Being a new high school graduate I was struck by the odd design of the graduation cap. Does anyone here know where the design originated?
I don’t know the answer to the OP but the name of the ‘graduation cap’ is a Mortar Board. I don’t know where that name came from either but if you decide to Google for an answer yourself that might help.
Basically, it’s mediaeval clothing. Back in mediaeval times, people often dressed accordnig to their professions or occupations. Scholars wore a long hooded gown and a flattened cap. This uniform gradually transformed into the gown with the vestigial coloured hood (indicating subject of expertise and rank) and the mortarboard hat with tassel (technically, I don’t think the mortarboard really qualifies as a cap).
For some time, this costume was the uniform of all university faculty and students. You’ll still see this stereotypical costume in movies up to the mid-20th century. I remember, in particular, one of the old Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead movies in which Dagwood decided he should get a college degree and the college students were all shown in mortarboard and gown. I don’t think American college students really were wearing this costume in the 1940s and '50s, although the tradition might have lasted longer at England’s venerable Cambridge and Oxford.
Just like other forms of dress that were not too long ago still daily wear for many professionals and the aristocracy – such as the dinner jacket (tuxedo), morning coat (full tails), evening coat (cut-away tails), and top hat – the mortarboard and gown have survived for only the most formal of occasions, such as weddings and commencement ceremonies. American judges still wear robes, but comparatively plain ones (except for that surprise of a dandy, Chief Justice William Rehnquist). Of course, British judges and barristers still wear their wigs and gowns, but this too seems to be fading away.
I suppose, technically, if you have earned a degree, you still have the theoretical right to go to campus every day wearing your gown and the hood appropriate for your rank. However, I think it’s probably obvious that you would be considered a bit odd. Hell, though, if there can be a naked guy on campus, why not a cap-and-gown guy?
IIRC it is called a mortarboard because, having a square top, it resmbles the board used by building workers to carry mortar or plaster for immediate use - basically a square piece of wood with a handle set at the centre (underneath).
In construction this is also called a hawk .
I closed your other thread with the same OP that Arnold Winkelried moved to this forum. Cross-posting is frowned upon on this board.
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