This summer I’ve noticed many heraldic symbols on one of the buildings on campus that I’ve never seen before. I guess heraldry is at the forefront of my mind right now.
Anyways, I snapped some pictures of different things. What I found interesting is that the building is covered in shields, symbols, and even COA of other universities! I thought you’d be interested to see some of them.
A version of Harvard
http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/9789/dsc0028ub.jpg
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/492/dsc0032ho.jpg
The middle shield is the seal of the University of California
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9150/dsc0033az.jpg
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/6176/dsc0034mu.jpg
University of Cambridge
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8229/dsc0162vf.jpg
I can’t make this one out. Does anyone know what it is?
Beautiful campus, if not particularly old—I do miss it!
Mike~~ UCLA ‘67
j.carrasco;86725 wrote:
I can’t make this one out. Does anyone know what it is?
The legend around the seal says SIGILLUM UNIVERSITATIS GRATIANPOLITANAE, "The seal of the University of Grenoble", and its founding dates.
The University of Grenoble no longer exists, as it split into several different institutions in 1970. It would be interesting to see if any of those institutions use heraldry, and if their devices might bear any relation to what is depicted on that window.
j.carrasco;86725 wrote:
The middle shield is the seal of the University of California
The one on the left (our left) is an approximation of the University of Michigan; that on the right might allude to Rice University (Azure two chevronels between three owls Argent).
Quote:
These seem to be for the University of Washington and the University of Texas, although like the others they are not exact.
Joseph McMillan;86751 wrote:
The one on the left (our left) is an approximation of the University of Michigan;
It’s a very rough approximation. I went to U of M and I didn’t recognize it.
The Lamp is supposed to on a book, and there aren;t supposed to be rays iof light.
Nick
damase;86741 wrote:
The legend around the seal says SIGILLUM UNIVERSITATIS GRATIANPOLITANAE, "The seal of the University of Grenoble", and its founding dates.
The University of Grenoble no longer exists, as it split into several different institutions in 1970. It would be interesting to see if any of those institutions use heraldry, and if their devices might bear any relation to what is depicted on that window.
Wow, I don’t know how you got that. I was actually staring at the window and couldn’t make it out. The only word I got was Universitatis.
And I didn’t realize there were that many other schools’ shields on the building. Now I’m very curious as to why the building was designed with so many other schools plastered all over it. I’m going to see if I can pull up some history about the building’s architect.
The UCLA campus, while the original buildings are very much "old style" (the library & main auditorium are based on the front & back of IIRC the cathedral in Florence, Italy), isn’t that old—built IIRC in the 1920’s or 30’s. The visual references to other, older schools would appear to be expressions of a desire to be, and to be perceived to be, in that older noble company.
While you’re poking around campus, see if you can find arms designed for the various schools or departments—I don’t recall ever seeing them carved on the buildings, & they may have fallen out of use, but they did at one time exist, at least on paper.
