The New International Encyclopædia/Dartmouth College

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. A leading American college situated at Hanover, N. H. Dartmouth originated in Moor's Indian Charity School, organized about 1750 at Lebanon, Conn., by the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, and receiving its name and first endowment from Joshua Moor or More, in 1755. Support for the school came from gifts made chiefly by the General Courts of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, and by persons in England interested in the project of educating the Indians. This interest was fostered by Sampson Occom, an Indian preacher and pupil of Dr. Wheelock, who toured England and Scotland in 1766-67, raising funds for the school. The proceeds, some £10,000, were intrusted to a board of trustees, of whom the Earl

of Dartmouth was chairman. Encouraged by this success, plans were made for the enlargement of the school, so that both whites and Indians might be taught, and for placing it upon a legal and permanent basis. Largely through the influence of John Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire, large tracts of land were given by that province on the present site of the college, and in 1769 George III. granted a royal charter to &lsquo;Dartmouth College&rsquo;—named in honor of its patron, the Earl. At the same time, Moor's School was made a separate institution, though under the control of the same trustees as those of the college. This school was maintained until 1849, and still retains a legal if fictional existence under the title &lsquo;The President of Moor's Charity School.&rsquo; Dr. Wheelock was made the first president of the college and retained office until 1779, when he was succeeded by his son John. In 1816, a religious controversy having arisen, the Legislature of New Hampshire passed acts intended to deprive the trustees of authority and to take to itself the control of the institution. These acts were sustained by the State court, but were, in 1819, upon argument by Daniel Webster (q.v.), invalidated by the Supreme Court of the United States, which declared the original charter to constitute an inviolable private trust. (See .) Dartmouth comprises the college; the Medical School, founded in 1798; the Thayer School of Civil Engineering, founded 1867; and the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance, founded in 1900. The Chandler School of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1851, was merged into the college in 1893 as the Chandler Scientific Course. In 1866 the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts was established by the State in connection with Dartmouth, but was separated from the college in 1893, and moved to Durham, N. H. The course of the Medical School is four years, and that of the Thayer and Amos Tuck Schools, two years; but the first year in any of the graduate schools may, under certain restrictions, be credited also as the last year in the undergraduate school.

Degrees are conferred in arts, letters, science, civil engineering, and medicine. The college buildings, numbering some twenty-five, include laboratories, an observatory, a medical building, dormitories, a large dining-hall, and commons. There is, besides, the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, having lecture and clinic facilities at the disposal of the Medical School. The library represents the accumulations of a century and a quarter, and consists of some 90,000 volumes and 20,000 pamphlets. The student enrollment in 1902 was 768, of whom 72 were in the Medical School, 36 in the Thayer School, and 27 in the Amos Tuck School. The presidents of the college have been: Eleazer Wheelock. 1769-79; John Wheelock, 1779-1815; Francis Brown, 1815-20; Daniel Dana, 1820-21; Bennett Tyler, 1821-28; Nathan Lord, 1828-63; Asa Dodge Smith, 1863-77; Samuel Colcord Bartlett, 1877-92; William Jewett Tucker, 1893&mdash;.