THE NICHOLS ERA
Forty years ago this month Ernest Fox Nichols completed his seven-year period of service as tenth President of the College. The photographs on these two pages recall a few of the events and developments of his administration, which came between those of President Tuck and President Hopkins.
In Tune 1909, the President-elect arrived in Hanover and addressed the students at the Inn corner. President Tucker is at right.
Early on the morning of February 26, 1910, fire broke out in South Fayerweather Hall. By dawn little remained but the outside walls.
ERNEST FOX NICHOLS Dartmouth's President 1909-16
Doctor Nichols, who assumed the duties of the Presidency on July 15, was formally inaugurated October 14, 1909. The inaugural procession was headed by Craven Laycock as chief marshal, followed by President Nichols, General Streeter of the Board of Trustees, Governor Quinby, and Doctor Tucker.
Alumni Gymnasium, constructed during the years 1909-11, was the first of the buildings added to the College plant during the Nichols period.
C. F. "Clothespins" Richardson was among the first of several long-time faculty members to retire during the Nichols administration.
President William Howard Taft visited Dartmouth in the fall of 1912 and addressed the students from his auto in front of Webster Hall. In 1915, then a Yale Law School professor, he returned to the College to give a series of three lectures.
Substantial gifts by Edward Tuck '62 in the years 1909-16 included the funds for building Tuck Drive.
Early in 1916, as war loomed, Dartmouth's volunteer training battalion was formed.
Prize winners of the first Winter Carnival,which was held in February 1911. FredHarris '11 (in D sweater) had stimulatedformation of the DOC the winter before.
The English poet Alfred Noyes addressed his first American collegiate audience in Hanover in 1913. Vachel Lindsay and Robert Frost were other visiting poets.
Late in November 1915, it was announced President Nichols had resigned to return to teaching and research work at Yale.
Doctor Nichols attended the inauguration in October 1916 of President Hopkins.
