Re: U.S. Universities and Colleges
Posted: 16 Mar 2016, 13:47
Let's shift, then, to a few arms that won't generate political controversy--I hope.
Seton Hall University is a Catholic university in South Orange, New Jersey, operating under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Newark. It was founded in 1856 by Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, nee Bayley. The arms were designed by William F. J. Ryan (creator of a significant amount of Catholic-associated heraldry in the U.S.). The main field is the Scottish arms of Seton in reversed tinctures, while the chief alludes to the barry wavy field of the diocesan arms. The three torteaux in the crest are from St. Elizabeth's (and the bishop's) paternal arms, "Argent three torteaux a chief Gules."
The similarly named Seton Hill University, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, also has rather fine arms based on those of Seton. Seton Hill was founded as a girl's school in 1885 by the Sisters of Charity, the order founded by St. Elizabeth Seton, and gradually evolved into a women's college and eventually into a small university with both male and female students. The black chief with three gold crosses "pattées-arrondies" looks to me like a reference to the arms of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, "Sable, a fess chequy argent and azure, in chief two crosses-pattées-arrondies or, over all in pale a sword, hilt in base, of the last," although that diocese has not included Greensburg since 1951. The college itself explains the crosses as an allusion to the order, but the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth are more usually represented by a pelican in her piety.
Seton Hall University is a Catholic university in South Orange, New Jersey, operating under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Newark. It was founded in 1856 by Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, nee Bayley. The arms were designed by William F. J. Ryan (creator of a significant amount of Catholic-associated heraldry in the U.S.). The main field is the Scottish arms of Seton in reversed tinctures, while the chief alludes to the barry wavy field of the diocesan arms. The three torteaux in the crest are from St. Elizabeth's (and the bishop's) paternal arms, "Argent three torteaux a chief Gules."
The similarly named Seton Hill University, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, also has rather fine arms based on those of Seton. Seton Hill was founded as a girl's school in 1885 by the Sisters of Charity, the order founded by St. Elizabeth Seton, and gradually evolved into a women's college and eventually into a small university with both male and female students. The black chief with three gold crosses "pattées-arrondies" looks to me like a reference to the arms of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, "Sable, a fess chequy argent and azure, in chief two crosses-pattées-arrondies or, over all in pale a sword, hilt in base, of the last," although that diocese has not included Greensburg since 1951. The college itself explains the crosses as an allusion to the order, but the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth are more usually represented by a pelican in her piety.