Making Our Mark

When Tabor Academy opened its doors in 1876, the concept of “branding” didn’t formally exist. The first promotional materials featured elaborate Gothic lettering. Early commencement programs displayed multiple typographic treatments on a single page— elegant script alongside practical serif type, decorative banners framing the order of exercises, reflecting the typographic freedom common in late-19th century printing. Each printer, each occasion, each document made its own choices about how to present the school’s name.

Four years into this young institution’s life, Elizabeth Taber signed the school’s first diplomas, which featured that same Gothic script and the first known visual symbol associated with the institution. These diplomas featured the lamp of knowledge, its flame illuminating the path of learning. It was an apt choice for an academic credential that would have been recognizable to many as stock imagery published in a commercial catalog for printers five years earlier.

This was the first visual icon used in the school’s promotional materials but certainly not the last.

As American institutions expanded in the late 19th and early twentieth centuries, visual symbols became increasingly important tools for recognition and trust. Schools, businesses, and organizations alike began adopting marks that could signal identity beyond their immediate communities. Tabor would be among those institutions growing and adapting to meet the changing times.

Student Voice

In 1892, students took to the pages of the Tabor Tattler, the student newspaper at the time, to debate what would become one of the school’s earliest identity discussions. “The project of having a school badge is being agitated,” the publication reported. “It is suggested that it be in the shape of a monogram of the letters ‘T.A.,’ of a size suitable to be worn as a scarf pin.”

From Tabor’s earliest days, the look of the school wasn’t a decree from those in leadership; it was a community effort with student voice. They wanted symbols that represented the school and created a connection, initiating conversations about what those symbols might be. This desire to create and wear marks of belonging would repeat throughout the school’s history. Over time, Tabor’s identity would continue to evolve, reflecting an institution that grew and changed with the times.

In 1904 and 1905, “Red and Black” appeared in athletics, with football and girls basketball documented wearing these colors. Other teams may have followed, though records are incomplete. By 1905, the student publication had transitioned from the Tattler to The Red and Black, marking an early student-led use of color to signal identity. While the naming was specific to the publication, the colors would continue to surface across athletics and student life.

At the turn of the century, much of Tabor’s symbolic identity often belonged to individual classes. Students chose class colors and mottos that appeared in commencement traditions—down to ribbons tied in class colors at ceremonies— creating a community already fluent in visual identity.

Just two years after the naming of The Red and Black, a 1907 commencement program featured a new symbol: a shield bearing the letters T and A. This represents the first known formal mark of the school.

Telling the Story Nationally

In 1916, Tabor stepped onto the national stage with one of its earliest storytelling efforts—an illustrated advertisement introducing families to a boarding school by the sea.

The moment coincided with the arrival of Walter H. Lillard, the new headmaster, whose reorganization of the school created separate divisions for boys and girls and expanded nautical training and waterfront programs. That year, families across America opened national magazines to find a striking image—adapted from a painting—of a young boy in a sailor-style uniform. (View photo on page 3.) Representative of Tabor’s distinctive maritime offerings, the “tabor boy” appeared in magazines and newspapers as a sophisticated visual ambassador for the school.

Just two years later, in 1918, the Board of Trustees adopted the seal we know today. Designed by Clifford Riedell, Class of 1901, and selected by Headmaster Lillard, the seal formalized the identity the school had begun projecting nationally. The dates it bore—1876 and 1916—marked both Tabor’s founding and its reorganization, symbolizing the institution’s transformation from a regional school to one with national and international reach.

The seal featured a drawing based on Fleet Wing—a ship formerly owned and sailed by Captain Hiram Nye of Marion—fully rigged and sailing in the ocean, with a new motto, “All-A-Taut-O.” The phrase, still in use today, describes a ship that is fully rigged, lines tightened, sails set properly, and prepared for sea. Its nautical language reinforced Lillard’s vision of a school defined by both tradition and its waterfront future.

The seal appeared on the cover of the 1918–1919 catalog, printed in cobalt blue ink on a light cerulean blue cover. Over time, its presentation evolved. Dates were occasionally adapted to mark institutional milestones, and color applications expanded—appearing in white, gold, blue, black, and eventually the red palette that would come to define mid-century athletics and Tabor itself. A notable design refresh came in 1932, when clouds and birds were added to the previously open sky.

This evolution unfolded before the formal discipline of branding had fully taken shape. In the early 20th century, institutions were only beginning to understand the power of visual identity and narrative positioning. As mass media expanded and competition among schools grew, storytelling—and the symbols that carried it—became as critical as curriculum in shaping national perception.

The seal was important, but it was never alone. An expanded nautical visual language emerged alongside it. “Tabor by the Sea” messaging appeared in promotional materials. The Tabor Boy remained central to advertising, and the current Tabor Boy schooner arrived in 1952, reinforcing the school’s maritime identity in lived form. Nautical flags, waterfront imagery, and sailing symbolism became recurring visual themes— joined in later decades by program-specific and athletic marks that further diversified Tabor’s identity system.

A Waterfront Identity

Nautical imagery had appeared in Tabor’s visual history long before formal sailing marks emerged—seen in early school flags, waterfront symbolism, and references to the school’s maritime setting. By the mid-20th century, that visual language became more formalized through program-specific marks.

In 1956, schooner officers held aloft a newly created burgee—the nautical equivalent of a logo used to identify vessels on the water. This wasn’t simply decoration; it was functional maritime communication.

In the 1970s, Tabor’s sailing program developed an official burgee designed by Chris Dowley ’76, Chip Johns ’78, and members of a group of sailors nicknamed “Ridge’s Romper Room” after their coach, Ridge White; former faculty member Bill Maxwell may have also been involved. The burgee was registered in the Stars Register, an international maritime registry, and flew on Tabor vessels during exchanges with sailing programs in Scandinavia, Britain, Germany, and Ireland. In harbors both here in Marion and around the world, the Tabor burgee was, and still is, recognized.

