Cover-up

Because the College wants to make regular use of the downstairs Hovey Grill in Thayer Hall and is thwarted by the presence of Walter Beach Humphrey's Eleazar Wheelock murals, which women and Native Americans say are objectionable, a decision has been made to cover the murals. The first idea was, to remove the murals and store them in the new Hood Museum of Art when it is ready, but in the attempt to do this, it was quickly learned that the murals (painted on canvas) are so firmly attached to the concrete walls behind them that removing them would ruin them. Only one panel, over the fireplace, was mounted on wood, and that section has been taken down intact. The rest of the murals are being covered with wall paneling in such a way that they will not be damaged. If opinion about the murals changes, the removable panels can come down, bringing to public view once again Humphrey's colorful depiction of Richard Hovey's song, "Eleazar Wheelock."

The Undergraduate Council, among others on campus, expressed opposition to walling over the murals. In its resolution, adopted by a wide margin, the UGC stated that "permanent covering of the Hovey Murals constitutes the suppression of freedom of expression and of free choice." About the objection to the murals by certain groups on campus, the resolution stated, "Respect for one group's views does not mean the exclusion of, and should not be at the expense of, another group's position."

"The purchase in 1848 of a fine new $800 hand-tub, most appropriately named Phoenix, brought much joy and opportunity for useful activity, for in term time the students manned its long pumpsweeps and hose with a will. . . . President Lord used now and then to come out and direct, in his courtly way, the fire company's endeavors. He never forgot his suave and cultivated manner of speech on such occasions. Once, as the youthful firemen were playing upon a burning store on Main Street and directing the stream too constantly on one spot, the president mounted a stone block in front of the Dartmouth Hotel, commanded silence for a moment, and then, sweeping his right arm back and forth in an expessive semicircle, cried in his clear and penetrating voice: 'Gentlemen of the machine more scope, more scope!'" Wilder D. Quint The Story of Dartmouth