Black and gold were the original colors of the University of New Mexico in the early 1890s. A member of the art faculty, Harriet Jenness, suggested crimson and silver would better fit the spirit of the university. Crimson, she said, represented the glow of the setting sun on the Sandia mountains near campus, and silver represented the way the Rio Grande river appears to be a silver ribbon when seen from those mountains by students and faculty, who would often picnic there. To better capture the vibrant color of the sunset, crimson was changed to cherry, and in 1897 students and faculty voted to make cherry and silver the official colors of the University of New Mexico.