some dressed as Indians, smashed clay pipes on a granite rock commemorating
the Old Pine stump where they broke pipes at graduation 40 years before. They
gathered to dedicate the New Pine, offering “to plant a new 25-year-old pine on
the traditional spot in an effort to immortalize the significance of the Dartmouth
pine” (Valley News 1967). President James Dickey spoke, the alumni smoked from

48 Material Culture
Figure 9. The New Pine today, slightly downhill from the Old Pine. Photo by author.

their pipes, and subsequently smashed them, leaving the scene singing “Men of
Dartmouth” (Valley News 1967). In 2007, the Class of 1967 ceded the responsibility
for the New Pine to the Class of 2007 (Klenotic 2007).
Numerous familiar issues resurface in reconstructing this scene. Geographer
Edward Relph (1976, 32-33) writes, “Much ritual and custom and myth has
the incidental if not deliberate effect of strengthening attachment to place by
reaffirming not only the sanctity and unchanging significance of it, but also the
enduring relationships between a people and their place.” As historian David Gross
(1992, 10) explains, while some traditions fade, a tradition can surreptitiously
maintain continuity, especially those traditions that are repressed or persecuted.
Though they may appear to have been abolished, “they actually slip just below
the surface and preserve themselves in secrecy” (Gross 1992, 10). Thus, the
status quo may have shifted, but the root mentality lingered below the surface;
while Dartmouth evolved to accommodate women and new ethnic groups, the

Vol. 45 (2013) No. 2 49

question of socioeconomic class remained in the background and persists to this
day. The transition of the Old Pine from natural feature to material artifact,
within the context of a tradition-obsessed culture, suggests the desire, or perhaps
dependence on material reminders in the landscape of a sense of permanence
and continuity in a changing landscape and place that might feel threatened
by external changes. Here we see an example of one way elites, through the use
of artifacts as constants in certain cultural landscapes, find ways to symbolize
the persistence of their means of power and control, even in dynamic times.
And at Dartmouth, it appears that even old traditions that “fail” die hard.
Regardless of the authenticity of the current Old Pine stump or the presence of
a New Pine, these landscape features merely encapsulate Dartmouth’s invented
traditions. Their continuing presence through change points to their symbolic
function of representing stability for Dartmouth’s true “old traditions,” being the
preservation of wealth, power, and prestige (Wade 2009, 443). Perhaps we can
leave this study with the thought that just because some traditions fail, it does
not mean that they cannot be reborn or recreated, or that their significance has
diminished, and it certainly does not mean that they or what they symbolize,
have been forgotten.

Notes
1. The Colonial Colleges are a group of nine institutions of higher learning
founded in the American colonies before the formation of the United States. These
colleges, listed in the order of their founding and by their present-day names, are:
Harvard University (1636), College of William & Mary (1693), Yale University
(1701), University of Pennsylvania (1740), Princeton University (1747), Columbia
University (1754), Brown University (1764), Rutgers University (1766), and
Dartmouth College (1769). Other institutions were founded in colonial America,
but they are not considered Colonial Colleges because they did not grant degrees
until after the formation of the United States (Thelin 2004). Strictly speaking,
the Ivy League refers to an NCAA sports conference founded in 1954, though
it also carries the connotation of a group of elite, American universities. The
eight members of the Ivy League, listed alphabetically, include Brown, Cornell
(founded 1865), Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale (see
Thelin 1976).

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