A Permanent Record of Gifts
A PERMANENT record of some 500 major benefactors of Dartmouth College now reposes in the Treasure Room at Baker Library. It was recently turned over to Librarian Richard W. Morin '24 by Ford H. Whelden '25. Mr. Whelden has been compiling the record of gifts and bequests of 15,000 and up for the past five years. All known gifts, except Alumni Fund contributions, are included, and the record covers the past 188 years of the history of the College. Recorded are more than 240 alumni, more than 215 nonalumni, and some sixty corporations, foundations, trusts, government agencies and the like. The gifts, grants, and bequests from all these donors total over $36,000,000.
The record presently comprises two volumes. The master record is in tooled leather covers with a separate parchment page devoted to each benefactor. Three secondary copies with board covers have been printed. One is in the office of the President, one in the Office of Development, and one serves as a working copy for future revisions. It is anticipated that the record will be brought up to date annually.
The two-volume master copy will remain in the Treasure Room until the completion of the Hopkins Center, at which time it will be transferred to the Alumni Lounge.
The record has been compiled to recognize permanently the vital significance of the gifts, bequests and grants of the benefactors who in major degree have made possible the present Dartmouth. A portion of these donors stem from the distant past. In number they are relatively few but without them Dartmouth, ever close to bankruptcy in her first century, might have ceased to exist.
The larger number of benefactors are of more recent vintage. They include graduates, non-graduates, wives, parents, relatives, and in goodly number just plain friends - all of whom have given generously, and in many cases time and time again. And now in comparatively recent years the great tide of giving has fanned out - and from foundations and corporations, from trusts and societies, from holding companies, and from government agencies, large and small grants have been coming in. In this field of giving only a small beginning has been made.
Mr. Whelden, who compiled the permanent record of Dartmouth benefactions, said, "No other nation in the history of the world has devoted itself so energetically to philanthropy. Few other institutions in the field of education can take greater pride than Dartmouth in the devotion of her sons and friends, and in their willingness to give in order to protect her future."
Librarian Richard W. Morin '24 (left) and Ford H. Whelden '25 in the Treasure Room of Baker Library, with the permanent record of gifts to the College which had been placed there.
