Collegiate Colors
The 1895 Intercollegiate Code of Academic Costume said that the colors of the college or university that conferred a particular degree should be displayed in the silk or satin lining of the academic hood representing that degree. So even before the Code was authorized in May 1895 the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume began recording the official school colors of every college and university in the United States (usually culled from annual lists published in the World Almanac), and registering an official hood lining pattern with those colors to every college and university that applied to the Bureau for a pattern. For institutions that shared the same school colors, the Bureau used a variety of heraldic patterns to divide those colors in a manner that was unique and distinctive for each college or university.
One problem with this system was that colleges and universities were not often very precise in the way they defined or described their school colors, and would sometimes change their official colors over time. So the Intercollegiate Bureau would normally ask the institution to send color samples before the Bureau would assign it a hood lining pattern. Nonetheless, Intercollegiate Bureau collegiate color lists sometimes vary in the way they describe the shade of a school’s color.
This is because another problem with this system is its subjectivity. Colors are perceived differently by individuals – one person’s “crimson” might be another person’s “cardinal” or “scarlet”. This can be illustrated by the way some of the major American universities that use various shades of red have defined their traditional school colors today using the Pantone Matching System (PMS), shown in the chart below.
Colleges and universities that describe one of their school colors as “CARDINAL”:
Colleges and universities that describe one of their school colors as “CRIMSON”:
Colleges and universities that describe one of their school colors as “SCARLET”:
This imprecision in how we define a particular shade of color like “cardinal” – even today with standardized color systems – means that the lists of hood lining patterns published by the Intercollegiate Bureau were filled with hood patterns that may have seemed different on paper but were actually quite similar in appearance when tailored into an actual hood. Also, dye batches were different – a roll of “cardinal” hood lining silk produced in 1915 was probably different in color from a roll of “cardinal” hood lining silk produced in 1935. Even different batches of “cardinal” silk produced in 1935 would have been slightly different in hue.
The heraldic patterns the Intercollegiate Bureau used to distinguish between two or more schools that used the same colors were intended to alleviate some of these problems, but the Bureau was sometimes guilty of using synonymous names for the same color, which either deliberately or accidentally resulted in duplicated hood lining assignments. That is, a hood lined “dark blue” with a white chevron, a hood lined “Yale blue” with a white chevron, and a hood lined “navy blue” with a white chevron were essentially the same hood lining, or were so similar in appearance that they might as well have been considered the same hood lining, particularly when one of these hoods was seen by itself without a comparative hood beside it.
The Bureau’s use of the term “Yale blue” was especially problematic, as it seems to have sometimes described a medium blue or “true blue”, sometimes described a dark blue or “navy blue”, and sometimes described a royal blue or “purplish dark blue”.
To alleviate some of these problems, this website has attempted to group similar colors from Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume lists under a single color category – “dark blue”, “Yale blue”, and “navy blue” are all slotted under “dark blue” on this website – and this website uses a more extensive set of heraldic patterns than the Bureau used, reassigning some colleges and universities when necessary to avoid hood lining pattern duplications.
The following chart illustrates the basic color categories used on this website, along with the color terms used by Cotrell & Leonard (the depository for the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume) before it went bankrupt in 1980.
Includes “dark pink”, “rose pink”, and sometimes“rose”.
CERISE
LIGHT RED
Includes “old rose”, “pink”, and “salmon”.
BRIGHT RED
Includes “cherry”, “scarlet”, and “vermilion”.
MEDIUM RED
Includes “cardinal”, “carnelian”, “crimson”, “red”, and “ruby”.
DARK RED
Includes “carmine”, “garnet”, “wine”, and sometimes “rose”.
Includes “burgundy”.
MAROON
LIGHT ORANGE
Includes “golden orange” and “Mandarin orange”.
MEDIUM ORANGE
Includes “orange” and sometimes “old gold”.
DARK ORANGE
Includes “burnt orange” and “cadmium orange”.
Includes “cream” and “ivory”.
