School colors

The Blue and White (Mark Holden C '09)

Columbia's official color's are "Columbia Blue" and white. Both colors were originally drawn from the two literary societies that were at the heart of student life in the 19th century: Philolexian Blue, and Peithologian White.

The history of Blue and White dates back to 1852, when the Philolexian and Peithologian Societies cut back on their use of two colors each (Blue and Silver for Philo, White and Gold for Peitho) to one apiece. While the colors entered into general usage by students during the 19th century, they first came into prominent use by the school in 1873 "at the boat race in Springfield" according to Dean John Howard Van Amringe.

"Columbia Blue" has been a hard color to pin down historically. An column in the February 1949 Columbia Alumni News lamented the lack of a designated color, and set about to investigate. The magazine noted that it used a shade of turquoise, the University had adopted a shade called azure for the University Shield, and that "there are the variegated blues of programs, announcements, and invitations. There is no single Columbia blue." The curator of Columbiana described the color as "the blue of the sky close to the horizon on a clear day," but confessed that "Oh, I juust tear off the a piece of the cover of the University catalogue" when requesting the color from printers, and Columbia University Press's printing office simply stated that "Why, we just ask for Columbia blue."

As a result, to this day a wide array of blues are used.

The Philolexian Society maintains, in mock indignation, the position that the colors were in fact stolen. In 1986, one member of the society wrote a letter to the President of the University demanding $1 million in restitution.