LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Put Your Magazine to Use
TO THE EDITOR:
During this school year, one of your alumni who is a member of our faculty passed along to me the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE after reading it. I found many articles of interest to students browsing through college materials, so I clipped them and have them filed. I thought you should know that counselors found these articles of interest. I am sure that it helps keep the alumni abreast of happenings on the campus. So many alumni magazines have so little coverage of the departments of the college and their offerings.
Perhaps you might encourage other alumni to pass along old magazines to the counselors in their high schools who can build a file such as I am doing of excellent articles on Dartmouth.
Dean of Boys Scarsdale High School
Scarsdale, N. Y.
"Such a Blunder"
TO THE EDITOR:
As Dartmouth's new field house nears completion, one cannot but be impressed by its grace and size and real beauty. But on investigation of the small information board at the site, which displays an architect's conception of the finished product, enthusiasm is dampened. This drawing shows the associated architect's finishing, details, most regrettably the low, flat-roofed projections along each of the building's flanks.
The need for maximum area, storage space, etc. is of course always pressing. But it is extremely unfortunate that the architectural quality of this building suffers from such a requirement. The span of the vault is not a feat, it could be done with other building materials and in a number of ways. But it is the way in which engineer Pier Luigi Nervi resolves the problem that is characteristic and of value. The delicate ribs and strong buttresses reflect the genius and energy of a master designer; these buttresses will be covered up by the flank projections. Nervi is one of the prime movers in the development of large, reinforced concrete structures. It is a tribute to Dartmouth that it has been patron to one of his very few buildings in the United States.
How ironic, after taking such a commendable step, that Dartmouth should be so blind as to allow such a blunder.
West Lebanon, N. H.
Credit Where Due
TO THE EDITOR:
In the interest of accurate reporting—and credit where credit is due - I ask leave to except to the statement in the item "Crafts Advisers" on page 21 of the October issue of the Magazine, that Mrs. Vanderbilt Webb, chairman of the Hopkins Center Crafts Advisory Group, "founded the League of N. H. Arts and Crafts."
With no purpose to detract from Mrs. Webb's many distinguished accomplishments, and speaking merely as a latter-day member of the League's council, I would suggest that if any single individual meets the description of "founder," that individual was Mrs. J. Randolph Coolidge of Sandwich, N. H. Mrs. Coolidge was its first President, and was succeeded after ten years in office by the late Dean Robert C. Strong of Dartmouth College. Those who may be interested in the League, as many Hanoverites are, will find its history carefully detailed in Allen H. Eaton's "Handicrafts of New England" (Harper, 1949) pp. 295-313.
Mr. David R. Campbell, likewise a member of the newly constituted Advisory Group, was the League's Director from 1938 to 1962, bringing it to its present eminence before he relinquished his fulltime position, the better to devote his many talents to the American Craftsman Council and allied activities. Mr. Campbell will need no introduction to Hanover, where the Arts and Crafts building on Lebanon Street which he designed, awaits completion of the new Hopkins Center across the street.
Concord, N. H.
