About: Styles and Colors of Graduation Caps, Gowns and Hoods
In the ancient universities, many had a rather elaborate code in their robes that they wore daily in their academic pursuits. Some formalized and some stemming from simple social dynamics, they ranged from plain black to bright and elaborate with gold trims. Historically, robes for most were exclusively black, however it is more common nowadays for robes to match the colors of a given school or institution.
It wasn't until the last couple hundred years the tradition of coloring robes by discipline started. In England, the tradition of robes by field of study started to appear. Generally speaking, white appeared for arts and letters inspired by the white trimming of the fur of the Bachelor of Arts hoods at Oxford and Cambridge, red being a symbol of many churches became the symbol of theologists, medieval herbs inspired the green often used by medicine, the neighboring color olive was adopted for pharmacy, and golden yellow became became a symbol of the sciences due to the golden "wealth" of research that science had produced.
However, each institution had different policies and thus there is much confusion among English academics over what color is for what, as there is no standard. In the US, the colors have been mostly standardized by most universities, and are often easy to decode. These are the commonly accepted colors adopted by most universities in the United States:
* Maize - Agriculture
* White - Arts, Letters, Humanities
* Drab - Commerce, Accountancy, Business
* Lilac - Dentistry
* Copper - Economics
* Light Blue - Education
* Orange - Engineering
* Brown -Fine Arts, including Architecture
* Russet - Forestry
* Crimson - Journalism
* Purple - Law
* Lemon - Library Science
* Green - Medicine
* Pink - Music
* Apricot - Nursing
* Silver Gray - Oratory (Speech)
* Olive Green - Pharmacy
* Dark Blue - Philosophy
* Sage Green - Physical Education
* Peacock Blue - Public Administration, including Foreign Service
* Salmon Pink - Public Health
* Golden Yellow - Science
* Citron - Social Work
* Scarlet - Theology
* Gray - Veterinary Science |
Honor Cords
