Harvard schools

 
Michael Swanson
 
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Michael Swanson
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28 September 2006 22:39
 

HARVARD MEDICAL

Can anyone take a shot at blazoning Harvard Medical School. The barrulet below the chief is a bit puzzling to me.

 

http://hms.harvard.edu/images/hms/corner.gif

 

MYSTERY ARMS

 

Which school used the third arms in this pic, and what is the blazon?

http://www.dce.harvard.edu/images/top.gif

http://www.dce.harvard.edu/

 

 

I am also trying to blazon all of Harvard’s arms.  Please correct my quick first tries:

 

http://tinyurl.com/l8akk

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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29 September 2006 08:50
 

The Medical School blazon is fairly easy:  "Gules a lion rampant Argent in chief above a barrulet compony Or and Azure three open books…"

(I believe the Med School barrulet is correctly Or and Azure rather than Argent and Azure as it is shown in some on-line graphics.)

 

The hard one is one you’re missing, the Graduate School of Design.  It appears inconsistently from one web graphic to another.  I’ll have to check my old notes, but I think I recall thatthe field is correctly "Gules a fret Argent over all a bend Vair and in chief above a barrulet compony Or and Azure three open books…"  However, most graphics on-line show the field fretty rather than "a fret," which means some other way of blazoning the chief has to be found that provides for the barrulet along the bottom edge of the chief and for the chief not to be fretty.

 

As far as I remember, the barrulet compony was introduced—probably by La Rose—to set the red chief of Harvard off in the arms of the two schools with red fields in their arms.

 

Comments on the others:

 

- I think the birds in the Div School arms are martlets rather than doves.

- I don’t think the Division of Engineering & Applied Sciences has its own arms—I think you’ve just found a B&W version of the university arms.

- Dudley House:  the lion needs to be blazoned double-queued, I think.  It should be "Vert armed and langued Gules;" no need to mention that the teeth and eyes are white.

- The field of the Graduate School of Education should be Argent and Azure, not Argent and Sable.

- Isn’t the shield you couldn’t identify the same one you list as belonging to the Institute for Learning in Retirement?

- Harvard Law—garbs should be Or, not Argent.

- Lowell House—the things being held in the hand are supposed to be bird bolts rather than arrows, but you’re right that they are in fact depicted as arrows.

- Business School—"Argent on a saltire engrailed Sable five escallops…"

- Public Health—"Argent on a cross patonce sable five fleurs-de-lis," and I believe they should be Or rather than Argent, although most of the images on line show argent.

 

Missing:

 

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies—"Argent two bendlets engrailed Sable a bordure Gules."

 

Memorial Church of Harvard University—"Per pale, dexter Azure an eagle displayed wings inverted Or armed Gules holding in its claws an open book Argent, sinister Argent a fess Sable between three roses Gules slipped and leaved proper, over all on a chief Gules three open books…"  See http://www.memorialchurch.harvard.edu/

 
Michael Swanson
 
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Michael Swanson
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29 September 2006 10:34
 

Thanks, Joe.  I’ll add the missing ones and correct the blazons.  I think the Law School garbs are argent, as I have a print with the blur field with argent garbs.

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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29 September 2006 12:18
 

Michael Swanson wrote:

Thanks, Joe. I’ll add the missing ones and correct the blazons. I think the Law School garbs are argent, as I have a print with the blur field with argent garbs.


From the Harvard Law website:

 

http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/images/commencement.jpg

 

BTW, I retract my view that the Dudley House lion is queue fourche; apparently not.

 
Michael Swanson
 
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Michael Swanson
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29 September 2006 12:23
 

Joseph McMillan wrote:

From the Harvard Law website:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/images/commencement.jpg

 

BTW, I retract my view that the Dudley House lion is queue fourche; apparently not.

Maybe they use gold garbs only on graduation day.  Did that every occur to you!?:D

I have a pin, too.

http://www.seaboston.pointshop.com/ImgUpload/P_411886_1120592.JPG

 

 

 

I contacted Rick Calixto at the Harvard trademark department to see if they have blazons.  We may have missed some.

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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29 September 2006 13:18
 

Looks to me like the garbs on the pin are the same color as the edging on the books in chief, no?

 
Michael Swanson
 
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Michael Swanson
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29 September 2006 13:55
 

Joseph McMillan wrote:

Looks to me like the garbs on the pin are the same color as the edging on the books in chief, no?


Oh, I see the Or in the pin.  Very, very faint, but I see it!  And I have a bridge for sale you might be interested in.

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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30 September 2006 12:45
 

In old notes I have dating back to the 1970s, I find the upper portion of both the Medical School and School of Design arms blazoned as "a chief per fess of Harvard University and checky Or and Azure."

The field of the School of design is given as "Gules a fret Argent debruised by a bend Vair."

 

I’m fairly sure these were written blazons I had found, because my sketch of the Graduate School of Education arms is wrong—I put one of the cinquefoils straddling the bendwise division line.  If I’d been blazoning from pictures, I would have gotten that right.  Also, my sketches show both the medical and design chiefs with the checky portion consisting of three tracts and not one as we find them depicted at present.

 

I suppose someone might need to find La Rose’s original blazons to know for sure what was intended.