the college pump Curious Colors

led to the adoption of class colors. A cus- been orange and black), but they could tom then arose in which the senior class learn of this tradition in the convocation passed their color with ceremony to the program. Who knows what action they freshmen on Class Day of Commencement may take in the future? week. Though this year’s freshmen got no color, In 1904, seniors began to buy and wear “Classes still have the right to them, theo- class buttons—blue ones that year. The logically speaking,” claims the Reverend “Your wooden arm you hold outstretched purpose of buttons for a class, reported Doctor Timothy B. Cogan ’56, of Edgar- to shake with passers-by.” the Crimson, was “to further acquaintance town, Massachusetts, whose color is orange among its members.” Freshmen gained and black (as was his father’s), in a letter to rdinarily, a Harvard the right to button up in 1911. Sophomores Little. Class colors should not be forgotten, College class necktie is and juniors toyed with the idea of wearing Cogan avers, “even if they exist primarily crimson emblazoned with such insignia, but that suggestion stirred in a theoretical way. Isn’t it just as easy to one’s class numerals and up controversy. The Student Council vot- proclaim that they have ‘always been and al- often the shield of the ed in 1913 that buttons would be solely a ways will be’? The only real shame would be OUniversity. On the lookout for—and spot- senior prerogative. in claiming that they no longer exist. That ting—deviant ties sported by some older So keen was button enthusiasm that the would be heresy, I think.” alumni at Commencement in June, War- Button Committee of the class of ’12 con- ren M. “Renny” Little ’55, of Cambridge, sidered 59 designs for a green senior button asked these graduates whether they knew submitted by 18 competitors. “A senior class why their neckties had narrow stripes of button is a little thing,” noted the Crimson, Threads. Harvard’s decision to license Dartmouth green, or Princeton orange and “but it can do a lot for Class Unity.” the use of its name to Wearwolf Group, black, or Yale blue within the predomi- But the fashion faded. “The class of a maker of designer clothing, received nant crimson. The old boys he queried 1918,” says Little, “appears to be the last to widespread attention in August from were clueless. Most class secretaries from institute a class button.” Still, the se- the press, comedians, and fash- the 1930s and 1940s interviewed by Little niors continued with pomp to pass on ionistas, although the University were also in the dark about class colors. their color at Class Day through 1963, has exploited its name on clothing Two banners hanging from Yard windows when they gave green to the rising since the presidency of Derek Bok, at Commencement marked the hospitality sophomores of ’66, the last class to be with the proceeds going to student suites of the classes of ’49 and Little’s own presented a color. aid. The “Harvard Yard” clothing ’55. “I’m sure people wondered,” he says, Little looked into the history of class line, said to aspire to a preppy look “why the banners were blue.” colors, with help from Justin Lanning reminiscent of the Sixties, will fea- In a rowing race in 1882, according to ’12, of Pforzheimer House and Encini- ture trousers starting at $195, shirts the Crimson, the freshman crew wore crim- tas, California, at the request of the at $160 and up, and sportcoats for son, and to distinguish themselves the Freshman Dean’s Office. Panty raids on $495. The word “Harvard” will ap- senior crew wore green and white, the ju- Radcliffe or a Freshman Smoker being pear only on the labels inside, and niors blue and white, and the sophomores no longer quite the thing, as Little ob- other references to the University, orange and white, which evolved to or- serves, officials were poking around for the designer promises, will be min- ange and black on future occasions. (Why lapsed traditions that might be revived ute, such as crimson stitching on choose colors of rival colleges, instead of, at the first-ever convocation for fresh- the buttonholes. Crimson’s fine, but say, mauve, fuchsia, and puce? Preppies men, scheduled for September 1 (see how about the odd buttonhole in stick together?) Little believes that this page 59). In the event, this new class of ’13 green, orange and black, or blue— means of identifying class crews may have was not assigned a color (it would have for a touch of class? vprimus v

72 November - December 2009 Photograph by Stu Rosner