Wilson College
Pennsylvania
1869
Silver and blue became the official school colors of Wilson College in 1891. The college’s blue was a light shade of blue. Lyrics in Wilson’s Alma Mater say that blue symbolizes the Kittochtinny Mountains near the campus and silver symbolizes the sparkling dew in the valleys between them.
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): silver/light blue (1911-1912); silver/blue (1917-1935)
Academic hood lists published by the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) in 1927, 1948, and 1972 described Wilson College as having a hood lined light blue with a silver gray chevron. The IBAC often used the term “silver gray” to refer to silver or light gray. A list compiled by Kevin Sheard in Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970) described the college’s hood lining as pale blue with a white chevron. Although white is heraldically synonymous with silver, Sheard’s imprecise description of Wilson’s silver school color unfortunately created an erroneous duplication of the hood lining pattern the Bureau had assigned to Columbia University in 1895.