Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Indiana
1874
Formerly “Rose Polytechnic Institute”
Rose Polytechnic Students chose old rose and white as their school colors in 1880. The institute was named after an elderly benefactor named Chauncey Rose, so the students felt “old rose” would be an appropriate color to represent their school. “Old rose” was a popular shade of pink during the Victorian period. It was a grayish pink shade, resembling the faded pedals of a dying cerise-colored rose flower.
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): old rose/white (1914-1918); rose/white (1923-1931); old rose/white (1934-1935)
Academic hood lists published by the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) in 1927, 1948, and 1972 described Rose Polytechnic Institute as having a hood lined old rose with a white chevron. It is not known whether this was a hood lining pattern that had been officially assigned by the IBAC or merely a record of the institute’s school colors applied to a hypothetical hood lining arrangement, but either way it was a unique hood lining not used by any other college or university at the time. Identical hood lining descriptions of old rose with a white chevron were cited by Kevin Sheard in both Academic Heraldry in America (1962) and Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970).