An architectural history

A few weeks ago, I was strolling calmly along the walkway beneath the Clock Tower on Main West. As I lugged my heavy bag to the Blue Zone, I could not help but witness a quite embarrassing interaction. A Duke student was standing in the center of the busy path staring directly up at one of the carved sculptures on the ceiling. If I had seen simply the Duke student staring up at the boss on the ceiling, I would have most likely paid her little to no attention other than thinking, "Perhaps she's an architecture student," or "Well, they let some weird ones in every year." What made the situation mildly hilarious was the fact that the Duke Student was not alone.

Her father, who was probably wearing the most expensive T-shirt he owns (it said, "DUKE" on it) had paused for a momentary photo-op. Not of himself, not of his family, but YES-of the carving on the ceiling. The poor student was exasperated beyond belief. But that was what piqued my interest. Mainly for effect (and partially to satisfy my curiosity), I momentarily stopped and joined the party. I had never truly looked at the details of the carvings before, despite nearly daily trips underneath the archway over the past three years. As a small crowd began to aggregate, I decided the student was mentally traumatized enough, and went on my merry way. Later that day approaching the very same arch, I noticed six more carvings on the entrance to Crowell Quad. Indeed-after I stopped for that one carving, it was as if I was seeing campus for the first time. Carvings are in every nearly every archway connecting the residential quads and all over the sides of the buildings on West. How could I have missed this before? I couldn't help but wonder... what are these seemingly random carvings? They look original to the buildings. What do they mean?

Luckily, a Michigan Ph. D. by the name of Mary Elizabeth Hamill chose to write her dissertation on Duke's architectural history. Looking into it, I found that the six carvings above the Crowell arch are actually six shields: the seal of Duke University, the seal of the Duke family, and the seals of the School of Law, the School of Medicine, the School of Religion and the Department of Biology. The boss that attracted the attention of the snap-happy father is actually one of five, all which signify age teaching youth.

Crowell's carvings, however, pale in comparison to some of the others around campus. Specifically, I found it quite bizarre that we have 33 crests or tributes to other colleges and universities on our campus Union Building, though I suppose it makes sense in the context of when West Campus was built (1927-1932). At the time, Duke was a recent addition to the ranks of well-known schools; James B. Duke and other key members of the Duke family had only recently put Duke on the map with their generous donations to the formerly small and struggling Trinity College. Therefore, the architecture of West needed to reflect Duke's new status as a premier institution while exuding the feel of a long-established and venerated one. By associating ourselves with other great centers of learning, the carvings were probably meant to place us among our peers and capture the spirit of educational collaboration. Regardless, they're pretty cool. See if you can find the seals or tributes to these universities: University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, UPenn, UVA, Davidson, Wofford, Furman, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, United States Military Academy, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, University of Chicago, University of Texas and even UNC.

Crests and symbols you'll see on the other buildings around campus are themed pretty logically based on the building, excepting the residential quads. The Old Chemistry building boasts symbols of chemical research, the old Law school (now the Languages building) has carvings of a judge's wig and a set of scales, and the Davison Building (entrance to the School of Medicine) has symbols of medicine and crests of institutions of higher learning associated with Medicine. The Union building boasts symbols of the unity of Religion, Knowledge and Education, because Duke's has religious roots in the Methodist Church (and actually, the Quaker religion as well). Page Auditorium has symbols of culture, and on the outside of the Gothic Reading Room, facing the Main Quad, are symbols of the arts and sciences.

Amid the bustle of our busy lives, we often pay little attention to the grandeur around us. Today, when you're walking around campus, take a look at the carvings on the wall. They'll tell you both something about what the building's original intent was... and of course, you'll have an absolutely baller conversation starter for that bash you're throwing Saturday night.

Megan Neureither is a Trinity senior. Her column runs every other Monday.