Purdue Pete flipped his lid. Literally. In 1983, Purdue’s athletic mascot took off the boxy hat he had worn at a jaunty angle atop his raven hair for two decades and donned a new skimmer — a construction hard hat. Manly, yes. But what spawned Pete’s millinery makeover? Edward L. Neufer (A’59) had a light […]
A s the COVID-19 coronavirus spread around the globe, university administration acted swiftly to minimize the threat to campus. Thousands of students moved out early. Social distancing and stay-home orders were implemented. Purdue held its first virtual commencement. Meanwhile, alumni everywhere found ways to fight the pandemic and support their communities by working on the […]
David Robert Lewis (CE’1894), from Greensburg, Indiana, is noted in Purdue’s historical accounts as the University’s first black graduate. He was one of only nine black students who graduated from Indiana colleges between the Civil War and the year 1900. Lewis’s senior thesis, “Highway Road Construction,” included a review of European road building practices. As a […]
Ladies Hall, one of the original three buildings on Purdue’s West Lafayette campus, served several purposes during its existence. Like Purdue’s two other original buildings — Purdue Hall, a dormitory for men, and the Science Building, later known as the Pharmacy Building — Ladies Hall dates to around 1871. It was located near the present-day […]
From the mid-1910s until 1969, Purdue faculty, staff, students, and visitors had the chance to stop by the Purdue University Creamery on campus, where they could purchase fresh ice cream. The creamery was housed in Smith Hall after a gift of $50,000 from William C. Smith, a farmer from Williamsport, Indiana, to fund a building […]
The Victory Bell was purchased in 1877 and suspended in the old heating plant, where it was manually rung as a summons to class and chapel as well as a general warning bell — at least on those occasions when students hadn’t muffled the clapper or turned it upside down and filled it with water […]
Agricultural Hall, built in 1901 in the Beaux-arts Neoclassic style, served as the epicenter for agrarian teaching and research at the university for seven decades. It was renamed Entomology Hall in 1969 when the department took up occupancy in the building. When it faced demolition in the 1990s, preservationists vocalized their desire to save the […]
In the early 1900s, to coincide with the end of classes each May, Purdue’s student body staged a day of elaborate events that included the Purdue Circus and May Day activities. Two committees of seniors traditionally coordinated the festivities, which were first held in 1913 and were open for anyone to attend. The day began […]
Starting in 1894, the Tank Scrap has to be one of the strangest and most violent of the long list of Purdue traditions. It all started when the Class of 1897 decided to paint the tank, which sparked the current sophomore class to react. Although the altercation was not intended to be violent, it became […]
In 1904, Purdue seniors began a tradition of wearing — and later elaborately decorating — yellow corduroy pants, a practice that lasted for more than 60 years. According to information from Purdue Libraries Archives and Special Collections, in fall 1904 some Purdue seniors noticed a bolt of yellow corduroy fabric displayed in the window of […]
