I returned to campus after the holiday break today, rather unsteady on my feet and without any clear memory of what I was working on before vacation. Classes don’t start until next week so my intention is to sort of ease my way back into things before the spring semester lunacy commences.
In that spirit today I offer a simple re-entry post. I’ve never had all that much interest in the whole owl thing, having seen too many alumni owl collections get wildly out of hand, but sometimes one will catch my eye. In Rice’s early years owl images very everywhere in student publications and they were quite various and often charming. Today there was a box in the back of the Woodson that held Pender Turnbull’s (’19) Campaniles. As I looked through them I noticed that each one had a book plate glued to the inside of the front cover. Here’s the one from 1917, with a confused looking little owl and the view towards Mech Lab from the late, lamented Gate 3:
1919 also featured an owl, this one much more threatening, with its scowl and suggestion that time is running out:
The 1917 label wasn’t anywhere near that dramatic but still elegant:
I spent most of the afternoon with this all rolling around in the back of my mind. Where would these labels have come from? And why would you paste one in your book then not bother to write your name on it? The answer is you wouldn’t. A quick check of some other copies reveals that they came already pasted into the book. Two birds with one stone!
Bonus: Not owls. Peacocks with hideous, hideous lighting.
Glad you are back. Happy New Year, Melissa.
That really is hideous lighting. Where in Lovett is that fireplace? Do we have any pictures showing a fire in any of those fireplaces? That wall looks awfully clean.
Second floor, former president’s office, most recently treasurer’s office. I can’t recall who’s moving in now. I have never seen any mention of a fire in any of the fireplaces!
I thought I recognized it. That used to be the religious studies department office when I was a grad student under Dr. Kelber.
I have been trying to read the writing on the mantel without success. Can you tell what it says?
1917, 1919, 1917? Is that correct? Or should the last one be 1918?
And, of course, what can you tell us about ‘GK’, who signed the second one, and ‘R. K. something’ who signed the first?
I have asked before, what is with the Peacocks here and on ALL? of the door plates in the original construction of the campus, dorms, Mechanical building, Lovett Hall and Physics Building.
Here’s a post about the peacocks: https://ricehistorycorner.com/2018/03/22/peacocks/
I have asked before, what is with the Peacocks here and on ALL? of the door plates in the original construction of the campus, dorms, Mechanical building, Lovett Hall and Physics Building.
When you see “Pender Turnbull’s (’19)” and immediately think they graduated last year when in fact that would be 1919, now over a hundred years ago…