The Class of 1926 Collection

ASSISTANT TO THE LIBRARIAN

As the College begins its third century, it can be rewarding to reflect upon" the very different world seen by New Englanders during Dartmouth's first century; that is, the years 1769-1869. While we may read our retrospective histories of this period, we tend to overlook a vital and often lively resource, the literary and artistic output of the period itself. The College is fortunate in having within its Library a readily available source for any such study: the Class of 1926 Memorial Collection, dedicated to the careful accumulation of illustrated books published in New England during this period of Dartmouth College's relative infancy.

The foundations of the Collection were laid in 1960 by the Class of 1926 Memorial Committee, under the chairmanship of Richard H. Mandel. The Collection has now grown to 1400 volumes through the careful acquisition of books purchased from Memorial Fund income, from special gifts in cash or in kind, and through such notable efforts as "Operation Attic," led by Mrs. Herbert H. Harwood. In 1970 the Committee published an illustrated Sampler, featuring numerous highlights of the Collection, this item now being available from the Library at $2.50 each. Two student publications have also emerged from the Collection under the guidance of Prof. Ray Nash, its honorary Curator.

The value of the Collection to the scholar and to the visitor is twofold. An essential criterion for inclusion is that of illustration, and the Collection thus serves as primary source material for the graphic artist and art historian interested in early American book illustration, illustrators, and the various technical processes involved. Secondly, the Collection provides a fascinating insight into the reading fare of the contemporary public, from the Colonial of 1769 to the Victorian of 1869. Most of this material would not have been included in the scholarly tomes collected by the Dartmouth Library during those years and consequently does not duplicate materials already in the Library.

The potential use of the Collection ranges over numerous disciplines. The student of eighteenth-century society, for instance, would find an interesting (and, to us, occasionally amusing) volume in The School of Good Manners, "Composed for the Help of Parents in teaching their Children how to carry it in their Places, during their minority." In this little book we see such admonition to the properly behaved child as: "Make a Bow always when you come Home, and be instantly uncovered"; "Never speak to thy Parents without some Title of Respect, viz. Sir, Madam, etc. according to their quality"; and "Approach near thy Parents at no time without a Bow." Lest, however, the modern parent think these rules too uniformly strict, we should note that under the heading "Of Children's Behavior when in Company" we see the instruction "Spit not in the Room, but in the Corner, and rub it with thy Foot, or rather go out and do it abroad." This volume appeared in 1787, and thus might well have been used for parental guidance by Dartmouth's earliest alumni.

No good child of this period could of course be expected to behave properly without a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, and learning these was often facilitated through the use of the "hieroglyphic" Bible, an early prototype, we might say, of "programmed learning," of which there are numerous examples in the 1926 Collection, providing excellent material for the study of early American graphic arts. Moral instruction, however, was not limited to the child but also aimed at his seniors, especially in the valiant campaign waged against that root of sin and evil, alcohol. A number of books in the Collection chronicle the sad fate of families and individuals brought to ruin by the bottle, with, of course, appropriate illustrations. A fine example of the temperance tract is a recently acquired volume entitled The First andLast Days of Alcohol the Great in theEmpire of Nationolia, the frontispiece of which accompanies this article.

For those more concerned with early American editions of literary works, the Collection affords access to the works of such writers as Defoe, Dickens, Franklin, Holmes, Longfellow, and many others, including the illustrated, fifty-volume "household edition" of Sir Walter Scott's Waverly Novels, and some fine editions of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Literature with which we are perhaps not so familiar is abundantly exemplified in the Collection by the "gift-book" or "keep-sake"—lavishly bound and illustrated volumes which, regardless of their generally slim literary value, were designed and destined to grace the New England parlor tables of the Victorian era. An example would be The Token; a Christmas and a New Year's Present, whose editor honestly admits that "the contributions and specimens have been obtained from as many different writers and artists as possible."

There is also a substantial representation of children's literature in the 1926 Collection, including many items in Jacob Abbott's familiar "Rollo" series concerning the adventures and misadventures of a twelve-year-old lad, with essays on his experiments, philosophy, travels, vacations, and so on. Other prolific writers of similar juvenilia include William Taylor Adams ("Oliver Optic"), Rebecca Sophia Clarke, and William Simonds. All of these series are abundantly embellished with graphic representations of their youthful protagonists.

There are a number of very fully illustrated scientific and medical books in the Collection, the latter including various volumes of anatomy, physiology, surgery, and pathology, as well as marginal disciplines such as phrenology. Other scientific works range over many fields from pure mathematics to instructions on the proper method of raising silkworms. Included in these volumes are also a number of books designed to introduce the world of science to the younger set.

The Collection contains an extensive selection of works by the versatile writer Samuel Griswold Goodrich, often identified as "Peter Parley," containing such varied titles as Lights and Shadows ofAfrican History, The Wonders of Geology, Curiosities of Nature and Art,History and Biography, A PictorialGeography of the World, and A Glanceat Philosophy, indeed an impressive array of subject matter to be tackled by a single author.

The historian will find a wealth of resources in the Collection in addition, of course, to those materials which are useful in themselves as historical documents. Historical treatises range the gamut of the discipline, with an understandable emphasis on American and particularly New England history. Expertly designed illustrations include nineteenth-century views of Boston and other notable sites and buildings of New England.

No collection of early American illustrations would be adequately representative without some examples of the art of caricature. In addition to other works in this field, the 1926 Collection has some fine examples of the work of David Claypoole Johnston (known as "the American Cruikshank" after the great English caricaturist of that name), whose amusing portrayals of local celebrities brought him threats of libel suits and refusal from printers and booksellers to handle his work. Especially notable in the Collection is his Outlines Illustrativeof the Journal of F[anny] A[nne]K[emble], drawn in 1835.

While primarily devoted to books and other monographic works of the 1769-1869 period, the Collection does contain a few examples of other forms of materials such as broadsides (posters or other single sheets printed on one side only). One of these announces a reduction in the stage fare to $2.50 for the journey from Claremont, New Hampshire, to Boston (via Concord, Nashua and Lowell), while another announces, that the Morgan horse "Daniel Webster," stabled on Hanover Street, Manchester, is available for stud.

The 1926 Collection, then, offers a remarkable variety of materials drawn from Dartmouth's first century and displays the work of some of America's finest illustrators, thus serving as a potentially very valuable resource for those interested in this period, whether they be students of graphic art, history, sociology, science, or literature. This usefulness can only increase as the Collection continues to grow, and the Memorial Book Fund Committee, presently under the chairmanship of Charles D. Webster, encourages alumni of all Classes to participate in this unique project by searching their attics and cellars for illustrated books published in New England during Dartmouth's first century.

The Collection's Bookplate.

The New England Primer was first published about 1690 and was still being issuedin new editions 130 years later, copying or adapting the traditional illustrations,as shown by this 1822 edition in the Dartmouth collection.

This 1866 book for juveniles is one ofthe Oliver Optic series by William TaylorAdams, a God-fearing, intensely patrioticauthor who turned out 126 books duringhis prolific career.

An 1829 example of the gift book orkeepsake book, usually a hodgepodge ofwritings of little literary value, but lavishly bound and illustrated so as to be anitem for the parlor table.

Broadside for the Morgan stallion Daniel Webster, standing at stud.

EMPEROR ALCOHOL THE GREAT. Frontispiece of John Cowen's temperance tract, The First and Last Days ofAlcohol the Great, in the Empire of Nationolia: or Manxman's Records of theTemperance Revolution, published in Providence in 1848.