Lesley University
Massachusetts
1909
The history of Lesley University’s colors is not well documented at this point. Apparently, the university uses academic colors of green and gold and athletic colors of green and white. In both cases the university uses a medium shade of green, like a “true green”.
The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) does not appear to have assigned Lesley College an official hood lining pattern, as the college only appeared in a 1972 IBAC list. That citation seems to have been nothing more than a record of the description of Lesley’s hood lining found in Kevin Sheard’s Academic Heraldry in America (1962) and Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970). In all three sources the college’s hood lining was described as green with a gold chevron. This was a duplication of the hood lining the Bureau had already assigned Oklahoma Baptist University between 1927 and 1948.
To avoid this problem, here Lesley University has been reassigned a hood lining pattern that borrows heraldic elements from it’s seal: green and gold, divided per pale (vertically).
Around 2001 the university adopted a “custom” doctoral gown design. According to the University Cap & Gown Company (Balfour), the fabric of the gown is green, with black velvet facings and sleeve bars. An embroidered patch featuring the university’s coat of arms is sewn to the upper part of each facing.