The International Association of Amateur Heralds

I came across these three examples of modern American academic heraldry, and thought I'd share them.

A few years ago, Yale University established two more residential colleges, and changed the name of an existing one. Each college assumed a coat of arms. They are :


Pauli Murray College – the stars are derived from Murray arms, and the counterchanged roundel is based on stationery which Murray used.

Benjamin Franklin College — the broken bend represents electricity, the fleur de lis the fact that Franklin was the first US ambassador to France.

Grace Hopper College (formerly Calhoun College) — the dolphin represents Hopper's service in the US Navy, the field semy of roundels and billets represents the zeroes and ones of binary computer code (Hopper was a computer scientist), and the engrailed bar on the chief is derived from Calhoun College's arms.

All three were designed by the university printer, John Gambell (with Steven Scher and Jonathan Corum in the case of the Grace Hopper College arms).

You'll find more details here.

A fine set.

If Vice-President Calhoun's memory was so abhorrent to Yale and its alumni, they might at least have followed their logic to its conclusion and removed his coat of arms.

I remember seeing something about Yale University's Residential College heraldry a while back. Nice arms.