Big Picture: Ready for Dinner...

It was "a most attractive place," The Dartmouth gushed in 1901. The Commons, pictured here in 1922, served as an elegant nexus of College dining for the first quarter of the 20th century. Students by the hundreds took their daily meals here among exposed trusses and oak-paneled walls, warmed in the winters by the soft, crackling din of a grand fireplace. These days, you won't find that many students dining by a fire—unless someone puts silverware in the Food Court microwave. For a lighter look at the Dartmouth dining scene through the years, see page 41. Photograph courtesy of Dartmouth College Library