Where can I find out what the colors and bars on graduation robes mean and how they originated?
Like the mortarboard, American graduation robes are loosely based on the traditional academic garments of Britain’s oldest universities at Oxford and Cambridge. The British costume has its origin in the dress of medieval clergy and scholars. The colors and decoration of academic regalia vary according to country, college, and field of study. In 1894, American educators began to standardize U.S. graduation ceremonies and to regulate the style of graduation gowns and colors. The current version of this Academic Costume Code and Academic Ceremony Guide is published by the American Council on Education. According to this guide, the gowns for bachelor and master’s degree candidates are black and untrimmed. The doctoral candidate robe has velvet facings in the front and three bars of velvet across the sleeves. Doctoral robes are usually black, but some univers
