Of Logos and Seals

Tuesday February 03, 2004 Category: Fun Permanent Link

By now, you’ve undoubtedly seen the relatively new, but omnipresent big red block, or the Cornell logo. If you’re like me, you wonder what happened to the familiar crest, emblazoned with Ezra Cornell’s words, “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” OK, so it’s not “Veritas” or “E pluribus unum,” but it embodies the university that we know and love.

At alumni meetings in NYC in January, I learned that the familiar crest is actually the university’s seal, and retains some sort of official function. I also became aware of the contempt for the red square shared by many alumni…

The Cornell Seal

The Cornell Logo

(!)

A final note

Your webmaster visited the University of Michigan this summer. In addition to standing on the steps where John F. Kennedy Jr. gave his “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You” speech, a highlight was a visit to their law library. The windows are colorful replicas of the seals for every American college that existed at the time. Here is Cornell, to the right of Princeton and Harvard: