Boston University
Massachusetts
1839
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): scarlet/white (1895-1913); red/white (1914); crimson/white (1915-1916); red/white (1917-1918); scarlet/white (1923-1935)
A reporter covering commencement ceremonies at the University of Chicago for the Indianapolis News (9 July 1896) described the hood lining of a professor from Boston University as having a single color of “scarlet”, which means the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) assigned Boston this single color hood lining in 1895 or 1896.
A few years later, however, Rutgers University requested a hood lining pattern from the IBAC, but because Rutgers used only a single college color of scarlet, to avoid a duplication the Bureau added a chevron to Boston’s scarlet hood lining in the university’s second color of white.
Boston University’s new hood was first cited in a 1918 IBAC list, where it was described as having a scarlet lining and white chevron. This description was repeated without variation or change in all subsequent Intercollegiate Bureau lists. The IBAC later assigned a confusingly similar hood lining to Miami University of Ohio (bright red with a white chevron).
Boston University chose scarlet and white in the 1880s but the colors weren’t made official until 1930. In a 1945 Founder’s Day address, the president of the university, Daniel L. Marsh, said:
I like these colors – Scarlet for courage and White for purity! There is a tinge of orange in the flame color of scarlet, and orange symbolizes the lamp of knowledge and of benevolence. Scarlet also represents blood, and blood represents fire, and blood and fire are life; they hold in their tremendous grasp the secret of this awful thing that lives and breathes, and would be God, if it could. White is the harmonious blending of all the hues and colors and beauties of light. It represents the combination of all virtues, the balancing of all excellences, a display of all the beauties of grace.
It is worth noting that Marsh described Boston’s scarlet as having a “tinge” of orange.
At an unknown date the Boston University administration approved the use of a specially-designed doctoral gown tailored from scarlet fabric, with black velvet trim. Two embroidered patches of the university’s shield are sewn to the upper portion of the each facing. The hood is of the standard pattern, with black exterior. The “custom-designed” doctoral gown may be used in place of the traditional black gown.
Below are two photographs of this gown with a Doctor of Science hood from the University Cap & Gown Company (Balfour).
