{"id":1610,"date":"2013-02-17T22:51:09","date_gmt":"2013-02-18T02:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=1610"},"modified":"2018-12-12T15:54:25","modified_gmt":"2018-12-12T19:54:25","slug":"the-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/the-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"The Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently Williston Northampton announced an evolution in institutional iconography, with the introduction of a new \u201cshield\u201d logo and a redesign \u2013 not an abandonment \u2013 of the extant and, as shall be seen, hardly ancient \u201ctree and mountain\u201d seal.\u00a0\u00a0 Predictably, the school received\u00a0<\/strong>many reactions, that ranged from enthusiasm to apoplexy.\u00a0 It may be instructive to look at school branding \u2013 for that it what we are talking about, a brand<\/em>, a recognizable visual and textual representation of something far larger and more complex \u2013 through 171 years of history.<\/p>\n

In the beginning . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n

. . . Samuel created the Seminary.\u00a0 And he looked upon the Seminary, and saw that it was good.\u00a0 So Samuel caused an image of the campus to be imprinted upon the stationery . . . and gave the matter no further thought.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Meanwhile the students sought to decorate their publications and accessories with often ornate imagery that reflected contemporary taste.\u00a0 There remained, however, no standard seal or logo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Student carte de visite, 1871<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sometime in the mid-1880s a wood-engraved seal representing a rather rustic Samuel Williston made its appearance in a few student publications.\u00a0 The earliest appearance is in a senior yearbook, The Williston Bus<\/em>, in 1886.\u00a0 It does not appear to have been widely adopted; no examples of its use on letterhead, or in official publications such as the Annual Catalogue,<\/em> have come to hand.\u00a0 It is doubtful that Samuel Williston, despite having sat for several painted and photographic portraits, would have approved of such a \u201cgraven image,\u201d nor is Emily Williston likely to have been comfortable with it.\u00a0 Thus the advent of this seal may well follow Emily\u2019s death in 1885.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>During the tenure of Principal William Gallagher (who served 1886-1896) a seal was introduced that would remain in use for eight decades.\u00a0 It made its first appearance in the Annual Catalogue<\/em> of 1892.\u00a0 The device comprised a circular shield with the school\u2019s name and date of founding surrounding the attributes of academia: a globe, compass or calipers, quills, scroll, and books, with the motto \u201cChristo et Ecclesiae\u201d (Christ and Church).\u00a0 The origins of the motto remain unclear, since despite our \u201cSeminary\u201d name and the Calvinist convictions of the founder, we were always at least nominally a secular school. (Please read “The Center of All Days”<\/a><\/strong> for more information.)\u00a0 It is also arguable that the central position of the globe evoked the school\u2019s international character, an important part of school life then as now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>By the mid-20th century there had evolved two renderings of the seal: a more detailed version suitable for print or large display, and a simplified version that could be stamped or embroidered on clothing.<\/p>\n

Over the years this seal would also be applied to neckties, notebooks, jewelry, and a variety of accessories such as cigarette cases and lighters, belt buckles, glassware, even pants hangers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Blazer patch, 1969, and cigarette case, 1920s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Northampton School for Girls<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Northampton School employed one seal, a lozenge illustrated with a tree, presumably an elm.\u00a0 (See \u201cA Note on the Elm Tree Tradition, below.)\u00a0 The earliest appearance of the device is in a 1941 yearbook.\u00a0 There it is hand-drawn; it is probable that the hand rendering preceded any engraved version.\u00a0 In fact, the only remaining example of an engraved Northampton seal is on commercial stationery from the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n

Students appeared to take more of an interest in the seal than did Principals Sarah Whitaker and Dorothy Bement.\u00a0 There is evidence suggesting that the seal never really acquired \u201cofficial\u201d status.\u00a0 While freehand versions, some of them relatively crude, appear in yearbooks and the campus newspaper Pegasus<\/em> throughout the 1940s-1960s, at no point did the Principals use it on school letterhead, nor did it appear in the Catalogue<\/em> until the late 1960s, even then only in a hand rendering.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Hand-drawn renderings, from the 1964 and 1968 yearbooks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Williston Northampton School<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may surprise those seeking a long-term tradition that from 1971, when Northampton School for Girls merged with Williston Academy, until 1982, Williston Northampton employed no school seal at all.\u00a0 Only The Willistonian,<\/em> in a gesture toward the past, ran both old logos on either side of the title.\u00a0 Even this ceased in 1973.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Two renderings of the 1982 seal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1982 a marketing team introduced a logo comprising a tree, presumably but not definitively an elm, in front of Mount Tom.\u00a0 This image has evolved through several re-designs over the last four decades.\u00a0 There have been attempts to impose symbolic import upon the design.\u00a0 Some of these have bordered on absurdity.\u00a0 This writer himself regrets having written some unmitigated nonsense about \u201cdeep roots\u201d in a Bulletin<\/em> piece just a year ago.\u00a0 And no, it was never meant to be the “tree of knowledge.”\u00a0 Sometimes a tree is just a tree.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in a Name?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Williston is not the teacher. He has nothing to do with it, no more than you have. He is the founder of it \u2014 therefore it is called the Williston Seminary.\u201d\u00a0 Student Abner Austin, in a letter to his friend Cassie, December 1856.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cassie was not the first to need enlightenment. The school’s name itself has changed several times.\u00a0 The word \u201cSeminary,\u201d applied to a secondary school, was archaic in 1841 when we opened our doors. The modern connotation, \u201cschool of religious instruction\u201d was already widespread.\u00a0 Despite Samuel Williston\u2019s strong religious sentiments, \u201cSem\u201d was a secular institution.\u00a0 Girls\u2019 schools were also called Seminaries.\u00a0 Having ended coeducation in 1864, Williston was not that kind of seminary, either.\u00a0 This detail appears, in part, to have driven the school\u2019s change of name in 1924, after a student was denied Harvard admission because \u201cshe\u201d failed to meet the most fundamental requirement for eligibility. We became Williston Academy, immediately creating an opportunity for confusion with another school by the same name (1828-1950) in Williston, Vermont.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The seal of the past 25 years<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In that same year, Dorothy Bement and Sarah Whitaker founded The Northampton Preparatory School, Inc. This lead-footed name reflected the corporate nature of the school\u2019s financing; Whitaker and Bement had initially intended a for-profit institution owned by its stockholders.\u00a0 Happily, they were dissuaded from calling it anything other than The Northampton School for Girls.\u00a0 When \u2018Hamp, as its students mostly called it, merged with Williston in 1971, the intended name was \u201cWilliston Academy and Northampton School for Girls.\u201d For about a year, this return to lead-footedness appeared on letterhead and publications, before clearer heads realized that \u2018Hamp\u2019s name could be kept alive in a more concise \u201cThe Williston-Northampton School.\u201d\u00a0 Several years later, according to legend, the hyphen was dropped after a misplaced and ill-received jest suggesting the hyphen was a minus sign.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The 2013 simplification of the preceding design<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So we are The Williston Northampton School, capital T, no hyphen. Our internal style sheet urges the use of the full name at the beginning of all institutional communications, after which concision and commonsense take hold.\u00a0 Contrary to occasional assertions, there is no legal requirement to use any particular name at all.\u00a0 And 41 years into coeducation, it is clear that Hamp\u2019s legacy<\/a><\/strong> is essential to every aspect of Williston Northampton culture, no matter what label we put on it.<\/p>\n

