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Date:
[unknown]
Location:
Hanover, NH
This cane belonged to Hollis Bartlett.
It was a Dartmouth College graduation tradition, started in 1898 or 1899, that classmates would carve each other's names in a cane.
The Mohegan Indian was the mascot of Dartmouth until it was dropped for political sensitivity reasons in the 1970s.
The cane tradition may also be connected to a hazing ritual called the "cane-rush" described in this 1914 history of Dartmouth. The freshmen were apparently beaten with canes by organized upper classmen who had learned to work together. After the beating, writes the author: "Discipline and the solidarity of a year's acquaintance proved too much for untrained strength. In less than fifteen minutes, however, the freshmen, revived, bathed and clothed, were strutting across the campus, each sporting some sort of cane. The right to carry one had been strenuously earned."
For many years, canes seem to have been carried by upperclassmen as a status symbol.
This cane now belongs to Hollis's grandson Ralph Bartlett.
Links
- A Boston Globe article on the Indian politics mentions "The Dartmouth development office sent to alumni a calendar that included a photograph of an alumnus who held a cane that featured a carved Indian head. Dartmouth has apologized and said the development staff did not notice the cane in the picture."
- A 2006 response in the conservative student paper The Dartmouth Review to the Indian controversy about the photo of a cane in the calendar included this: "[T]he '56 was raising his cane to the '06 as she simultaneously raised her Cobra Senior Society cane. The photo serves as no more than a poignant reminder that graduation canes connect sons and daughters of Dartmouth even fifty years apart."
- This Dartmouth cane was (is?) on sale from East Dennis Antiques for $385: "Carved wooden walking stick once the property of Dartmouth student Arthur W. Tucker jr. of the class of 1937. Decorated with the original incised insignia of Alpha Sigma Omega Fraternity and the names and initials of his college buddies. The Mohegan Indian is the college mascot."
- Another cane sold at auction, this one described as "Dartmouth Delta Tau Delta Fraternity cane, dated 1925, with upright head naturalistically carved as a Native American warrior's head, joined to a straight shaft incised with nicknames of various brothers, a fraternity symbol, and Dartmouth arms; with brass collar and short metal ferrule; light wood with contrasting dark stain, 36" H. "
Personal Memories
On April 4,
Chris Whitten
wrote:
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