Procession Mania!

I’ve been going crazy over academic processions today! It’s totally out of control. When you go back and look closely at exactly where they are going and when, it seems like a mad kaleidoscope of marching.

Well, sort of. You know what I mean.

Here’s something surprising from the first commencement in 1916–they’re headed down the right side of the quad! Complete maniacs, obviously.

The academic procession seems to have proceeded in two distinct sections in 1917. Here’s section 1, made up of faculty, trustees and distinguished guests:

But here’s section 2, the students. Where are they going?? (All I can think of is the marching band in the blind alley in Animal House.)

One more for today (although there is more to come!)–this is the only picture I found that shows the beginning of a procession at the Mech Lab. It isn’t commencement, though. It’s the 1919 Thanksgiving Day Reunion.

That's the Chemistry Annex to the left of the Mech Lab. It became the Engineering Annex when the Chemistry Building opened.

Bonus: My begging for Rice artifacts is beginning to pay real dividends. In addition to the toilet seat, I’ve got some really good leads on some beanies and I got at least some photos of other great stuff. I found this email, describing a single cowboy boot, especially pleasant:

Attached is a quick snapshot of a Rice University boot Rocky Carroll made for George H. W. Bush back in 1994. I believe Zen Camacho had a similar pair made. I only have one boot. One of my roommates from Jones College has the other one.

You can’t beat that.

 

 

 

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3 Responses to Procession Mania!

  1. effegee says:

    Current students in civilian dress at the end of the line in the 1919 photo?

    Is the house in the background to the left of the Chemistry Annex on campus? Or the beginnings of Southampton? Or ??

    • James Medford says:

      That would be one of the houses (farmhouses, maybe?) on what would later become Rice Boulevard. Southampton was established in 1923, but there were farmhouses just north of campus prior to that.

  2. Deborah Gronke Bennett says:

    And another planter!

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