We made reference the other day to Cotrell & Leonard without doing full justice to their incredibly important role in creating the academic (in all senses of the word) symbolism behind the American university cap and gown system. Given that we didn’t even have a university at the time it was created, Albany seems an unlikely venue for the genesis of this obscure tradition, but we’ve been an unlikely venue for lots of things.
So the whole story of Gardner Cotrell Leonard and the cap and gown business is here, at AllOverAlbany.