LIGHT YELLOW
Includes “lemon”, “yellow”, and “cadmium yellow”.
BRIGHT YELLOW
Includes “canary yellow”, “dandelion”, “golden yellow”, “maize”, “Mikado yellow” and sometimes “gold”.
DARK YELLOW
LIGHT OLIVE
Usually includes “Nile green”.
MEDIUM OLIVE
Occasionally includes “olive green”.
DARK OLIVE
Usually includes “olive green”.
LIGHT GREEN
Includes “emerald”, “Kelly green”, “pea green”, and “wheat green”.
BRIGHT GREEN
Includes “apple green”, “Lincoln green” and sometimes “forest green”.
MEDIUM GREEN
Includes “hunter green” and sometimes “forest green”.
DARK GREEN
TEAL
Includes “myrtle blue” and “seafoam”. Occasionally includes “Nile green” and “peacock blue”.
Includes “sky blue”.
LIGHT BLUE
Includes “azure”. Sometimes includes “peacock blue”.
BRIGHT BLUE
Includes “electric blue”, “Presbyterian blue”, and sometimes “blue”, “Wellesley blue”, and “Yale blue”.
MEDIUM BLUE
Includes “marine blue”, “navy blue”, and sometimes “blue”, “Wellesley blue”, and “Yale blue”.
DARK BLUE
ROYAL BLUE
Sometimes includes “Yale blue”.
Includes “mauve”.
LIGHT PURPLE
Includes “lavender” and “lilac”.
BRIGHT PURPLE
Includes “palatinate”, “pansy”, “purple”, and “violet”.
MEDIUM PURPLE
Includes “royal purple” and sometimes “purple”.
DARK PURPLE
MAGENTA
Includes “buff”.
LIGHT BROWN
MEDIUM BROWN
Includes “brown” and “seal brown”.
DARK BROWN
WHITE
Includes “silver gray”.
LIGHT GRAY
Includes “steel gray”.
MEDIUM GRAY
DARK GRAY
BLACK
The use of “old gold” (dark gold) as a school color became less popular after the 19th century, and many schools that had used “old gold” changed to “gold” or used the two terms interchangeably. So today it is difficult to know if the “gold” hood lining assigned to a college or university by the Intercollegiate Bureau was originally a dark or bright shade of gold.
Also problematic is the fact that the Cotrell & Leonard firm did not use metallic fabrics. Nevertheless, the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume often distinguished between various yellow and gold school colors in the hood linings they assigned.
The Bureau typically used the terms “yellow” and “lemon” to refer to a true yellow (a bright yellow hue), “maize” or “gold” to refer to a yellow with an orange tint (a golden yellow hue), and “old gold” to refer to a darker yellow with an orange-brown tint (an amber, goldenrod, or light mustard hue). The silk or satin fabric Cotrell & Leonard used gave these colors a metallic sheen.
But these were general tendencies, not hard and fast rules. The fact of the matter is that the Intercollegiate Bureau didn’t consistently assign colleges with a gold school color a gold hood lining color. Sometimes these schools would be assigned a yellow hood lining color (especially if the college or university sent the Bureau a bright gold school color sample) or sometimes an orange hood lining color (especially if the college or university sent the Bureau an old gold school color sample).
The same tendencies existed for schools that used gray or silver school colors. The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume used the term “silver gray” to refer silk or satin Cotrell & Leonard used for both a light gray school color and a silver school color. “Steel gray” could refer to the silk or satin used for a medium gray or a steel (dark silver) school color in Bureau hood lining lists.
Should be tailored from iridescent fabric, shot silk, or fabric with metallic threads.
SILVER
Should be tailored from iridescent fabric, shot silk, or fabric with metallic threads.
STEEL
GOLD
Should be tailored from iridescent fabric, shot silk, or fabric with metallic threads.
OLD GOLD
Should be tailored from iridescent fabric, shot silk, or fabric with metallic threads.
COPPER
Includes “bronze”. Should be tailored from iridescent fabric, shot silk, or fabric with metallic threads.