Piece of Dartmouth's Old Pine

A Piece of Dartmouth's Old Pine (“Stand-in” created to original dimensions by Main Street Museum staff) with attached label—also recreated.

The original (unavailable for exhibition at the Hood Museum, 2003) is a tall specimen salvaged from a white pine (Pinus strobus) used in Dartmouth College ceremonies. Previous label: “34-10-17-17353,” “room 306” on red tag. Original dates from 1892-95. 158 – 45 – 23 cm.

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This beloved and iconic pine was not a handsome tree in the conventional sense and was only about seventy-one feet tall. Its trunk and main branch were both slightly bent and twisted. On July 14, 1892, the main branch was broken by a “Whirlwind” Efforts failed to save the tree, and on July 23, 1895, at 2:30 p. m., the Old Pine was cut down. The stump was treated with chloride of mercury and marked with a plaque. The duplicate numbers inscribed on the artifact attest to its previous cataloging.

The song (lyrics displayed on artifact) “The Three Indians” or “When Shall We Three Meet again?” has connected to its history a curious legend. This very protestant hymn has for its theme three native American students of the early college gathered around their favorite pine and their vow to meet again. In 1922 the American Forestry association chose this “loftiest custodian of Dartmouth ideals and traditions” as the first and only member of a projected Hall of Fame for Trees. This organization has long been dormant; no records exist of any further action.

Vertical file “Old Pine”. Courtesy Dartmouth College Library. Original: Rauner Realia, 159 v.1-2.
Stand-in, Collection Main Street Museum.

Label on Stump

A fragment of the “Old Pine” Observatory Hill Park Dartmouth, struck by lighting early morning of July 29th, 1887. The bark was split showing the course of the stroke down the taller or main stem of the fork of the tree. (It was double, above the main trunk) The vitality of this part impaired by the shock. June 14th 1892, a tornado broke off this main stem close to the fork breaking it into several pieces by the fall on the ledge. The wood was then brittle showing the injury done by the lightning. —ibid.

Hymn to be Sung to the Tree

When Shall We Three Meet Again?

Though in distant lands we sigh,
Parch’d beneath a hostile sky;
Though the deep beneath us rolls,
Friendships shall unite our souls,
Still in Fancy’s wide domain,
Oft shall we three meet again.

When our burnish’s locks are grey,
Thinned by many a toil-spent day;
When around the youthful Pine
Moss shall creep and ivy twine,
Long may this lov’d bower remain,
Here may we three meet again.

“The Meeting”:
Parted many a toil-spent day;
Pledged in youth to memory dear;
Still to friendships magnet true,
We our special joys renew;
Bound by love’s unsever'd chain,
here on earth we meet again.

But our bower, sunk to decay,
Wasting time has swept away,
And the youthful evergreen,
Lopped by death, o more is seen.
Bleak the winds sweep o’er the plain
When we three shall meet again.
Many a friend we used to greet
Here on earth no more we meet;
Oft the funeral knell has rung,
Many a heart has sorrow stung,
Since we parted on this plain
Fearing ne’er to meet again.

Worn with toil and sunk with years,
We shall quit this vale of tears;
And these hoary locks be laid
Low in cold oblivious shade.
But where saints and angels reign
We all hope to meet again.

[Third stanza:]
Let us seek that cool retreat,
Where we three oft us’d to meet;
Where beneath the spreading shade,
We have oft together strayed,
And where at last with anguishe’d heart
We did tear ourselves apart.

Ah! How altered is this bower,
Where first we felt sweet friendship’s power,
How has time with ruthless blow,
Laid its vigorous beauties low,
Nought but this Lone Pine remains
And its naked arms sustains.

Are we then that youthful three,
Who reclin’d beneath this tree?
Then with verdant foliage crown’d,
Now with moss and ivy bound,
Not more altered is this Pine,
Than our looks with wasting time.

—The Essex Institute, “The College on the Hill, a Dartmouth Chronicle,” file: “Old Pine,” Courtesy Dartmouth College Library.