Stanford University

Heraldry in the United States
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Chris Green
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Stanford University

Postby Chris Green » 25 Aug 2012, 08:26

I have just stumbled across Stanford University's heraldry, of which they are obviously proud. Given that Stanford is said to be among the best seats of learning in the USA (5th in the latest national list) one can only hope that their teaching is of a higher standard than their heraldry. One is torn between being glad that the university has not cast heraldry aside in its pursuit of all things new and exciting and disappointment that they have achieved results that are at best pedestrian and in some cases just bad heraldry. No "Summa cum Laude" here I think.

http://commencement.stanford.edu/traditions/heraldry/
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Chris Green
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Re: Stanford University

Postby Chris Green » 25 Aug 2012, 09:13

I should perhaps not be so hard on Stanford, not least because the heraldic designer is no longer alive to defend himself.

http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2005/pr-hut ... 11106.html

http://histsoc.stanford.edu/pdfST/ST20no2_3.pdf
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Chas Charles-Dunne
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Re: Stanford University

Postby Chas Charles-Dunne » 25 Aug 2012, 14:03

I like the idea that they have used the university emblem - the triple redwood frond, so often. It seems that the School of Earth Sciences dropped it from their shield. I wonder, why?
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Re: Stanford University

Postby Chris Green » 25 Aug 2012, 14:16

I am not sure how much, if any, influence the various Schools had in Mr Hutchinson's designs. As he was "chairman of a one-man committee", the answer is probably "not a lot".

I note that Mr Hutchinson also designed crests for each CoA but they were never used. Some info is given but no tinctures, so not enough detail to reproduce them accurately.

Do we have/know any Stanford alumni who might know more?
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Jeremy Kudlick
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Re: Stanford University

Postby Jeremy Kudlick » 26 Aug 2012, 03:19

As was noted in the PDF you linked, it was originally a committee of 10 (and the School of Arts objected to the idea?), and we all know that far worse could have been produced by the committee. While some conventions were broken (e.g, the Gules three piles Sable of the School of Earth Sciences), and the banners are not true banners of the arms (except the School of Law, which I feel is an excellent use of purpure), he did much better alone than could have been done by committee.

The image for the arms of the School of Earth Sciences shows the blazon does not include any mention of the triple redwood frond. The date at the lower right corner appears to be 1967, which could mean that a frond was considered initially but dropped, or that it was later determined to be omitted and added. Having never been a Stanford student, I can only offer conjecture.
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steven harris
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Re: Stanford University

Postby steven harris » 04 Sep 2012, 20:11

I'll give Stanford the benefit of the doubt on this one. They tried, and they don't seem to have fallen in with the tincture-breaking or ridiculous, which is more than can be said from most schools over here.
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