Clarke University
Iowa
1843
Formerly “the College of Mount St. Joseph”
The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) assigned the College of Mount St. Joseph an unusual hood lining pattern with two chevrons of different colors. IBAC lists from 1927 and 1948 described the hood lining as white with two chevrons: a purple chevron above a “gold orange” chevron. This pattern was confirmed by Kevin Sheard in Academic Heraldry in America (1962), where he described the lining of Clarke College as white with a purple chevron above a gold chevron. But in Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970) Sheard erroneously interchanges the two chevrons, placing the gold one above the purple. A 1972 Intercollegiate Bureau list muddied the waters. Apparently not realizing that Mount St. Joseph had become Clarke College in 1928, the IBAC copied Sheard’s 1970 erroneous hood lining information for Clarke into their database, but also separately cited Mount St. Joseph as having a hood lining that was “white over purple over white over gold over orange”!
Here the original pre-1927 Intercollegiate Bureau hood lining pattern for the College of Mount St. Joseph has been retained. It was one of only two schools that used a hood lined with two chevrons of different colors in this early IBAC list, the other being Heidelberg University in Ohio.
Purple and gold were being used at the College of Mount St. Joseph by 1907 at the latest, with white often added as an accent color. Purple symbolized the royalty of Jesus, white symbolized His purity, and gold symbolized the loyalty of Christ’s followers. Taken together, the three colors represented “the struggle of a human soul through temptation, conflict, and suffering, and its final victory in Christ”, according to Our College Colors (1949) by Henry Snyder. The shade of purple was dark, like a royal purple.
Today Clarke University’s colors are navy blue and gold. It is unknown when purple was changed to navy blue.
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): purple/white/gold (1923-1935)
