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Collage of historic Dartmouth pictures

Dartmouth Milestones

Read stories about Dartmouth’s unique character, indelible spirit, and rich history. 

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K. Barry Sharpless '63 at Dartmouth in 2019.
K. Barry Sharpless ’63, winner of a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry, speaks during an appearance at Dartmouth in 2019. (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)
2022
K. Barry Sharpless ’63 wins second Nobel Prize

The award celebrates the field of “click chemistry,” a name Sharpless coined.

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Sian Leah Beilock
Sian Leah Beilock is president of Barnard College and previously served as executive vice provost of the University of Chicago. (Photo by Tim Ryan Smith/Avenue 5 Films)
2022
First woman elected president of Dartmouth

Beilock is the first woman elected to the position in Dartmouth’s more than 250-year history.

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Frank J. Guarini
2016
School of Graduate and Advanced Studies founded

Renamed the Frank J. Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies in 2018 in acknowledgment of an investment by the Honorable Frank J. Guarini ’46, Guarini supports more than 1,000 graduate students, doctoral candidates, and postdoctoral scholars.

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Triangle House
2014
Triangle House opens

The residence hall welcomes the LGBTQIA community and allied students who share a passion for social justice issues.

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Audrey and Ted Geisel
Audrey and Theodor Seuss Geisel. (Photo courtesy of Geisel School of Medicine)
2012
Geisel School of Medicine named

Dartmouth renamed its medical school, founded in 1797, in honor of Audrey and Theodor Geisel, Class of 1925.

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Students on the Ct. River in canoes

(Photo by Jay Davis ’90)

2009
FYSEP launches

The First Year Student Enrichment Program empowers first-generation students to thrive academically.

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Andrea Hayes-Jordan
2004
First Black female pediatric surgeon

Alumna Andrea Hayes-Jordan ’87, MED ’91 became the nation’s first Black female pediatric surgeon.

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K. Barry Sharpless

(Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)

2001
K. Barry Sharpless ’63 wins Nobel Prize

Sharpless credited a Dartmouth professor for helping set the course of his life’s work. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

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Dartmouth's organic farm

(Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)

1988
Dartmouth Organic Farm is born

Each year the farm grows more than 2000 pounds of diverse, fresh, tasty, organic produce.

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Two women writing notes on top of a car hood
(Photo courtesy of Rauner Special Collections Library)
1972
Coeducation

In September 1972, one hundred seventy-seven women matriculated as freshmen, along with 74 female transfer students.

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Students dancing outside Moosilauke Ravine Lodge

(Photo by Robert Gill)

1970s
First Year Trips begin

Today the program involves over 90 percent of the freshman class.

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Physics math
1959
Owen Chamberlain ’41 wins Nobel Prize

He won the Thayer Prize in Mathematics and the Kramer Fellowship at Dartmouth. He went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.

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Written proposal for Dartmouth Summer Research on AI
1956
AI coined at Dartmouth

The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence was a seminal event for artificial intelligence as a field.

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Polly Case posing with the Poma lift and Howard Chivers
Howard Chivers, manager, and Polly Chinlund, who won the contest to name the “Skiway.” Chinlund won a lifetime pass. (Photo by D. Cutter ’73, courtesy of the Dartmouth Library)
1956
Dartmouth Skiway opens

On Dec. 15, 1956, Polly Case straddled a small disk attached to a cable—a “poma lift”—and rode to the top of Holt’s Ledge in Lyme, N.H.

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Moosilauke Ravine lodge in the 1930s
(Photo courtesy of Rauner Special Collections Library)
1938
Moosilauke Ravine Lodge built

The lodge was constructed to serve some of the nation’s earliest competitive skiing.

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Herbert Chang serves tea at Sanborn Library.
Herbert Chang ’18 serves tea at Sanborn Library. (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)
1930s
Teatime in Sanborn begins

Sanborn Library offers a tea service each weekday afternoon at 4 o’clock. 

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Baker Tower in summer
1928
Baker Memorial Library opens

The library was designed by college architect Jens Frederick Larson, modeled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

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Seniors carrying a canoe to the Connecticut River.
The annual Trip to the Sea, which sends seniors traveling down the Connecticut River from Hanover to the Long Island Sound. Ledyardites retrace John Ledyard’s (Class of 1777) famous trip to the sea from Hanover in a dugout canoe. This trip has been repeated regularly since the 1920s. (Photo by Robert Gill)
1920
Ledyard Canoe Club founded

A group of Dartmouth students gathered together with the goal of restoring a rowing team to the College.

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Colorful abstract art
1918
First woman instructor

Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood, a talented linguist, created the Russian program at the College.

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Edward Tuck
Edward Tuck
1900
Tuck School of Business founded

The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration and Finance was the first institution in the world to offer a master’s degree in business administration. Edward Tuck, class of 1862, donated an initial grant of $300,000 to found the school in 1899, naming it in memory of his father Amos Tuck, class of 1835.

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Xray being performed at Dartmouth in the 1800s
(Photo courtesy of Rauner Special Collections Library)
1896
First clinical x-ray in America performed

The medical x-ray, like many inventions, is the result of different people working simultaneously on the same idea.

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Homecoming bonfire

(Photo by Robert Gill)

1895
The first Dartmouth Night

During Dartmouth Night and Homecoming, alumni return to join students in a revelatory celebration that includes a colorful parade and blazing bonfire.

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Students in the 1800s in the engineering drawing room
(Photo courtesy of Rauner Special Collections Library)
1867
Founding of Thayer

Sylvanus Thayer, Class of 1807, established the engineering school at his alma mater.

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A map of Liberia and other handwritten documents
Ashmun, J, J. H Young, A Finley. Map of the West Coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas, including the colony of Liberia. [Philadelphia Pa.: A. Finley, 1830] Map. (Retrieved from the Library of Congress)
1839
First Black graduate of a U.S. medical school

American-born and raised in Liberia, Samuel Ford McGill—Class of 1839—was the first black graduate of a U.S. medical school.

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Drawing of Dartmouth v. Woodward being argued
(Photo courtesy of Rauner Special Collections Library)
1819
Dartmouth case decided by SCOTUS

A landmark ruling in the development of U.S. constitutional and corporate law, Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward held that the College would remain a private institution and not become a state university.

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Dartmouth Medical School
(Photo courtesy of Rauner Special Collections Library)
1797
Dartmouth Medical Department founded

Dartmouth’s “Medical Department” was established when founder Nathan Smith delivered his first lecture on Nov. 22.

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Fire and Skoal club posing together
Fire and Skoal, 1976. (Photo courtesy of the Rauner Special Collections Library)
1783
First senior society

The Society of Social Friends “Socials” maintained a student-funded and managed library, circulating holdings to its members only.

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