Eleazar Wheelock came to Hanover and carved a place for Dartmouth College out the wilderness, or so the story goes. Often overlooked in that account is the significance of slavery in the founding and the first century of the college. In this exhibit the students of Sociology 79.08: "Lest We Forget: History, Collective Memory and Slavery at Dartmouth" explore the role played by the enslaved people of its first two presidents, and the College and Hanover as a site for the intellectual, moral and political debates surrounding slavery.
This exhibit was originally on display in the Class of 1965 Galleries at Rauner Special Collections Library from November 15th, 2019 to March 13th, 2020. It was curated by the members of Professor Deborah K. King's Sociology 79.08: "Lest We Forget: History, Collective Memory, and Slavery at Dartmouth" class in Fall 2019: Martha Aguirre Rubio '22, Evana Amok '23, Tiffany Chang '23, Chalayia Fuller '17, Jeer Seob Jung '20, Julia Levine '23, Morgan Mason '20, and Pierce Wilson '23. Digital exhibit by August Guszkowski. Special thanks to Peter Carini and Ryland Ianelli.