{"id":9325,"date":"2017-05-26T09:59:40","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T13:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/libnews\/?p=9325"},"modified":"2017-05-26T09:59:40","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T13:59:40","slug":"brown-bear-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/brown-bear-exhibit\/","title":{"rendered":"Exhibit | The Brown Bear: A History"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

The Brown Bear: A History<\/strong><\/p>\n

An Exhibit by Peter Mackie<\/span> \u201959, Sports Archivist<\/strong>
\nNow showing in the Willis Reading Room Cases, John Hay Library<\/strong>
\nMay 22 – August 31, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the dawn of the 20th century, Brown was thriving. A new president, William H. P. Faunce<\/span>, was in place; enrollment was approaching 1,000; new buildings were springing up, and a successful $2 million endowment fund campaign had been completed. Brown\u2019s major teams were enjoying a new off-campus facility (Andrews Field) which had supplanted Lincoln Field. Athletics were emerging from the informal club team era under a newly established Director of Physical Education, Frederick W. \u201cDoc\u201d Marvel (1894). Students and alumni were becoming enthralled with intercollegiate athletics, especially with the developing fierce rivalry with Dartmouth.<\/p>\n

Click here to view the online exhibit.<\/a><\/p>\n

The search was on for a mascot to represent Brown and her teams, often called the Hilltoppers<\/span> by the press. In 1902 a mascot attempt with a burro was a failure, but in 1904 Theodore Francis Green (1887) solved the problem. Annoyed by \u201cpainful attempts\u201d of newspaper artists to come up with an appropriate figure to match the Bulldog and Tiger, Green placed the mounted head of a bear labeled THE BROWN BEAR in the Trophy Room of the new student union (Rockefeller Hall \u2013 now Faunce<\/span> House). Green\u2019s idea quickly took hold, and the bear was celebrated in verse, song, and image. In 1905 a live bear was rented for the Dartmouth football game in Springfield, beginning a famous tradition which, despite interruption by two world wars and the Great Depression, continued into the mid-1960\u2019s. Live bear lore abounds with stories which defy contemporary imagination: college hijinks<\/span> such as \u201cbearnappings\u201d and tragic bear deaths and funerals.<\/p>\n

In addition to live bears, students donned bear costumes, a custom which continues to this day with Bruno and his sidekick Cubby<\/span>, whose identities are kept secret. The first costumed bear was a group effort, when in 1906 at the Dartmouth game a student wrapped in a bear skin arrived in Springfield. In the post-game victory march back to the city, students took turns after each \u201cbear\u201d dropped exhausted in the frenzied swirling snake dance. Campus statuary has also reflected the importance of the Brown Bear to the Brown community. The Bronze Bruno (1927), Fountain Bear (1932), Swearer Bear (1988), and Indomitable (2013), all keep the Brown Bear symbol constantly in view.<\/p>\n

The true meaning of the Brown Bear has been the cause of debate since the beginning. For years after its casting in 1923, Bronze Bruno remained in hibernation at Gorham<\/span> Manufacturing Company while debate raged on about its meaning and proper placement. Today the use of the term Brown Bear extends to men\u2019s and women\u2019s athletic teams, Alumni Brown Bear Awards, and employee BEAR Day, to name a few.<\/p>\n

The Brown Bear is deeply embedded in the DNA of Brown\u2019s culture and daily life. Perhaps T. F. Green provides the best understanding of the Bear\u2019s inclusive meaning:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo our Brown Bear, around which we are now gathered, is a symbol of that Brown spirit which carries its meaning to alumni and undergraduates alike, with various meanings. Some mistake its message as a call of good luck to an athletic team. But its message is rather to carry into all our activities those virtues shown on the athletic field and symbolized in the Brown Bear \u2013 the virtues of strength, independence, and courage. May its symbol remind us of the College and keep alive our love and enthusiasm for old Brown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dates<\/strong>:\u00a0May 23, 2017 – November 30, 2018
\nTime<\/strong>: John Hay Library Hours<\/a>
\nLocation<\/strong>: Willis Reading Room Cases, John Hay Library, 20 Prospect\u00a0Street, Providence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Brown Bear: A History An Exhibit by Peter Mackie \u201959, Sports Archivist Now showing in the Willis Reading Room Cases, John Hay Library May 22 – August 31, 2017 At the dawn of the 20th century, Brown was thriving. A new president, William H. P. Faunce, was in place; enrollment was approaching 1,000; new … Exhibit | The Brown Bear: A History<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,34,35,8,20,25,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exhibits-events","category-exhibits-events-special-collections","category-general-interest","category-hay","category-special-collections","category-university-archives","category-university-archives-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}