Text of President Hopkins' Dedication Address
THIS CEREMONY is in celebration of the second reincarnation of Dartmouth Hall. The original structure was authorized by vote of the Trustees in 1784, to be built on the eminence east of the College Green. Its frame was raised in 1786. It was first put to public use in 1787; it was put to general use in 1791.
Then passed something more than a hundred years. The building had become noted as one of the most characteristic edifices of which any of the colonial colleges was possessed, and every effort was made to safeguard and preserve it that its life, already spanning three centuries, might be prolonged indefinitely. Heat was brought in from a central plant, and electric lights were installed. Thus was made possible the removal of wood, coal, and oil and all other materials conducive to spontaneous combustion from individual rooms. Seemingly, the hazards of fire had been reduced to small proportions, as compared with anything previously existent. In February, 1904, however, fire completely destroyed the building.
In the following October, in elaborate ceremony Lord Dartmouth laid the cornerstone of a new building which externally should approximate the old in appearance and should be in construction fire-resisting in partial degree. For thirty years this building rendered its due service, and then it, in turn, was damaged seriously by fire on an April night last spring.
After long and careful deliberation, the Trustees voted that the hall, rather than being simply restored, should be rebuilt as nearly indestructible as concrete and steel could make it, still preserving in outward appearance the semblance of the original building. This has now been done.
If one were to ask why in the new this emphasis upon outward reproduction of the old should have been insisted upon, I should reply at once that it was because of the symbolism of the College which has always attached to this building. The simple dignity and the quiet charm of the structure had come to seem to Dartmouth men to be an outward manifestation of an inner grace of the College.
I know of no single building elsewhere in any other college which has so exclusively absorbed the affection of its alumni and which has so completely filled their mind's eye in retrospect as symbolic of the College as did the old Dartmouth Hall throughout its life. For nearly five decades the original building constituted the whole of the College plant; it was in very fact the College. Then came additional buildings, some more commodious, some more costly, and some more ornate, but the hold of Dartmouth Hall upon the minds and hearts of Dartmouth men remained unchanged. In recognition of these feelings and in respect for these sentiments, now again, as three decades ago, there is restored to the College plant a building, externally reminiscent of the old while internally representing every convenience and every improvement the utilization of which could profitably be made. The new Dartmouth Hall absorbs, preserves, and projects the spirit of the old hall as the modern College transmutes and redirects the purposes of the old.
In our material structures, as in our educational programs, we build with no possibility of knowing the exact use to which they will eventually be put, but with determination that whatever the use made of the new, it shall be undertaken in the spirit of the devotion that permeated the old.
It was Timothy Dwight, the distinguished President of Yale, who, visiting Hanover a century and a quarter ago, remarked of the altered objectives of Dartmouth in abandonment of its role as a missionary school for conversion of savages, that "those who liberally contributed to the establishment of this seminary, would, were they alive, have the satisfaction of seeing that, although it has not answered the very ends, at which they, perhaps, especially aimed, it has yet been a source of extensive benefit to mankind."
Of our historic educational foundations which have endured and grown strong, it may at any time well be said, as Paul said of Abraham, that he "when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."
Neither in building program nor in educational policy may we be able to penetrate the future and to know its exact requirements, but we do know always that injunction has been laid upon us to obey the call that we go out into the place which we shall after receive as an inheritance. It is not whither we go that is our main concern, but rather the intelligence we show in choosing our path and the understanding we cherish of the spirit in which our search for the promised land shall be undertaken.
From the days of the revival of learning to the present, those institutions which have survived and acquired distinction have been those motivated in their foundations by the spirit of self-sacrifice and dominated in their development by concern for the public good. This purpose to serve, if we may draw an analogy in terms of aviation, is a beam which, rigorously followed, makes possible our flying blind with assurance of safe landings in fields of distinctive accomplishment. Thus is educational progress made possible, stage by stage.
To such spirit as pervaded and gave its aura of sanctity to the comfortless rooms of the old Dartmouth Hall, and to the altruistic impulses which, amid incredible hardships, glorified the ambitions and ideals of Eleazar Wheelock, we consecrate ourselves today, and in remembrance of these, we dedicate this building to the pursuit of sound learning which shall redound to the welfare of mankind.
High Light of Dedication Program President Hopkins confers the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws upon President James Rowland Angell of Yale.
