Talk:King's Crown (symbol)

Editor's Note: This article is highly inferential. I've tried to reference sources where possible, but a lot of it is just based on my own observations around campus after fitting a few key pieces of the puzzle together. Absentminded 00:48, 3 February 2008 (EST)

draft of rewritten article

Columbia's current Crown logo

The King's Crown is a common symbol associated with Columbia. As a symbol, the crown has undergone a number of transformations and adaptations over the years. Recently, the university appears to have adopted the crown as its primary symbolic image, giving it precedence over the seal and shield in branding. Technically speaking, usage of the crown is regulated by the Secretary of the University. Historically it's been slapped on just about everything by everyone without so much as a second thought, but the University appears to be making efforts to regulate the school's visual identity.

The Crown of King's College

Columbia's symbolic association with a crown dates back to the days of King's College, when a copper crown was affixed atop the cupola of College Hall, a visible symbol of the College's royal charter. Today, that crown hangs over the fireplace in the Trustees Room of Low Library, above the portrait of Samuel Johnson and the cornerstone of College Hall.

On a visit to New York in 1820, Stratford Canning, a British diplomat and future ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, was shown the crown by Professor John McVickar. Canning reportedly commented "You should preserve that crown carefully, sir, for you republicans will by-and-by need a crown."

As a side note, the King's College Crown does not appear to correspond exactly with any of the present Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The closest match would be St. Edward's Crown, which would make sense since, as it was crafted in 1661 and would have been worn by George II at the time of the founding of King's College. However, the Columbia crown is notably missing the fleur de lis present in all British royal insignia since the Norman conquest.

It's interesting to note that despite serving as the inspiration for the various crown designs, many of the designs, including the earliest, depart in a variety of ways from the original design.

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  The Crown of King's College, in the Trustees Room of Low Library

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  A sketch of the crown gracing the copyright page of the 1904 sesquicentennial history of the school, "Columbia University: A History", titled perhaps erroneously, as the "Iron Crown of King's College."

Adoption as a symbol

Unlike the lion, or the shield, the crown was not adopted with official fanfare and rollout, but rather grew organically to become part of the University's iconography. This may explain in part the myriad designs, proliferation of variants, and lack of a cohesive set of crown symbols for a long period of time.

Nevertheless, there are three events that, perhaps, had the most to do with the crown's staying power. The first was student driven, and the second, alumni.

The crown logo of the Kings Crown society

In November 1898, a group of students and professors founded a new student literary society, "Kings Crown". From the beginning, the groups organizers had grander plans for the organization, envisioning a general social club for college students. The group engaged in planning social and school spirit events, even the Varsity Show for a period of time, and eventually became the governing body of all non-athletic activities on campus. Their stated goal was to promote the 'collegiate spirit' on campus, and they deliberately steeped themselves in tradition and history, reaching back to old King's College and prominently featured a crown in their logo, designed by School of Architecture student Huger Elliott (Class of 1899.) This crown might arguably said to be the forefather of all our crown designs today.

It should be noted that this design introduced a number of major design departures from the original King's College Crown - the elongated crosses, the lack of a ball between the crown and cross on top, and the removal of alternating diamond-shaped decorations around the base. In the original design the crosses inside the crown are very short, leaving much of the space above "empty." In this design, and subsequent designs based on it, the crosses are stretched to "fill out" the space.

In May 1906, the Class of 1881 made a 25th anniversary gift that would ensure that the crown became a visible fixture on campus, donating the flagpole east of Low Library's entrance to fly the Kings Crown logo. The pole itself is topped by a crown, much in the way that the old College Hall was topped with the original King's Crown. This crown adds an additional design difference from the original King's Crown - the vertical bands are not of even width, but curves. This element has remained in all of the current designs. It's unclear which exact design was featured on the original flag, but it's likely the crown from the Kings Crown logo.

Finally, in 1913, Kings Crown was converted into an umbrella organization to officially oversee all non-athletic student organizations. It seems that at this period Kings Crown effectively became the predecessor to today's Activities Board at Columbia (ABC). As a result, the Kings Crown logo became a fixture in student life, affixed to the cover of handbooks and guidelines etc.

Despite it's long run, the original Kings Crown logo has effectively vanished from use, though many of its design elements are visible in current designs.

One additional interesting note is that even as early as 1912 it was unclear to observers where exactly the crown came from as a symbol. It is noted in An Official Guide to Columbia Univeristy (1912) that the original King's Crown from King's College had served as the inspiration for its adoption as a symbol but no further details are provided.

Crowns around campus

A survey of the campus to see when and where the crown appears (and in what forms) is interesting. The earliest buildings on campus (Low Library, Schermerhorn, Havemeyer, Fayerweather, and Mathetmatics (then the school of mines) Halls) feature no crown iconography in their design.

The first architectural incorporation of the crown came with Alma Mater (dedicated in 1903) - a crown that closely resembles the original King's College crown tops her scepter, and a two-dimensional image of the crown is incorporated into a relief of the University Shield on the back of her chair.

Hamilton Hall, constructed between 1905-1907, features crowns in stone right above the carvings of the school seals above each door (similar to many of the McKim Meade and White buildings around South Field also have), and as part of the decorative frieze in the lobby. Subsequent to the construction of the building, a few graduating classes planted ivy outside the hall, and marked the spot with a carved crown in the foundation. All three crown designs feature elongated crosses. A somewhat different looking crown appears on the door of the Dean's office and is based on the carving directly above it, which was donated as a 25th anniversary gift by the class of 1894. That crown design appears throughout Hamilton Hall on plaques recognizing donors for the most recent renovation of the building, constituting the sole use of the design on campus.

The crown also makes brief appearances on two other buildings - high up on the facade of Avery Hall (built in 1912), and above the door of Wien Hall (built in 1925 as Johnson Hall).

Perhaps the most extensive use of the original King's College crown design occurs inside Butler Library (built 1931-1934). Upon entering, a visitor stands between two beautiful gates leading into the library on the left and right. Each gate is topped by a crown similar to the original design. Within Butler, the same crown design appears in the molding running along the ceiling of Butler Lounge, and the Reading Room (Butler 209).

A more recent architectural employment of the crown is atop the 116th Street gates on Broadway and Amsterdam Ave (installed in 1970).

Designs

In its most recent attempt at creating a cohesive brand, the office of public affairs has identified four "official" crowns for general use. These include the 'official' university crown; a variant that replaces the crosses with diamonds; a variant designed specifically for SEAS; and the Columbia College Crown.

Columbia College Crown

The Columbia College Crown

What is known today as the "Columbia College Crown" began life in 1910 as a logo of the Columbia Alumni News, a weekly alumni newsletter detailing on-campus events, administration activity, and alumni news.

The Alumni News began publication during the Fall 1909. For it's January 5th, 1910 issue, the newsletter featured elaborate hand drawn border art on its cover by Arthur Ware (Class of 1898), which included a sketch of a crown. The newsletter would keep this design through the middle of summer.

For the first issue of it's second volume (7 July 1910) the newsletter cleaned up the cover art, but incorporated a crown design into each of the four corners of the border. This crown design is what we know today as the Columbia College Crown.

It's unclear at what point this design was adopted by the College for its use. Nor is it clear at what point the subscript "1754" was added to the design. Lastly, it's unclear at what point, if any, this design was assigned for the exclusive use of the College, or whether that occurred organically.

While the design of the Columbia College Crown has been around for nearly a century, it was not given an official digitization treatment until 2007 when a member of CCIT on his own initiative undertook an effort to produce a definitive sample of the design to replace the various low-quality graphics that were in use.