The Intercollegiate Code of Academic Costume: An Introduction

The modern academic dress of American universities and of some in Canada is based on or departs from the 1895 Intercollegiate Code of Academic Costume, which lives on as the Academic Costume Code. Researchers who describe a North American university’s cap and gown often look into the history of the Code and review the familiar story of its beginnings; they also uncover forgotten elements of the Code’s development. Five of the authors in this volume describe the Code in their articles. The editors believe that instead of printing each history in its respective author’s paper, independently of the others, a single paper that synthesizes the main points from each article into one makes a stronger whole and eliminates repetition. This paper is largely the work of Donald Drakeman and Stephen Wolgast. Drakeman’s work is taken from his paper ‘Peculiar Habits’; Wolgast’s work comes from his paper ‘King’s Crowns’ and additional research. Their observations are supplemented by the work of Robert Armagost, David Boven, and John Grant. To help identify the work of each author, footnotes are preceded by his initials (unless he is otherwise identified). This article was prepared by Wolgast; as much as possible the authors’ original writing remains unaltered except where transitions are necessary. Footnotes are nearly untouched except to add fuller citations. A significant portion of the text in this article is cut from the articles that follow. Some, however, is printed both here and its original place to preserve the context and references of the authors’ original work. Because the Code’s history is nuanced and not entirely logical, some details and analysis are better explained in a separate discussion. For an examination of the Code’s development, including a look at the growth of faculty colours, see Armagost’s paper, ‘University Uniforms’, p. 143ff.