Monteith

Inscriptions

Marked on bottom: Henchman [in rectangle]; engraved in calligraphic design on side: N. H. scp; engraved on side: His Excellency John Wentworth Esq.r [r superscript], / Governor of the Province of New Hampshire, / And those Friends who accompanied him / To Dartmouth College the first Commencement 1771. / In Testimony of their Gratitude and good Wishes / Present this to the / Rev.d [d superscript] Eleazer Wheelock, D. D. President / And to his Successors in that Office.

Label

As the grantor of Dartmouth College’s charter, Royal Governor John Wentworth recognized that its first commencement ceremony in 1771 marked a significant achievement on the part of the institution’s founder, Eleazar Wheelock. To commemorate the event, Wentworth honored Wheelock and his presidential successors with a silver monteith fashioned by Boston silversmith Daniel Henchman and engraved by Nathaniel Hurd. Completed and presented in 1773, the monteith was the first object of artistic and historic value to enter the College’s collection.

A monteith is a large bowl with a notched rim that in the 18th century was used to chill wine glasses or rinse them between courses. Dartmouth’s monteith is unusual in that it is equipped with a removable rim that enables the vessel to serve as a conventional punchbowl as well.

The bowl is not only regarded as one of the finest examples of colonial American silver, but with its respectful tribute to President Wheelock, it has come to symbolize Dartmouth’s highest office. As such, each outgoing president presents it to his successor during the College’s inaugural ceremonies.

From the 2019 exhibition American Art, Colonial to Modern, curated by Barbara J. MacAdam, Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art

Course History

HIST 9.01, America: From Invasion to Independence, Paul Musselwhite, Fall 2019

Exhibition History

American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 9-December 9, 2007.

American Art, Colonial to Modern, Israel Sack Gallery and Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-September 12, 2021.

American Church Silver of the Seventheenth and Eighteenth Centuries with a Few Pieces of Domestic Plate, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, July-December 1911 (no. 553).

American Decorative Art at Dartmouth, Dartmouth College Museum and Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 10-March 1, 1981, no. 22.

Harrington Silver Case, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26-April 30, 1976.

Harrington Silver Case, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 21-September 1979.

Harrington Silver Case, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 10, 1977-February 16, 1978.

Harrington Silver Case, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 12-November 10, 1977.

Harrington Silver Case, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 26, 1985-January 12, 1986.

In Praise of America: American Decorative Arts, 1650-1830, National Gallery of Art, New York, New York, February 17-July 6, 1980.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 18-August 7, 1987.

New England Silver at Dartmouth College: A Tribute to Frank L. Harrington, Class of 1924, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 3-August 20, 1989, no. 38.

Upon This Occassion, loan exhibition of important presentation silver from colonial times to the present, Towle Silversmith Gallery, Newburyport, Massachusetts, June 1-November 1, 1955.

Publication History

Dick Hoefnagel and Virginia L. Close, Journey to Hanover, August 1771, Dartmouth College Library Bulletin, November 1995, Volume XXXVI, Number 1, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1995, pp. 2-16, ill. p. 7, 9, 10

Barbara J. MacAdam, New England Silver at Dartmouth College: A Tribute to Frank L. Harrington, Class of 1924, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1989, no. 38.

Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Barbara J. MacAdam, July 1985, p. 44-45, ill. p. 44.

Jaquelynn Baas and Charles Willard Moore, Treasures of the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1985, fig. 88, p. 106.

Margaret J. Moody, American Decorative Arts at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1981, no. 22.

Wendy A. Cooper, In Praise of America: American Decorative Arts, 1650-1830, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980, fig. 13.

"A Rare William III Montieth" The Magazine Antiques. Volume 66, 1954, p. 436.

Patricia E. Kane, "Nathaniel Hurd: The Life of a Colonial Silversmith and Engraver," in Porticus, Volume 20, Rochester, New York: Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 2001, 10 pp., ill. p. 15, fig. 11.

Dick Hoefnagel with the collaboration of Virginia L. Close, Eleazar Wheelock and the Adventurous Founding of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hanover Historical Society, The Durand Press, 2002, 143 pp., ill. p. 63, detail ill. pp. 64 + 65.

Barbara J. MacAdam, Marks of Distinction, Two Hundred Years of American Drawings and Watercolors from the Hood Museum of Art, Manchester, Vermont: Hudson Hills Press, 2005, pp. 13, ill. p. 13, fig. 1.

Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewlers, Hanover: University Press of New England, p. 538-541, 1998.

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, frontispiece, p. 193, no. 162.

American Church Silver of the Seventheenth and Eighteenth Centuries with a Few Pieces of Domestic Plate, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, p. 64. no. 553, ill. Plate 18.

John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 104, ill. plate no. 35.

Provenance

John Wentworth (1737-1820), Royal Governor of New Hampshire, and friends, to the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock (1711-1779), D.D., President, and to his successors in that office; given to present collection, 1773.

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