Cornell symbols of office

Rarely seen Cornell symbols of office will be displayed at installation

Above, a detail from the University Charter. Below, the University Mace. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

For today's installation of Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman, and following long precedent at the university, some rarely seen symbols of office will emerge from various university vaults.

Cornell celebrated its first inauguration on Oct. 7, 1868. At the ceremonies, New York Lt. Gov. Stewart L. Woodford administered the oath of office to President Andrew Dickson White and presented him with the charter, seal and keys of the university. For all of Cornell's early inaugurations, the charter and seal represented the symbols of office. The inauguration of James A. Perkins as president in 1963 was the occasion for the first presentation of the university mace and university baton as symbols of authority.

The University Charter

As the land-grant university of New York state, Cornell was chartered through an act of the New York State Legislature, signed into law by Gov. Reuben E. Fenton on April 27, 1865. The university's founder, Ezra Cornell -- who was chairman of the state Senate Committee on Agriculture at the time -- had pledged to provide an initial endowment of $500,000, along with land, buildings and equipment in return for the state's pledge to provide to the new university the entire income from the sale of public lands granted to New York pursuant to the Morrill Act. The legislation was introduced in the New York State Senate by Andrew Dickson White, who subsequently became the university's first president.

Radical for an institution of higher learning at that time, the charter legislation set Cornell on its course of providing educational opportunity by requiring that "[t]he several departments of study in the said university shall be open to applicants for admission thereto at the lowest rates of expense consistent with its welfare and efficiency, and without distinction as to rank, class, previous occupation or locality." Moreover, "Persons of every or no religious denomination shall be equally eligible to all offices and appointments." The mission of Cornell was stated as follows: "The leading object ... shall be to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, including military tactics, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life. But such other branches of science and knowledge may be embraced in the plan of instruction and investigation pertaining to the university as the trustees may deem useful and proper." Though the charter has been amended by the New York State Legislature from time to time over the course of the university's history -- to establish, for example, Cornell's four statutory colleges -- its essence has remained unchanged. The original charter has been presented to every president of Cornell during the inauguration ceremony.

The Great Seal of Cornell University

The original great seal was authorized by the Cornell Board of Trustees in 1868. The seal first appeared on the cover of The Cornell University Register, 1868-69. It always included the motto of the university. In 1940, the trustees mandated that: "The great seal of Cornell University ... shall bear in the outer circle the words Cornell University and Founded A.D. 1865; and in the inner circle the words Ezra Cornell 'I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study' and in the center a profile likeness of Ezra Cornell." The great seal is affixed to every diploma awarded by Cornell University.

The University Mace and the University Baton

University Baton

The Cornell mace and baton are present at events such as commencements and inaugural processions and ceremonies. The university marshal carries the baton while forming and directing the inaugural procession. The mace symbolizes the authority of the university as exercised by its principal officers, especially the president. Both the baton and the mace were designed by Sir Eric Clements of the Goldsmiths' Guild of London in 1962 at the request of President Deane Waldo Malott, under the direction of George Healey, professor of English and curator of rare books, with the assistance of George J. Hucker, professor of bacteriology and chief in research at the university's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y. The baton is a rosewood shaft with a wrought-silver triangular knob bearing a rendering of the university arms and surrounded by a frieze of engraved ivy leaves. The mace consists of a tapered silver shaft surmounted by a golden terrestrial globe. The silver ribs surrounding the globe symbolize the universality of Cornell's interests and the worldwide affiliations of its faculty, students, staff and alumni.

October 16, 2003