Hartwick College
New York
1797
Formerly “Hartwick Seminary”
The original school colors of Hartwick Seminary were yellow and white, but it is not known when or how these were adopted. In 1930 the Board of Trustees adopted Wellesley blue and white as the new colors of Hartwick College, the new name of the school since 1928. “Wellesley blue” is a medium to dark shade of blue.
Academic hood lists published by the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) in 1927 and 1948 described Hartwick Seminary as having a hood lined white with a yellow chevron. Reflecting the new colors adopted by Hartwick College, a list compiled by Kevin Sheard in Academic Heraldry in America (1962) described the college’s hood lining as royal blue with a white chevron – a description repeated in a 1972 IBAC list.
Royal blue and Wellesley blue are similar but not identical: “royal blue” is dark shade of purplish-blue whereas Wellsley blue is sometimes a dark shade of “true” blue. At any rate, this hood lining duplicated that the Bureau assigned to Duke University prior to 1910. Using medium or dark shades of true blue (what might be called various shades of “Wellesley blue”) does not help because the Intercollegiate Bureau long ago assigned these hood lining patterns to Millikin University and Pennsylvania State University.
To avoid these duplication problems, the original and unique IBAC lining assignment for Hartwick Seminary has been retained here.