A WEATHERVANE FOR THE LIBRARY TOWER

(The curs on these pages are by courtesy of Pencil Points)

In the early sketches of the library the mediaeval banner which was its protower the architect had hinted at a totype, but a clothesline on a windy Monweathervane, using a type not uncommon day. Mr. Larson, who was busy, desired on old structures. The bifurcated outline of this was viewed with some alarm by hard-boiled members of the faculty committee. It suggested to their minds, not to know what they would substitute: naturally they were dumb, or words to that effect. Whereupon he hit upon the idea of enlivening things in his office by having a competition among his assistants for a weathervane design. The prize was a Dunhill pipe, 'which, as he brought it through from Montreal, did not embarrass his budget. As a jury he empannelled a future Trustee, the Librarian, and the Research Professor of Physiological Optics.

The competition brought out some very good work. It was felt that the vane should in some way express Dartmouth tradition—that, as so commanding a height, 200 feet above the campus—it should suggest the college rather than the library. And, to be at all comprehensible at that altitude, it must be very simple. The contestants read up on the college and asked many questions. The jury had a long session over the designs here reproduced and several others. It was felt that while "Occum and his Raft" was probably the most attractive piece of design, it did not suggest Dartmouth tradition as definitely as Stanley Orcutt's Wheelock and an Indian under the Pine. This was given the prize and adopted in principle for the tower. Probably some frivolous person will suggest that the pivot cap behind Wheelock looks very much like a keg. Well, is it not often heard that:

"Eleazar Wheelock was a very pious man,

He went into the wilderness to teach the Ind-i-an."

"Eleazar was the faculty, and the whole curriculum

Was five hundred gallons of New England rum."

Accepted design by Stanley Orcutt

Design by E. M. Bridge

Design by A. T. Granger

Designs by A. T. Granger