New York University

Trivia

• In 1941, the graduating class included three later Nobel Prize laureates (Julius Axelrod, Gertrude B. Elion and Clifford Shull), Olympic Gold Medalist John Woodruff, sportscaster Howard Cosell and sociologist Morris Janowitz.
• Until 1973, NYU owned pasta company C.F. Mueller in a trust fund.
• When designing Bobst Library, Tisch and Meyer Halls, Philip Johnson and Richard Foster also set up a master plan for a complete redesign of the NYU Washington Square Campus. However, it was never implemented.
• At the age of 16, David Copperfield was teaching a course in magic at NYU.
• In 1840 John William Draper, professor of chemistry and natural history and president of the Medical faculty, produces one of the earliest daguerreotype portraits of the human face. Draper also produces one of the first photographs of the moon.
• The contractors of the Old University Building used prisoners from Sing Sing to cut the marble. This hiring was the catalyst for the famous Stonecutter's Riot.
• NYU`s Tisch School of the Arts has produced more Academy Award winners than any other institution in the U.S.
• The graduating class of 1955 at NYU included: Nobel Prize laureate Eric R. Kandel, Grammy Award winner Fred Ebb, the CEO of MetLife John J. Creedon, Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines, the founders of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Allan L. Schuman, CEO of Ecolab and three members of Congress, Ambro, Guarini, Meskill.

• There are two versions of the origin of the university colour, violet. Some believe that it may have been chosen because violets are said to have grown abundantly in Washington Square and around the buttresses of the Old University Building. Others argue that the colour may have been adopted because the violet was the flower associated with Athens, the center of learning in ancient Greece. Today, the NYU violet is registered with the Color Association of the United States as Mayfair Violet, 17575.

• Although the nickname for the University?s sports teams has always been The Violets, the need was felt for a mascot to appear at athletic competitions. In the 1980s, the Department of Athletics began using a Bobcat as the mascot. The choice was derived from the abbreviation then being used by the Bobst Library computerized catalogue ? short: Bobcat. {{ref|bobcat}}
• The university logo, the upheld torch, is derived from the Statue of Liberty, signifying NYU`s service to the city of New York. The torch is depicted on both the NYU seal and the more abstract NYU logo, designed in 1965 by renowned graphic artist Ivan Chermayeff. There is also a real silver torch designed by Tiffany and Company of New York (a gift from Helen Miller Gould in 1911) which is passed at Commencement from a senior faculty member to the youngest graduating student.
• The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911, took place in the Brown Building which today is part of the NYU campus. More then hundred garment workers died or jumped to their deaths after a fire broke out whilst all exit doors were locked. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.

• Washington Square Park was used as a mass grave during the cholera pestilence in New York. Today, the skeletons of more than 20,000 victims still remain buried underneath the square. Until 1819, the square (then known as potter`s field) was used for executions. The great English elm in the northwest corner of the park, also known as hangman`s elm, was supposedly used for executions as well.

• The class of 1977 included: Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, INSEAD Dean Gabriel Hawawini, Pulitzer-, Oscar- and Tony Award winner John Patrick Shanley, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, NASDAQ CEO Robert Greifeld and Cathy Minehan, Federal Reserve Chairman Boston

• At NYU, Samuel F.B. Morse and Samuel Colt invented the devices named after them.
• Theo Huxtable (played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner) in The Cosby Show graduated from NYU in the series finale.