What we now know as Green Key weekend, described by a 1935 issue of The Dartmouth as the "social highlight of the spring," began with the tradition of the Junior Promenade formal dance in 1899. The prom was the centerpiece of a four-day weekend that included a street parade, a bonfire, two open-air concerts by the Dartmouth Band, a bicycle parade and a baseball game against Williams College.
Throughout the next two decades, athletic events, musical productions and other activities were added to the weekend's agenda.
The Green Key Junior Honorary Society was established in 1921 to "further the spirit of Dartmouth hospitality," according to a 1939 Green Key Prom program. The society was organized after the College's football team travelled to Seattle and received an "excellent introduction" by members of the University of Washington Knights of Hook Society. Shocked by their hosts' friendliness and aware of an increasing desire among Dartmouth undergraduates to create a welcoming environment for guests, 51 Dartmouth sophomores formed the Green Key Society.
The Society formed out of "two purposeless sophomore societies" called Sigma Pick and Shield and Sabre, according to a 1961 guidebook published by the society. It stated that its purposes were to provide entertainment to representatives of other institutions visiting the College and to act as a rule enforcement committee for freshmen.
The society dropped the vigilante duty in 1923, only two years after its founding, and simultaneously voted to become a society comprised of juniors rather than sophomores.
It continued to provide hospitality to visiting athletic teams, coordinate freshman orientation, aid in commencement activities, run errands for students staying at Dick's House and plan Green Key weekend activities.
In 1924, the faculty and administration decided to cancel the beloved Green Key Prom because of inappropriate conduct by students and their dates in the past. Following the incident, the prom was replaced by a variety night dedicated to fundraising for the Green Key Society.
The College reinstated Green Key Prom in 1929. By 1936, the prom had raised a surplus of funds, which the Green Key Society turned over to the College to be used as financial aid for incoming students.
Additionally, a freshman dance was held on the Friday evening of Green Key weekend and was followed by dances at each fraternity house.
In 1935, then College President Ernest Martin Hopkins issued a warning to students that social functions must be kept "within bounds or dispensed altogether" in response to the College's recent Winter Carnival, which had been "a liability to the College rather than an asset," a 1935 issue of The Dartmouth reported.
The festivities, however, continued as planned that year and 700 women from major New England women's colleges, predominantly Wellesley College, Vassar College and Mount Holyoke College, arrived on campus to join in the spring merriment. By 1968, the College was hosting 1,000 women for the weekend.
According to a letter from the dean of college dated 1968, female guests were housed in fraternities. During their dates' stay, men were prohibited from venturing above the first floor with the exception of fraternity officers accompanied by a chaperone.
During World War II, many Green Key traditions ceased when the weekend was restricted to two days. The canceled celebrations included the big bands, house parties, baseball games and the Hums contest, an interclass singing competition between fraternities normally held on the steps of Dartmouth Hall.
After the fraternities closed and Dartmouth was transformed into a naval college with summer classes in 1943, Green Key was moved to June and renamed the Spring Quarterdeck Hop. With the conclusion of the war the next year, the College returned to its normal function and Green Key was moved back to its May date.
The Green Key Prom dress code became informal in 1958 and The Dartmouth stopped printing a list of weekend guests and chaperones.
During the 1960s, a new tradition called the outdoor sleep began when visiting women without places to stay trekked out to the Hanover Golf Course to spend the night in sleeping bags. Dartmouth men who sneaked past campus police often joined them.
Beta Theta Pi and Psi Upsilon fraternities competed in a bike marathon stretching from Hanover to Amherst, Mass., for three decades after the 1929 Green Key Prom. Brothers would take turns riding a bike while others followed in cars stocked with water and beer.
In 1966, chariot races around the Green replaced the bike races. Chariot race rules required the chariots to run on two wheels with at least one rider standing.
The administration cancelled the Green Key Prom in 1967 after students rioted on the Friday of Green Key following a speech by George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama at the time. Students "erupted wildly" to the governor's speech and prevented his car from leaving, The Dartmouth previously reported.
The brothers of Chi Phi and Pi Lambda Phi fraternities vied to become the "champion piano smashing team at the College" in another 1960s tradition, the piano smashing contest, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Following the Kent State University shootings in 1970 in which the Ohio National Guard shot unarmed college students who were protesting the American invasion of Cambodia the College declared a week-long moratorium on classes for students to contemplate the Vietnam War. Green Key events, which were to be held that weekend, were largely cancelled, but they were reinstated the next year.
From the time of its inception, Green Key has played host to many well-known musicians. Professional orchestras and big bands entertained Prom guests, and in 1929, Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band promised to "make your brain swirl and your feet tickle floor in a mean way," The Dartmouth previously reported. Famous jazz musicians Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw came to campus for Green Key in the 1930s.
The Lovin' Spoonful and Steve Miller Band made played shows at Green Key weekend events in the 1970s, and in 1978, the Grateful Dead played a three-hour concert in Thompson Arena for students and Deadheads alike. In 1982, heavy metal band Anthrax performed on the porch of Alpha Delta fraternity.
