University of Rochester
New York
1850
Prior to 1875 the school colors of Rochester were magenta and white, but in that year the dandelion became the official flower of the University of Rochester. It is not known when “dandelion yellow” became the official color of the school, but it has been used since 1875 at the latest. “Dandelion” is a golden yellow or light orange color. Navy blue was added as a second official school color in 1954.
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): orange (1895); dandelion yellow (1896-1904); yellow (1906-1908); dandelion yellow (1909-1910); yellow (1911-1935)
According to Rochester: The Making of a University by Jesse Rosenberger, the University of Rochester began conferring master’s degrees in the 1890s (which would indicate the use of academic hoods by graduates), and the faculty of the University of Rochester first wore academic costume at the 1910 commencement. Since the 1895 Intercollegiate Code of Academic Costume permitted faculty to wear the hood of the college or university at which they worked, it is safe to assume that at some point between 1895 and 1910 the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) assigned an official hood lining to Rochester.
The university’s hood lining design was first cited in a 1918 Encyclopedia Americana article on academic costume written by Gardner Cotrell Leonard, the Director of the IBAC. Leonard stated that the university had been assigned a hood lining with a single color of dandelion yellow. Because “dandelion yellow” is a golden yellow hue, by 1927 the Bureau had redefined the color of the lining as gold, but between 1948 and 1969 the IBAC corrected its description of Rochester’s lining shade to dandelion yellow again.