<p>I recently read a book on the architecture of the UC campus. It interested me to learn that the seals of various universities decorate the reading room of Harper Memorial Library and Hutchinson Commons. Both of these buildings wre built in the early 1900s. Seals of the following universities are found in Harper: Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Michigan, Wisconsin, California, and Chicago, Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Bologna, Tokyo, and Calcutta. Seals of the following colleges and universities are found in Hutchinson: Dartmouth, Union, Brown, Amherst, Vanderbilt, Indiana, Harvard, Bowdoin, Michigan, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Clark, Virginia, Catholic, Northwestern, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Tulane. Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Cornell, Minnesota, Williams, Yale, Oxford (various colleges), Cambridge (various colleges), and West Point.
I’m assuming that the seals in Harper were an attempt to represent the historical pedigree of UC as one of the great universities. I’m not sure about the seals in Hutchinson. Were these colleges/universities considered academic peers of UC at the time? There are a number of notable universities that are not represented, e.g. California, Columbia, Princeton among the American universities and e.g., Heidelburg, Toronto, Uppsala among the foreign universities.
While some of these universities were obvious choices (e.g., Harvard), on what basis were the others chosen?
Does anyone know of other universities that incorporate seals of other universities into the architectural details of their buildings?</p>
<p>That’s interesting. If you ever have a chance, ask John Boyer, Dean of the College, who is the only person reasonably likely to know. In general, it seems like a catalogue of respected American universities at the time, but the exclusion of Princeton seems inexplicable from that standpoint (California and Columbia aren’t missing). The foreign universities seem a little more random. I am surprised that Toronto and McGill are missing, too. Uppsala may not have made the grade, like Salamanca or the various ancient universities in Latin America. It looks like they only used one university per non-Anglophone country, and in Germany Heidelberg would almost certainly have come third after Berlin (which was really the model on which Chicago was designed) and Konigsberg.</p>
<p>As to Chicago’s status, in 1900 it was the host and one of five convening founders of the Association of American Universities, which was the central organization of the elite institutions of higher education here. The other convenors were Harvard, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and California. The remaining founding members were Cornell, Penn, Michigan, Clark, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and Wisconsin. (There was a 14th founding member, too, but I don’t know what it was. Almost certainly one of Brown or Dartmouth, but which I’m not sure.) I think that gives you a sense of what were considered the most elite universities in this country 100 years ago, probably with some bias towards those considered most educationally progressive. It is interesting to see that Chicago and Stanford were part of the club from the outset, despite the fact that both were spanking new at the time, institutionally speaking.</p>
<p>(Ok, my error on listing Columbia and California as missing…) </p>
<p>Perhaps Princeton was excluded because prior to 1896 it was known as the College of New Jersey, and only became a university in 1900 when its graduate school was established. </p>
<p>I thought perhaps some of the seals in Hutchinson included those of the universities in the Western Conference, of which Chicago was a founding member, but Purdue is missing. (Ohio State didn’t join until 1912, and MSU only in 1949—though not designated a university until '55.)</p>
<p>I agree that Berlin would have made the cut as the model of the modern research university. On the other hand, Heidelberg is the oldest German university. As you mentioned, it appears only one university from each non-Anglophone country is represented, though some countries with historically prominent universities are not represented at all (e.g. Sweden, Austria, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland).</p>
<p>If I recall, Harvard and Yale apparently had places of honor in Hutchinson with their seals being placed over the fireplaces.</p>
<p>U. Maryland’s seal is also in Harper. No idea why it’s there.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s really interesting. I have to go visit there one day. </p>
<p>When we went to Chicago last summer, we visited the Tribune building because of all the pieces of the various landmarks embedded on the outside.</p>
<p>Funny thing is, we learned about it because of watching CSI:NY. </p>
<p>Because of that, it was a Must See on our visit.</p>
<p>Not sure why Maryland is there, either.</p>
<p>If those buildings were being built today, I doubt Nebraska, Calcutta, St. Petersburg, Union, Catholic, West Point, or Maryland would be included. Princeton, Duke would be added.</p>
<p>Cant think of any LACs that are prominent enough or nationally/internationally known for a long enough period to make the cut (possibly Oberlin?).</p>
<p>Among foreign universities, there ae a number of historically important ones, but they are not necessarily prominent today. The other top foreign universities may be too recently prominent.</p>
<p>I agree the stones from famous structures that are embedded in the wall of Tribune Tower are very interesting.</p>
