Treasure Collector

It was a family party, Hopkins Center director Peter Smith proclaimed, the extended family of Churchill Lathrop, better known as Jerry, come in person and spirit to wish him well on the 50th anniversary of his. association with Dartmouth and, while they were at it, to celebrate Hopkins Center's 16th birthday.

The party, held last month for the retired art professor and gallery director, flowed from a reception at the Carpenter galleries to dinner at Hopkins Center, where celebrants had a chance to voice their affection for Lathrop and admiration for what he had done over a half century to enrich the life of the College. Greetings came from former students, parents, colleagues, collectors, artists, and others who watched Lathrop build Dartmouth's art collection from scratch. If it wasn't scratch in 1928, when the young businessman-turned-art-historian came here to teach, it was the next thing to it. When the first exhibition was mounted in 1929 in the galleries of the new Carpenter Hall, Lathrop recalled, every item displayed was borrowed. Now, by contrast, the collection he amassed is so rich and various that only a fraction of it can be exhibited even within a period of years. Fittingly, a new art gallery within the College's expanding exhibition facilities is to be named in Lathrop's honor.

An exhibition entitled "Churchill Lathrop Collects 1934-1974," featuring treasures of his 40 years as Dartmouth's first director of galleries, was also on view last month. Asked recently which were his favorites, Jerry Lathrop replied that "it would be like choosing a favorite child," and then went on to name an Eakins, a Turner, some Picassos, a Toulouse-Lautrec, some Matisse prints, a Lipchitz. . . .