Abstract

Harvard University, the oldest and perhaps most celebrated and prestigious university in the United States, has been a fixture of the Boston area for almost four hundred years. Founded a scant fourteen years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Harvard has grown from a small colonial school to one of the world’s foremost private research universities. Much has been written about Harvard’s history, but this article explores one small aspect of this vast subject: the history and practice of academic dress at this (by New World standards) ancient institution. Harvard dress as it now stands owes a good deal to academic dress in English universities and therefore to the academic dress of medieval Oxford and Cambridge. [Excerpt].

Keywords: Academical dress, Origins of university costume, History of academic dress, Academic cap and gown

How to Cite:

Hoffmann, N. A., (2009) “Crow’s Feet and Crimson: Academic Dress at Harvard”, Transactions of the Burgon Society 9(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/2475-7799.1071