Clarkson University
New York
1896
Formerly “Clarkson School of Technology”
Although the official colors of Clarkson at this time were old gold and green, the color samples the school sent to the Intercollegiate Bureau must have been bright gold and dark olive green, because academic hood lists published by the Bureau in 1927, 1948, and 1972, as well as a list compiled by Kevin Sheard in Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970), all described the school as having a hood lined gold with an olive green chevron. (The IBAC typically used “olive green” to describe a dark shade of this hue.)
This appears to have been a duplication of the hood lining the IBAC assigned to Wilberforce University (also gold with an olive green chevron). But because the Intercollegiate Bureau was not always careful to distinguish between gold and old gold in their descriptions, it is entirely possible that Clarkson sent the Bureau a color sample that was old gold but the Bureau registered it as “gold”.
Here the apparent duplication with Wilberforce has been resolved by reassigning Clarkson a hood lined old gold with an olive green chevron, which would be consistent with the shades of the colors of the college during the period the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume is likely to have assigned Clarkson a hood lining pattern.
A detailed history of the green and old gold school colors of Clarkson School of Technology is not available at this time. However, vintage collegiate memorabilia from the early years of the 20th century depict varying shades of medium to dark green (usually of an olive shade) and varying shades of old gold or gold. This is consistent with the varied descriptions of Clarkson’s colors in the World Almanac and Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume lists.
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): old gold/green (1917-1931); green/gold (1934-1935)
In the late 1890s or early 1900s the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) assigned a hood lined old gold with an olive green chevron to the Philadelphia Dental College, but in 1907 this institution merged with Temple University and began using the cherry and white hood lining of Temple. A hood design for the Clarkson School of Technology may have been assigned around this time, because in 1902 the IBAC had been chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York and given the responsibility (among other things) of assigning hood linings to all New York colleges and universities.
