After more than two centuries alone in the New Hampshire wilderness, more than probably any other Ivy League campus, Dartmouth is referred to by nostalgic alumni as a "special place." Hanover and the surrounding areas have grown over the years, but unlike the experience of a campus in major urban areas, the town plays a minor supporting role in the campus experience.
Many alumni feel so strongly about the physical space of the Dartmouth campus, that what at other schools would be considered relatively minor changes to the landscape are suddenly very controversial.
Not even a sculpture of College founder Eleazor Wheelock himself enjoys a place on campus. The only alumnus granted the privilege of a memorial sculpture is Robert Frost, and, hidden in the woods behind the BEMA, many students have probably never seen him.
Unlike other major university campuses, Dartmouth has an amazing amount of open space and a surprising lack of public sculpture, either modern or classic. Most of the various outdoor sculptures that Dartmouth has either commissioned or received over the years are exhibited in or around the campus's artistic centers -- the Hopkins Center and the Hood Museum.
The one major sculpture that breaks this rule is Beverly Pepper's "Thel" -- the massive steel installation piece outside of Fairchild. Though now a seemingly benign part of the Dartmouth campus, in the mid-1970s, "Thel" was installed in a very different climate.
As part of a campaign to increase the role of the fine arts on the Dartmouth campus and in the everyday lives of Dartmouth students in the mid-1970s, the administration made a push to integrate sculpture into the places on the Dartmouth landscape not traditionally related to the art-related Hood and Hopkins Center.
The first of such attempts was a generous donation from Kent Klineman '54 of a sculpture from world-renowned sculpture Mark di Suvero's. Students returned for the Fall term of 1976 to find di Suvero's large iron "X Delta" situated on the green in front of Baker Library next to Sanborn English Library.
Despite its critical acclaim in the art community as a significant work of modern sculpture, "X-Delta" became a heated point of contention between students, faculty and the administration. The Dartmouth was flooded with guest columns angry about the perceived disruption of the green and the traditional architecture of Baker by the sculpture.
Student voices were the loudest dissenters. In a letter to the editor on September 22, 1976, Brad Brinegar '77 demanded the removal of "X Delta" on the grounds that "it is closing off an area which should remain open and free, fragmenting a landscape which should remain whole."
An editorial from The Dartmouth editorial board ran under the headline "New Sculpture Shocks Students" and criticized the administration for "putting this expensive token in a gauchely prominent place to prove that we have 'good taste.'"
Students, however, were not alone. That same first week of classes, a psychology professor was also quoted as saying that "X Delta" was the "ugliest thing [he'd] ever seen."
After a continued storm of protest and several incidents of vandalism, "X-Delta" was removed from its prominent location on the Green and eventually found its current location behind the Hood Museum of Art.
After the controversy surrounding "X Delta," the administration took a totally different approach for its second attempt to add sculptural vocabulary to the Dartmouth Campus. For $40,000 in 1976, Beverly Pepper was commissioned to design a sculpture especially for Dartmouth.
Unlike "X-Delta", which was donated as an intact and completed piece of art, "Thel" was purchased through funds designated for the upkeep of the Fairchild Science Center.
Pepper came to campus and designed the unique piece specifically for its location on Dartmouth's campus. The administration allowed student input, and Pepper repeatedly emphasized that the nature of her sculpture was to become an integrated part of the Dartmouth campus. Students were always allowed to walk, sunbathe, or relax in and even on "Thel."
Margo Thompson, assistant professor of art history at the University of Vermont recently published the paper "Public Art and the Campus Community: Beverly Pepper's 'Thel' and Its Constituencies at Dartmouth College" on Pepper's sculpture and the process through which it became an accepted and even appreciated part of the Dartmouth campus.
"With 'X-Delta' there was a lot of carping and complaining, but with 'Thel' the communication with the students made a big difference," Thompson told The Dartmouth.
"It was no longer a matter of some weird looking modern thing that was maybe a joke nobody was getting," she added.
Indeed, as opposed to the storm of controversy just one year earlier, the public sentiment was very welcoming to "Thel."
Though there were some complaints, most students seemed to applaud the new sculpture. Just a few days after completion in September of 1976, Sarah Sully '81 said in a letter to the editor that "Thel" would "become as much a part of the campus as the senior fence."
Sully seems to have predicted the future very accurately. Though now largely empty of students, throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s The Dartmouth ran many photos of students lounging on "Thel".
While some community members have argued recently that "Thel" is now dated and stale, it appears as though it is here to stay.