<p>BTW, Montegut, the only stones from universities in the Tribune Tower wall are one from the old University of Chicago and one from Massachusetts Hall at Harvard. This link has a list of all the stones: [Tribune</a> Tower Rocks](<a href=“http://www.op97.k12.il.us/julian/tribrocks/index2.html]Tribune”>http://www.op97.k12.il.us/julian/tribrocks/index2.html)</p>
<p>Thanks for the link,Zap!</p>
<p>Some other universities whose buildings display seals of other universities:</p>
<p>University of Florida: Sledd Hall (1930)–This dorm has some window balconies embellished with the seals of great universities, but I don’t know which ones.</p>
<p>University of Southern California: Doheny Memorial Library features seals of the following American schools:Harvard University, College of William and Mary, Northwestern University, University of California, Stanford University and Princeton University. It also depicts the seals of these foreign universities: University of Paris, Trinity College (Dublin), Oxford University, Heidelberg, the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Lima), and the Universidad Nacional de Mexico (Mexico City).</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins: Memorial Hall stained glass windows depict the seals of Yale and California, institutions with which Daniel Gilman was affiliated during his career.</p>
<p>University of Washington: The facade of Suzzallo Memorial Library displays the coats of arms of various universities around the world, but I do not know which ones.</p>
<p>This wouldn’t count as a university seal, but apparently a sculptor etched a Yale Bulldog on the east wall of a gutter in the Princeton U. Chapel.</p>
<p>Georgetown University has a room (or rooms) with the seals of Jesuit schools from all over including what I would think would be college preps (pre-university).</p>
<p>Just for my own curiosity, I followed up on JHS’s suggestion and inquired of Dean Boyer at U Chicago. He replied: "Your assumption about the desire to create immediate historical lineage is correct. That is exactly what the founders of the University were attempting to do.</p>
<p>The seals were selected by a faculty committee chaired by Professor Ernest Burton of the Divinity School. They sought to pull together a representation of European, Asian, and American universities, and to signify broad geographic coverage as well. Some of the institutions selected were deemed to be our intellectual and academic peers, while others were chosen because they represented areas of the nation or of the world that were of interest to the committee. </p>
<p>Space did not allow for comprehensive coverage, and some of the choices that were made might seem strange to todays eyes. But this was the first decade of the 20th century, not the first decade of the 21st, and the choices seemed to make sense at the time."</p>
<p>As for the seals on the facade of U Washington’s library, a reference librarian kindly replied:
"The universities are: Toronto, Louvain, Virginia, California, Yale, Heidelberg, Bologna, Oxford, Paris, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Upsala, and Salamanca.</p>
<p>In 1923, then-President Suzzallo requested that faculty nominate historical figures to be made into statues near the tops of the stained glass windows. Moses, Louis Pasteur, Dante, Shakespeare, Plato, Benjamin Franklin, Justinian, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Goethe, Herodotus, Adam Smith, Homer, Gutenberg, Beethoven, Darwin, and Grotius were selected from the faculty nominations by a committee. It is not clear whether the university emblems were chosen in a similar manner… The Washington Alumnus (February 1927) rather vaguely notes that ‘all [decorative elements, including the emblems] have been given infinite thought.’"</p>
<p>I’d still be interested if anyone knows of any other universities that incorporated these sort of architectural details into their buildings.</p>
<p>Simply as a matter of college rankings “carved in stone”, I find it quite interesting to consider these architectural details at three universities from three decades of the early 20th century. Some of the universities represented were prominent even 100 years ago; others that were prominent in some respects did not maintain that status; and, still others that are prominent now became so only after the first decades of the 20th century.</p>
<p>Since this thread morphed beyond the University of Chicago forums, perhaps a moderator can move it to a different forum? (not sure which one as it primarily might interest those with with an interest in campus architecture or the history of universities—or, perhaps, those who have Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture” on their iPods) :)</p>
<p>Boston College, too, has the seals of all 28 Jesuit colleges and universities captured on stain glass windows in a beautiful reading room (with an impressive cut stone fireplace and flemish tapestries) just off the main reading rooom of Bapst Library, which is one of the earlier examples of collegiate gothic buildings in this country and is quite stunning.</p>
<p>The University Club in New York has a whole bunch of seals. [New</a> York Architecture Images- University Club](<a href=“This site is temporarily unavailable”>This site is temporarily unavailable)</p>
<p>^^^funny, I was thinking the same thing about the UC club. I wonder what the story is behind that since it is so secretive…</p>
<p>I wasn’t aware that it was so secretive. My high school held a get-together/fundraising event there once. It’s a lot like the Harvard Club or the Yale Club, but open to graduates from more than one university.</p>