Gardner Cotrell Leonard was the Director of the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) and also a partner at Cotrell & Leonard, one of the major manufacturing firms for academic dress in the United States. Because the relationship between the IBAC and Cotrell & Leonard was tight (contemporary materials described Cotrell & Leonard as the “depository” for the Bureau), it is likely that a school was assigned an academic hood lining pattern by the IBAC when that school made a purchase order for academic costume from Cotrell & Leonard. If this is correct, Cotrell & Leonard advertisements from the turn of the century can provide one with a rough estimation of the date when the hood lining pattern of a particular college or university was first registered by the Intercollegiate Bureau.

The College of St. Elizabeth was first referenced (without a description of its hood) in a 1906 Cotrell & Leonard catalogue entitled Concerning Caps, Gowns and Hoods: Bulletin 21, which suggests a 1905 or 1906 registry by the IBAC. The first full description of the college’s hood lining can be found in 1927, where it was described as gold with a Presbyterian blue chevron. “Presbyterian blue” is a “true blue”, ranging from a dark azure to medium shade of blue. St. Elizabeth’s hood design was never modified, appearing in all IBAC lists from the late 1920s until the early 1970s with this description.