Coming Home Again

1895

President William Jewett Tucker launches Dartmouth Night, a chapel exercise designed "to bring the undergraduate body into sympathetic and intelligent contact with the alumni, the living, and the dead."

1904

The first Dartmouth Night parade is held.

1907

Dartmouth Night serves double duty as the dedication date for Webster Hall. Faculty and students dressed in academic robes follow the band's lead. Alumni costume themselves in Websteresque garb.

1911

Dartmouth Night is celebrated across the nation as local Dartmouth Clubs host their own off-campus gatherings.

1919

As part of the College's 150th anniversary party, Dartmouth Night festivities are held under a big top on the Green. Three thousand people cram inside.

1934

Yale president James Angell tweaks the noses of the assembled sons of Dartmouth by reminding them that founder Eleazar Wheelock was a Yalie.

1943

Wartime restrictions preclude the traditional reading of telegrams from alumni around the world.

1946

Formal College events, mini-reunions, the homecoming football game, and Dartmouth Night are scheduled simultaneously, creating Dartmouth's first mega-weekend.

1952

A special Dartmouth Night convocation is held to observe the centennial of Webster's death and to "revive the greater meaning of Dartmouth Night."

1953

Campus headlines proclaim Dartmouth Night as "Babes, Balloons, Blasts, and Bonfire."

1954

A hurricane cancels the bonfire.

1963

A drought cancels the bonfire.

1967

Lack of campus interest cancels Dartmouth Night.

1982

Workers from Buildings & Grounds are asked to dismantle the bonfire after the College receives a bomb threat.

1987

Groups calling themselves "Womyn to Overthrow Dartmyth" and "The Wimmin's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell" toss red hard-boiled eggs at the Dartmouth Night speaker's podium.

1988

Cut lumber replaces railroad ties as the environmentally correct bonfire fuel. The wood is green, and the bonfire fizzles.

1994

The Dartmouth reports on the new "freshman sweeps" tradition. Freshmen parade from dorm to dorm, gathering classmates for the Dartmouth Night Parade. Along the way traffic signs are uprooted and a few cars are stomped on as the pea greeners wait for the parade to start.

1995

To help celebrate Dartmouth Night's centennial, William Jewett Tucker's great-grandson Brooks Clark '78 adopts the former president's persona and makes a speech.

It took less than a century for Dartmouth Night to evolve from a welcoming ceremony for freshmen to a homecoming blast for alumni