Macalester College
Minnesota
1874
Students at Macalester College chose orange and peacock blue as their school colors in 1894, According to Webster’s Dictionary, “peacock blue” is a bluish green-blue of medium saturation and low brilliance. In the late 1890s and early 1900s the college’s orange was often described as “gold”, but the official color was (and is) orange. The shade of Macalester’s blue evolved from “peacock blue” to a royal blue in the 1920s, and then to a true blue today. The college also has an official tartan pattern.
Citations in the World Almanac: blue/gold (1895), orange/peacock blue (1914-1918), royal blue/gold (1923-1931), orange/blue (1934-1935)
The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) assigned Macalester College a hood lined orange with a “royal blue” (not peacock blue) chevron, probably in the early 1920s after the college had redefined its shade of blue from peacock blue to royal blue. This description appeared in Intercollegiate Bureau lists from 1927, 1948, and 1972. In Academic Heraldry in America (1962) and Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970), Kevin Sheard described Macalester’s hood lining in an identical fashion. Macalester’s hood is easily confused with the hood lining the IBAC assigned to the University of Florida, so to avoid this problem, a hood lined with the college’s official tartan would be preferable.