Title: Ledyard Canoe Club- Sign Stealing

Informant info: Amy Jiang is from Houston, Texas and is currently a student at Dartmouth in the class of 2016. She is an Art History major and does extensive research and work for the Hood Art Museum

Type of lore: Customary/ Material, Tradition, Ritual

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed alone at Dartmouth College. The informant was asked to retell any rituals she knew associated with any aspect of the Dartmouth Outing Club.

In the summer of 2015 following the end of her Junior year Amy applied to go on a Ledyard Canoe trip. The trip was a month long 270 mile expedition to paddle the Vltava River in the Czech Republic. Prior to embarking on this trip, Amy had little experience or interaction with the Ledyard Canoe Club and its members or the Dartmouth Outing Club. Amy recounted, as one of the few students on the trip not familiar with Ledyard rituals, she was the only one unaware of the item and its significance during the trip. The leader of the expedition, Ledyard member, Ellen Meyer ‘15, orally transmitted the item featured below to her.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file)

Item: During any Ledyard Canoe trip, the trip participants steal a sign from whatever location they happening to be canoeing in. The sign is then signed by all the members of the trip, and kept in a room in Robinson Hall. The location of the room was unknown to the respondent.

Informant’s comments: Informant joked about being the only member of the trip not already familiar with this piece of folklore, because she wasn’t active in the Ledyard Canoe Club.

Collector’s comments:

Tags/Keywords:  Ledyard, Sign, DOC