Violet had been adopted as the school color for the University of the City of New York by 1868 at the latest, when it appeared in a list of college colors in a book of college songs entitled Carmina Collegensia, by H.R. Waite.
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): violet (1895-1935)
In 1894, Princeton invited other universities to join an “Intercollegiate Commission on Academic Costume” to draft a uniform system of academic costume for American colleges and universities. Representatives from Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and Yale University served on this committee, which used Columbia’s system of academic costume as the basis for the new “Intercollegiate Code of Academic Costume” the Commission approved on 16 May 1895.
New York University formally adopted this Intercollegiate Code on 3 June 1895, stating that the “hoods shall be lined with the official color of the University.” All sources from that period state that violet was the school color of NYU, and this was how the university’s hood lining was described in all Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) materials published thereafter.
Today New York University doctoral gowns can be black, or violet with black velvet trim. A special crest is embroidered on the facings of the violet-colored gown.