School Colors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Williston Seminary\u2019s\/Academy\u2019s colors were blue and gold.\u00a0 At what point they were officially adopted has not been pinned down, but the tradition may go back well into the 19th century.\u00a0 There are references in songbooks dated 1904 to \u201cthe gold and blue,\u201d and a number of student publications adopted that color scheme for their covers.\u00a0 Athletic medals from the previous decade sport blue and gold ribbons.\u00a0 Northampton School for Girls used green and white.\u00a0 School blazers were forest green with white trim, and were typically worn with white pleated skirts.\u00a0 For intramural athletic and social competition, all students were assigned to either the \u201cgreen team\u201d or the \u201cwhite team.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of the merger, a decision was made to adopt one color from each school; thus, since 1971 Williston Northampton\u2019s official colors have been green and blue.<\/p>\n

A Note on the Elm Tree Tradition<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Class of 1958 25th Reunion souvenir, 1983<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During his years as a student, Paul \u201cPitt\u201d Johnson, class of 1905, was asked by his friends to write a \u201cstand-up song.\u201d\u00a0 He lifted a tune from \u201cTrial by Jury\u201d and penned two stanzas of doggerel, which survive today as our song \u201cSammy.\u201d\u00a0 No reference to elm trees can be found in school literature prior to Johnson\u2019s creation of the line \u201cAnd your old elm tree,\u201d which apparently resulted from his inability to come up with a better rhyme for \u201cMy heart yearns for thee.\u201d\u00a0 While older alumni recall an ancient elm that stood in front of North Hall, the reality was that prior to the onset of the Dutch Elm blight, there were such monumental trees on every street in Easthampton.\u00a0 There is absolutely no evidence that Williston ever took an interest in trees.<\/p>\n

Northampton School for Girls had an elm of spiritual significance on the \u201cSacred Lawn\u201d between Montgomery and Hathaway Houses.\u00a0 At Commencement the class would encircle it and sing the alma mater.\u00a0 At various stages in school history, senior yearbooks were titled \u2018Neath the Elm<\/em> and L\u2019Ormeau<\/em>.\u00a0 The tree blew down in a storm in 1956.\u00a0 Photographic evidence indicates that at subsequent Commencements, the seniors surrounded a maple.<\/p>\n

From these dubious roots Williston Northampton maintains not only the image on one of its two present school seals, but a donor society<\/a><\/strong> and a mysterious line \u2013 \u201cElm tree\u2019s watchful gaze is true\u201d \u2013 in an otherwise lucid alma mater.<\/p>\n

The reality is that everything evolves, from schools themselves to trends in publication design, institutional marketing, and the expectations of a large and diverse community. Though students and alumni of different generations always take ownership of what they perceive to be “Tradition,” that, too, is a mutable commodity. Throughout evolutions of seals and songs, or of far more important concerns like campus and curriculum, Williston Northampton remains a great school. The many attributes of that greatness are perhaps summarized in our mission statement, with the words \u201cPurpose, Passion, and Integrity.\u201d Those ideals are a constant. All else may change with the times.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An alternative interpretation of “The Williston Seal” (Hannah Teller Jones)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently Williston Northampton announced an evolution in institutional iconography, with the introduction of a new \u201cshield\u201d logo and a redesign \u2013 not an abandonment \u2013 of the extant and, as shall be seen, hardly ancient \u201ctree and mountain\u201d seal. Predictably, the school received many reactions, that ranged from enthusiasm to apoplexy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,347,12,43,25],"tags":[198,199,196,203,204,202,201,200,195,205],"class_list":["post-1610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-northampton-school-for-girls","category-opinions-rants","category-williston-academy","category-williston-northampton-school","category-williston-seminary","tag-brand","tag-elm-tree","tag-logo","tag-marketing","tag-name-of-school","tag-pitt-johnson","tag-sammy","tag-school-colors","tag-seal","tag-shield"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1610"}],"version-history":[{"count":89,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4109,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610\/revisions\/4109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}