One last thing from The Raven, this time from one of the advertisements:
It had never crossed my mind to wonder where the class rings came from back in the day before the big national companies arrived on the scene. The answer–Lechenger’s, downtown–reminded me of a photograph in the Woodson of downtown Houston that is almost exactly contemporaneous with ad and shows the front of the store:
As I was poking around looking for more detail about early class rings about I came across something really surprising. This is from the April 29, 1927 issue of the Thresher and it directly contradicts everything I’ve been told about the history of the Rice ring:
I have always heard that only the first Rice ring, made for the members of the class of 1916, was different and that the seal was added and the design standardized in 1917. Apparently not, though.
Hmmm.
Bonus: This is the 1916 ring, lifted right off a What’s in Woodson post from several years ago. Click here to find out who it belonged to.
Obviously the next thing to do is to find pictures of the 1917-1927 rings.
Obviously.
Do you happen to have one?
Some of the earlier rings were hollow inside — I only know this because Charlie Szalkowski’s is this way, so his year, at least was made this way. All the others I’ve seen are solid.
I remember seeing Miss Red’s ring when I interviewed her for the now missing audio files of early Rice people. I think the late Doris Anderson was the organizer of the project.
I have come across two rings in the Rice Memorabilia Collection that are gold, with the Rice Institute Seal in blue, gold and gray on top and owls in relief to either side. There is no class year on the ring. One of these items comes with a description stating that is the class ring belonging to Rotzien Harlan (Eberly), class of 1924. The other is engraved with the name “Allie May” and the date 7-5-1920. Presumably “Allie May” is Allie May Autry, class of 1925, though how she came by this ring in 1920, or why it is engraved to her with that date, is a mystery.
There are other rings in the collection of Rice class rings from years 1917, 1919, 1920, 1921, etc. that all have the standard Rice class ring design.
So, the question: are the first two described rings actual class rings from ca. 1920? If so, then the class rings from 1917 and so on that look like standard Rice rings were possibly (probably) acquired by those alumni later, after the standard design was adopted?