Northwestern University
From the late 19th century into the middle of the 20th, the heads of the incoming freshmen were often topped with a little cap known as the freshman beanie. They were traditionally colored green to symbolize the newness or “greenness” of the first-years, though Northwestern’s caps also came in the school colors of purple and white, as well as pearl-colored silk and red felt. The popularity of the caps ebbed and flowed and seemed to depend on individual classes. While the caps’ most common justification was that they promoted class solidarity and school spirit, they were just as often used and seen as a tool of subjugation and segregation.
The earliest mention is in the March 20, 1871, issue of the student publication The Tripod. By 1875 a vote by the Freshman class decided against wearing a class cap. The “force of co-education” proved crucial, in that all nine of the women in the cohort voted against the hats they would not be allowed to wear. Women would not be excluded for long, because by 1881 there was a note that the “freshman girls” were waiting for the arrival of their class caps in Cottage Yard. Also in 1881, some freshmen attempted to add canes to their ensemble, and these embellishments were swiftly confiscated by upperclassmen. “Allow us, children, to admonish you. In wearing class caps you approach very nearly the limit of your rights, but in assuming canes you entirely over-step it.”
In 1909, the school newspaper reported that the freshman beanies had returned, emulating similar customs at other universities. Later in 1909, the paper warned that, “[a]fter Friday, Dec. 10, all freshmen wearing other than class caps will have their hats confiscated by any member of the upper classes who witnesses the offense.” In the next issue, though, the Dean of Students wrote in a lengthy statement: “I sincerely hope that the Freshmen and all the Freshmen will wear their pretty green caps, and that this will come about through student sentiment, but in such matters there should be no domination […].” By 1915 the domination was back and a late September headline reads: “1919 Hopefuls Ordered by Student Council to Wear Green Caps or Swim.” The Sophomores got into the act in 1916, choosing their own caps in blue serge with a red ‘19’ on the front. “This is the first time that uniform caps have been adopted by any class except the Freshman.” By 1920 all the classes tried to encourage unique headgear, noting that at some other schools the Seniors adopted entire outfits, In 1922 there was an established hierarchy: “The colors for the different class caps or toques will be as follows: Senior, all white with purple stripe; junior, all purple with white stripe; sophomore, all purple; freshmen, all green.”
On May 23, 1927, the paper mentioned an “annual cap burning day” for which freshmen built a huge bonfire on the beach where they made “snake dance” lines and threw in their “dinkies” one by one. For the rest of the year they were “of age” and free from class vestment regulation. In some years the burning followed the final football game or first basketball game. The tradition of the green caps continued to be strong among freshmen fraternity pledges and in some years they would have to earn the right to discard their beanies by defeating active fraternity members in a football game, tug-of-war, bicycle race, or other challenge. The post-World War II years saw an influx of students, enthusiasm, and “pep commissions,” and by 1947 there was another campaign to re-establish the cap requirement. “It’s back in all its glory! The old school spirit has won out as freshmen once again don the traditional green beanie.” The class of 1953 may have been the last to embrace the beanie before it faded once again into obscurity.
-Jason Nargis
