Harvard University’s visual identity centers on the Veritas shield, a heraldic emblem featuring three open books on a crimson field with the Latin word “VERITAS” (truth) split across the book covers. Today the Veritas shield is a central element of the University’s graphic identity, while a version with wreath and banner, known as the adorned Veritas shield, is reserved for commemorative and official University-wide functions.[1]
Design and History
The shield’s origins trace to December 27, 1643, when the Harvard College Board of Overseers approved a sketch of a College seal depicting a triangular shield emblazoned with three open books. The upper two books contained the letters VE and RI, and the lower book contained TAS, spelling VERITAS.[2] Veritas, Latin for “truth,” was adopted as Harvard’s motto that year, but the design did not see public use for almost two centuries. In 1650, the Harvard Corporation instead chose the motto In Christi Gloriam, meaning “For the glory of Christ.”[3]
The original 1643 sketch was rediscovered in the 1830s by President Josiah Quincy III while researching his history of Harvard. At the Bicentennial celebration on September 8, 1836, a white banner displaying the design was publicly shown for the first time. It became the basis of the seal officially adopted by the Corporation in 1843.[1] Veritas briefly appeared on the seal from 1843 to 1847, when it was replaced by Christo et Ecclesiae, or “For Christ in the Church.”[3]
In 1885, the Corporation adopted a new seal design created by William Sumner Appleton (Harvard AB 1860), based on Quincy’s 1843 seal, that incorporated both “Veritas” and “Christo et Ecclesiæ.” It featured a triangular shield with three open books showing the motto “Veritas.”[4] Harvard’s current seal combines elements of the Appleton seal with the Harvard arms designed by Pierre de Chaignon la Rose in the 1930s.[4] La Rose, an expert in heraldry who sat on the university’s Committee on Arms, Seals, and Diplomas, redesigned the Harvard seal following the official blazon, making the outlines clearer and narrowing the shield.[5] He also designed shields for each of the Harvard University graduate schools for the 1936 Harvard Tercentenary.[6]
Features of the original seal changed over time. In 1643, the shield had a flat top and blunt bottom; two books were open and one showed only the binding, with clasps. The shields of 1650 and 1692 were square with all three books open. Quincy’s 1843 version revived the one overturned book. In versions from 1847, 1885, and 1935, all three books on the official College seal are open, though versions with the overturned book persist, including on the John Harvard Statue and the exterior of Austin Hall.[3]
Meaning and Symbolism
The three books repeat a literary motif used in at least 10 universities of the time, including the Sorbonne, Oxford, and Cambridge. The motto, in Harvard’s case Veritas, also follows the convention of using Latin sayings on the seals of the great English universities of the day.[3]
Some scholars interpret the original 1643 design as a reminder of a wilderness college that saw itself as a New World vanguard in Christ’s Puritan army. The open books represent the Old and New Testaments, the truth that any could read in the Bible, while the third book represented the yet unwritten truth of the future as the Puritans saw it: the book of truth that would be written by a second coming of Christ. To the Puritans in Harvard’s seventh year, Veritas meant more than truth, or even divine truth; it meant “fulfillment,” the truth of a second coming.[3]
Crimson was first used as the Harvard College color by the crew team at the Boston City Regatta on June 19, 1858, and was officially designated as Harvard University’s color by a vote of the Harvard Corporation on May 23, 1910, based on the tint of several silk scarves used by Harvard rowers in the 1858 regatta and preserved in the University Archives.[7][8] The officially designated shade of Harvard Crimson is PMS 187U or PMS 1807C, with CMYK values of C: 7, M: 94, Y: 65, K: 25, RGB values of R: 165, G: 28, B: 48, and HEX code A51C30.[9]
Typography and Design
Harvard’s graphic identity guidelines treat the Harvard wordmark as artwork, not as typography, and it may not be manually altered or replicated.[10] Anziano is Harvard’s primary typeface and should be used for the secondary level in wordmarks as well as for headlines in communications materials. It is a transitional style font featuring a flat apex on its letters “A” and “V” among others, and is derived from a Roman engraved letterform.[11] The primary extension in Harvard signatures is set in Anziano Pro Roman for horizontal signatures and Anziano Pro Roman small caps for vertical signatures.[12]
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