• About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • The Wellesley (COVID) 100
      The Wellesley (COVID) 100
    • In memory of Professor Rebecca Summerhays
      In memory of Professor Rebecca Summerhays
    • Trans flag controversy: College power washes staircase after trans flag is painted over Harry Potter spray paint
      Trans flag controversy: College power washes staircase after trans flag is painted over Harry Potter spray paint
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • The News in Conversation: Wellesley Against Mass Incarceration
      The News in Conversation: Wellesley Against Mass Incarceration
    • Editorial Board calls for keeping up trans flag murals
      Editorial Board calls for keeping up trans flag murals
    • No, Elon Musk’s Twitter will not restore free speech
      No, Elon Musk’s Twitter will not restore free speech
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • Chloe Gong could publish her grocery list and I’d pay $20 for it (Books Before Boys review)
      Chloe Gong could publish her grocery list and I’d pay $20 for it (Books Before Boys review)
    • RIP to Wanda, the male betta fish (Books Before Boys review)
      RIP to Wanda, the male betta fish (Books Before Boys review)
    • When talking to ghosts only worsens your existential dread (Books Before Boys review)
      When talking to ghosts only worsens your existential dread (Books Before Boys review)
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
    • Books Before Boys
  • Health and Wellness
    • February Student Athlete of the Month
      February Student Athlete of the Month
    • Athletics Update
      Athletics Update
    • Victoria Garrick Speaks on Mental Health
      Victoria Garrick Speaks on Mental Health
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • The Wellesley Snooze
    • Wellesley News Leadership Changes Completely Peacefully Without Any Suspicious Disappearances At All
      Wellesley News Leadership Changes Completely Peacefully Without Any Suspicious Disappearances At All
    • Solve Your Connection Problems With Wellesley Insecure
      Solve Your Connection Problems With Wellesley Insecure
    • Mayhem strikes Wellesley as paper towels removed from campus
      Mayhem strikes Wellesley as paper towels removed from campus
  • Miscellanea
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
      Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
    • 50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
      50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Annabel Thompson Features, News and FeaturesSeptember 20, 2018

Wellesley class colors paint a tradition

Class of 2022 colors on display in the bookstore Photo Courtesy of Karolina Oleszczuk '21

Every year, Convocation is a different color. This year it seemed to be sunshine yellow, with bright outfits peeking out from under the class of 2019’s senior robes. A sea of first-years in purple t-shirts and smatterings of sophomores and juniors in green and red, respectively, were also in attendance. The tradition of assigning a color to each class year at Wellesley dates back to the college’s founding, with the class of 1879 being dark blue. Over the past 140 years, though, the tradition and its significance have changed.

Class colors used to be much more heavily associated with Tree Planting Day. Until 1907, each class would choose their color before Tree Planting Day—then held in June, and called Tree Day—at the end of their first year. First-years would sew their own gowns, to the annoyance of class of 1897 alumna Louise Pierce, who wrote in a letter to her parents she had a “million things” to do, including sewing a gown.

The first-year class showing up to Tree Day in their newly chosen color was a source of excitement around campus; an edition of The Wellesley News from June 1902 gushes about the class of 1905 arriving in “green gowns with a suggestion of gold” that “swept the campus in artistic curves.” In addition to a class color, early classes had a class flower, tree and occasionally motto—“strong to live” for the class of 1902, for example.

The earliest Tree Day program to list the freshman class color was the program from 1897, suggesting that at this point classes had probably begun to choose and publicize their colors well in advance of the day itself. The program listed the class of 1900’s tree as the oak, the class flower as the fleur-de-lis and the class colors as purple and lavender. Using color combinations like purple-lavender was relatively common, and colors from all over the rainbow were chosen; the class of 1897 chose olive and gold as their class colors—the only class to choose olive.

1907 saw the introduction of a color rotation, and probably the distancing of class colors from Tree Day, but with blue instead of green as one of the four colors. The reason for the introduction of this rotation, unfortunately, has little documentation. In 1949, the College Senate voted to change blue to green in the rotation. In the Senate’s words, they felt that since blue is the official Wellesley color, it should “belong only to the College as a whole,” rather than just one class.

“[The g]reen class color will also enable members of 1953 to walk on the grass with greater facility,” quipped The Wellesley News editor who documented the vote, “as their hats will blend with the countryside, and will be easier on the eyes of grass cops who think that green and blue clash.” Ever since, the class colors have been yellow, purple, green and red.

The tradition of assigning a color to each class is not unique to Wellesley; Bryn Mawr, Smith, Mount Holyoke and Lawrence University all have class colors as well. Mount Holyoke has class animals, too—griffin, pegasus, lion, sphinx and phoenix, the latter of which is the class animal of nontraditional students—reminiscent of Wellesley’s class flower and tree.

Today, student opinions on class colors are positive. Student Ky Fuller ’21 likes her class color.

“I’m happy with [green]. It’s not a lime green. It’s an actual nice green. 10/10. It makes me think of plants. I enjoy it. I know it belongs to us, so it’s kinda nice,” she said.

About the tradition itself, Fuller mentioned having made a connection with someone from the class of 1981, another green class, through their class color.

“Even though the colors don’t mean a lot while you’re here,” she said, “they can start a conversation.”

Dominiki Kurz ’20 expressed a similar sentiment.

“I haven’t really talked to any alums, so I can’t really say whether it’s cool or not to meet someone who’s [in] red class,” she said. “[But] I think it’s a unique feature of Wellesley. I think it’s super cool that we have all these different majors, all these different classes, but at the end of the day, we’re still the red class.”

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleJewish students celebrate the High Holidays
Next articleStudents wonder if modular lab trailers are “Breaking Bad” or breaking news

You may also like

The Wellesley (COVID) 100

In memory of Professor Rebecca Summerhays

Trans flag controversy: College power washes staircase after trans flag is painted over Harry Potter spray paint

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

Sorry. No data so far.

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2022 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top