In the 27 July 1902 edition of The Argus, an Albany NY newspaper, an article entitled “Albany Bureau of Academic Costume” contained a list of Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) hood lining patterns that had been assigned to some of the more prestigious colleges and universities of the time. Because St. Stephen’s had not been listed in previous catalogues or advertisements by Cotrell & Leonard (the depository for the IBAC), the college may not have been assigned a hood lining pattern until 1901 or 1902, immediately prior to the publication of this newspaper article.

In that article St. Stephen’s College was said to have a hood lining with the single color of cardinal, which was an inaccurate description of the college’s scarlet color. The Bureau probably altered the shade of St. Stephen’s hood to avoid duplicating the scarlet hood lining the IBAC assigned to Rutgers University at about the same time.

By the mid 1920s, however, the IBAC had revised the description of the hood lining for St. Stephen’s College to “bright red”, which was a synonym the Bureau often used for scarlet as a way of hiding the fact that duplicate hood linings had been assigned to two or more schools that used scarlet. But in a 1972 IBAC list the hood lining for what was now “Bard College” had been redesigned as scarlet with a white chevron. Unfortunately, this too was a duplication, this time of the hood lining for Boston University (scarlet with a white chevron).

As a way of resolving these duplication problems, here Bard’s original (c.1902) single-color hood lining pattern has been modified as a scarlet lining tailored from velvet fabric rather than silk or satin.