Our Favorite Eras

Best Football: MID-1920s. WILL WE EVER BE NATIONAL champs again? Or will the big time game continue to be played by unpaid professionals?

Most Tranquil: 19505."TWO DECISIONS OF THE College Administration stirred up considerable student unrest during the first semester," reported the 1955 Aegis. "The first was the virtual elimination of Thanksgiving vacation cutting it down to a day and a half from the former five and a half. The other dispute arose over the scheduling of second semester registration on the Thursday of Carnival."

Most Antagonistic to tHe First Amendment: 1880s. EIGHTH PRESIDENT SAMUEL Colcord Bartlett (1877-1892) actively censored the student press. He personally edited copy prepared by editors of The Dartmouth.

Least Antagonistic to theFirst Amendment: 19305. President Ernest Martin Hopkins '01 drew fire when he refused to cancel communist leader William Foster's campus visit.

Best for the Ague: 1770s. ONE STUDENT DESCRIBED die newly built Dartmouth Hall as "the great wooden air castle." The green pine wood failed to burn in students' fireplaces. (The building itself, on the other hand, proved far more combustible.) Another hardship was the sub-zero trek to "the Little College," as the outhouse was known.

Worst Dressed: BELL BOTTOMS AND WIDE PAISLEY ties are the burden of the 1970s.

Best Dressed: THE 1870S. WHEN YOUNG GENTLEMEN went out for a stroll they strutted about in top hats and tails.

Best Manners: 1790s. PRESIDENT JOHN WHEELOCK made students lift their hats within six yards of him. Professors received the same courtesy, only at half the distance.

Most Bekind the Times: THE 1960s ENDED BEFORE "THE Sixties" arrived in Hanover with longer hair and freer dress.

Most Politically Diverse: A TIE: THE 1930S when impending war divided the campus and the 1980s.

Most Atkletic: THE LATE 1980S. THANKS LARGELY to the women's teams, Dartmouth's overall winloss record for all sports was consistently high.

Most Literary: THE 1930S PRODUCED A BUMPER crop of great writers. But don't dismiss writers from the early 1980s. These young talents are only now garnering national recognition.

Most Dramatic: THE NINETEEN-TEENS. DARTmouth's campus rendition of "The Misleading Lady" went on to New York City and met with universal acclaim from critics.

The '50s had their own priorities.

Bartlett had a predatory attitude toward the press.

A "wooden air castle."

The '70s put on the ritz.

The women's teams made the '80s a winning era.