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The Evolution Of Undergraduate Academic Dress At The University Of Cambridge And Its Constituent Colleges, Brian M. Newman

Transactions of the Burgon Society

This paper charts the development of the distinctive academic costume worn by undergraduate members of England’s second oldest university, Cambridge. It follows the evolution in undergraduate academic dress from differentiation based upon social class and wealth (and regulated as such by the University) to one of differentiation, in most historical cases at least, by the college of which undergraduates are members, about which the University’s only current stipulation is that gowns should be knee-length.