Dartmouth College

Despite the word “college” in its name, Dartmouth is a full-scale, PhD-granting, private, research university. Indeed, it is an official member of the Ivy League, and is the fourteenth-oldest university in the US, founded only five years after Brown and 15 years after Columbia.

Located in the small town of Hanover in the far western part of central New Hampshire, the Dartmouth campus abuts the Connecticut River, which forms the entire border between New Hampshire and Vermont.

The university was founded by Eleazar Wheelock, a Congregationalist minister who was involved in missionary work with the Native American population. Already in 1754, Wheelock had founded a school in Connecticut—known as Moor’s Indian Charity School—whose purpose was to educate Native American boys as Congregationalist missionaries for future work among their own tribes.

Wishing to expand this school, Wheelock began a fund-raising drive to which the British statesman, William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, was a major contributor (along with the American-born educator, Dr. John Phillips, who would go on to found Phillips Exeter Academy).

In spite of the success of his fund-raising endeavor, Wheelock found that it was difficult to recruit enough Native American children to justify a large additional investment in the school. For this reason, he revised his plans and decided to use the money for a new college for the white population. Because of difficulties in securing a charter from the Colony of Connecticut, he also decided to build his new school in the neighboring state of New Hampshire, instead.

Ironically, although Wheelock named the new college “Dartmouth” in honor of the 2nd Earl to recognize his generosity, the latter was in fact quite opposed to the diversion of his money from its original purpose of benefiting the native population.

Consistent with its history as the brainchild of various individuals interested in furthering the education of non-white populations, Dartmouth began admitting black students almost immediately (in 1775), although not in large numbers. By the advent of the Civil War, some 20 African Americans had graduated from the university.

On the other hand, Dartmouth long remained an all-male school; women were only permitted to attend the university in 1972.

A large number of distinguished Americans have been connected with Dartmouth. For example, in the nineteenth century, we may mention three leading statesmen:

• Thaddeus Stevens, US Representative from Pennsylvania, prominent abolitionist, and fierce advocate for African Americans during Reconstruction
• Daniel Webster, US Senator for New Hampshire, prominent critic of President Andrew Jackson, and Secretary of State under President Millard Fillmore
• Salmon P. Chase, Governor and US Senator for Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln, and sixth Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court

In addition, the well-known entrepreneur, George Bissell, who helped develop the early US oil industry in western Pennsylvania during the 1860s, was a Dartmouth graduate.

Distinguished twentieth-century individuals connected to Dartmouth include:

• Edward Everett Just, an African American biologist who revolutionized our understanding of the cell surface
• Edward Lorenz, a mathematician, meteorologist, and chaos theory pioneer
• Celebrated poet, Robert Frost
• Novelist, Louise Erdrich
• Noted historian and law professor, Annette Gordon-Reed
• Architect, Michael Arad
• Children’s author, Theodor Geisel (“Dr. Seuss”)
• Children’s television host, Fred Rogers (“Mr. Rogers”)
• Robert Holbrook Smith (“Dr. Bob”), co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous
• Author and filmmaker, Dinesh D’Souza
• Television hosts, Laura Ingraham & Mel Robbins
• Television journalist, Jake Tapper
• Actors, Meryl Streep, Michael Moriarty & Josh Pence

Among the many Dartmouth-linked public servants who have served during the twentieth century, we may mention:

• Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York and Vice President of the US under President Gerald Ford
• Henry Paulson, banker and Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush
• Timothy Geithner, banker and Secretary of the Treasury under Barack Obama
• Robert Reich, economist, author, commentator, and Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton
• Kirsten Gillibrand, sitting US Senator for New York

Finally, three individuals affiliated with Dartmouth have won the Nobel Prize:

• Owen Chamberlain — physics
• K. Barry Sharpless — chemistry
• George Snell — physiology or medicine