We’re not sure if you’ve noticed in the last couple days, but there’s been a bit of snowfall in Massachusetts recently... what better way to celebrate this event than by diving deep into one of Tuft’s coolest (wink wink) traditions: snow sculptures! TARC’s photograph and newspaper collections include photos of snow sculptures on campus dating back to the late 1940s.
In 1949, it was announced that Tufts would host its first Winter Carnival. The carnival promised a ski meet, an informal dance, tobogganing, skating, and of course a snow sculpture competition. The competition was taken very seriously with the curator of the Museum of Fine Arts, Frederick W. Allen, being brought in to judge the creations.! Unfortunately, due to warm weather many of the 1949 Winter Carnival festivities were canceled, and no snow sculptures were judged that year. The Carnival dance was still held in 1949, and so some say this was the still the first official Tufts Winter Carnival.
The next Tufts Winter Carnival was held on February 20th through February 25th, 1950. Once again, the snow sculpture competition was a big draw for this event. Luckily, this year two days before the carnival, Tufts campus received around ten inches of snow! The fresh snow provided the perfect canvas for the sculptures to take shape, and the result was a campus adorned in larger-than-life snow sculptures. ! Different fraternities, sororities, dorms, and other student organizations were given designated spots around campus to build their statues. Sculptures ranged from fictional characters such as Cinderella and Peter Rabbit to recreations of buildings on Tufts campus. The Snow Devil sculpture by Phi Delta took home the first place prize this year.
The tradition of the winter carnival continued at Tufts, changing its name to “Winter Weekend” in the 1960s. The festival was typically held in February with snow sculptures becoming a staple of the event. In 1952, Delta Upsilon’s Jumbo’s Birthday sculpture took the cake. The sculpture commemorated Jumbo's 100th Birthday. Most of the snow sculpture photos viewable in the Tufts Digital Library are from that year’s competition. These photos were taken by Edwin B Rollins, an engineering professor who captured Tufts’ student life through photography, primarily during the 1950-1960s.
Although we don’t have many photos of the snow sculptures beyond those years, we know from the February 6, 1987, Tufts Observer that the sculptures continued into the 1980s as part of Winter Weekend. In 1978, a blizzard closed down campus, so students took matters into their own hands and had their own “Winterfest.” The February 10, 1987, Tufts Observer noted that “a sense of winter fun fellowship joined the students of the campus together into a spontaneous Winterfest.” Students sled down campus hills, jumped off of roofs into piles of snow, and of course created their own snow sculptures. The Tufts Observer stated that the snow sculptures “took shapes varying from dragons to Snoopy to giant telephones to a replica of the Sphinx.”
Although we still see snow fall on campus every winter, it seems the tradition of snow sculptures has gone by the wayside. While this might be just one of many Tufts traditions that did not survive into the twenty-first century, we here at TARC would love to see a return to the snow sculptures! So next time there’s a big storm, bundle up, grab some friends, and please create a snow-ode to Jumbo on the quad!
Sources:
“A Lukewarm Winterfest.” The Tufts Daily. December 1, 2011. https://newspapers.tufts.edu/?a=d&d=TTD20111201-01.1.8&srpos=1&e=------201-en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22snow+sculptures%22------ .
Currie, Harold. “Warm Weather Forces Carnival Cancellation.” The Tufts Weekly. February 24, 1949. https://newspapers.tufts.edu/?a=d&d=TTW19490224-01
Higginbotham, Herb. “King Winter to Reign on Hill All This Week; Come Snow or No.” The Tufts Weekly. February 17, 1949. https://newspapers.tufts.edu/?a=d&d=TTW19490217-01.
“Mooneymen, Juniors to Sponsor Winter Carnival.” The Tufts Weekly. January 10, 1952. https://newspapers.tufts.edu/?a=d&d=TTW19520110-01
“Slip Slidin’ Away.” The Tufts Observer. February 10, 1978. https://newspapers.tufts.edu/?a=d&d=TTO19780210-01.1.3&srpos=1&e=------197-en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22snow+sculptures%22------ .
Zerfing, Joy. “First Carnival Held in 1949: Fun Spirit Was High on Snowless ‘Hill.’” The Tufts Weekly. February 27, 1953. https://newspapers.tufts.edu/?a=d&d=TTW19530227-01.1.3&srpos=3&e=------195-en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22snow+sculptures%22------ .