Tyler Moore ’90, designed a separate TA Sailing logo, a hand-drawn sailboat with sails and mast shaped to form the letters T and A. Introduced around 1990, the mark was used to commemorate the team’s 1991 national championship and appeared on materials during international sailing competitions. Over time, its use receded in deference to the more widely recognized Tabor Academy burgee.

The burgee still serves today as a distinct institutional mark. Vessels sailing in national or international waters need proper nautical identification. Neither the seal nor the crest worked for this specific need. The burgee, with its sideways T design, did. Purpose drove form.

The Crest Era

Rather than replacing one mark with another, Tabor accumulated symbols—each serving a different purpose, at different moments. In 1955, Headmaster James Wickenden partnered with the Student Council to introduce a new mark: the crest. Inspired by a Taber family coat of arms—possibly that of Elizabeth Taber’s husband, though documentation is unclear—the crest emerged in 1955 alongside a broader student- led effort to make changes to the dress code.

With the support of Mrs. Wickenden, students, including Bob Jones ’55, advocated for the adoption of a school blazer, creating the need for a mark that could be worn. The original motto accompanying the crest was changed from “Virtue Alone Ennobles” to the Latin “Vincit Semper Veritas”—“Truth always conquers.” The crest featured a shield shape and again incorporated blue in its color scheme. (Read more about the “style” of Tabor in "Dressed for School.")

In the 1960s and 1970s, under Headmaster Peter Webster, the crest appeared more widely across school materials and publications. For many students from this era, this mark became the defining visual symbol of the Tabor experience.

The Return of the Seal

In the late 1980s, under Headmaster Jay Stroud, the crest was gradually phased out as the school returned to the seal as its primary official mark. The crest still appears in a few legacy places on campus—for example, on the needlepoint back of a Chapel chair commemorating the Wickendens’ retirement.

The rowing program briefly adopted a modified crest form late in the twentieth century, though it did not represent a longstanding rowing symbol.

The return to the seal reflected both tradition and practicality. Designed for formal authentication, it carried institutional authority and ceremonial weight that other marks could not replicate.

Those same qualities that defined it as a formal seal presented challenges when the school needed a mark that could function across diverse applications. As a one-color design, it wasn’t intended to incorporate the vibrant palette that had become part of Tabor’s identity. While detailed reproductions were certainly possible—including multi- color renderings—they required significant craftsmanship and expense. Embroidering the seal on apparel or scaling it for smaller uses often necessitated simplification, making it less practical for everyday institutional applications.

An Era of Proliferation

By then, Lillard Hall—built in 1926 as the school’s first major waterfront building—had become an instantly recognizable symbol of the campus. Alongside renewed institutional emphasis on the school seal during Stroud’s tenure, yet another visual mark rose to prominence: Lillard Hall’s clock tower. It appeared on viewbook covers, publication mastheads, and page designs. The 1988– 1989 viewbook featured the clock tower and multiple editions of the Tabor Today magazine used it in their mastheads. Tabor Currents alumni newsletter incorporated it into specialized logos, and eventually the Annual Fund adopted the concept for its outreach.

Athletic programs created their own marks as well, despite adoption of a unified athletic mascot in the 1980s (read more on page 30). Teams wore patches ranging from a simple T or TA monogram, to elaborate designs incorporating anchors, oars, hockey sticks, and footballs. The 1963 football undefeated patch was one style. The 1960 (and later, the 1990s) crew patch was another. The 1988 hockey champions patch took yet another approach.

The official school seal—long reserved for formal materials—gradually found its way into athletic contexts as well. Earlier apparel uses had been limited, such as its appearance on customary formal Henley jackets worn by Tabor’s rowing team during occasional participation in the Henley Royal Regatta in England.

By the late 20th century, however, some teams began placing the seal directly onto athletic uniforms—an unexpected application for a mark designed for ceremonial authentication. Each team’s identity grew organically, while the school’s overall unified look gradually loosened.

Academic and co-curricular programs followed suit. The REEF oceanography program developed its own logo featuring a wave and marine life. The Athletic Hall of Fame embraced its own distinctive branding. Student clubs, such as the Outing Club, designed their own logos specific to their activities. The adherence to any standard branding ranged.

Even the official school colors evolved. Where “red and black” defined the early 20th century, the late 1940s saw a shift to “Maroon and White” for athletics. By the 1990s, blue started making a comeback, being increasingly featured in athletics apparel and the 1997 Tabor Boy crew jacket. And black once again returned around the same time.

As Tabor Boy approached her 100th anniversary in 2014, another mark emerged to represent Tabor. Jennifer Joung ’16 collaborated with then faculty members Captain James Geil and Chris Botello to create a commemorative logo. The design modified the school seal, incorporating the actual Tabor Boy schooner rather than Fleet Wing. This logo appeared on sail-bags (made from retired Tabor Boy sails), merchandise, and special materials throughout her centennial year.

The Changing Landscape

By the late 20th century, Tabor’s visual identity reflected decades of organic growth across programs, publications, and priorities—resulting in a wide array of images and marks that, while meaningful individually, did not always function as a cohesive visual system. Tabor was not alone in this evolution. Across independent schools, colleges, and universities, the late 20th and early 21st centuries saw renewed efforts to refine and formalize visual identity systems in response to expanding communications environments.

As communication channels expanded— across screens, merchandise, and promotional materials—the seal’s formal design proved difficult to reproduce consistently. Materials demanded something it had not been designed to provide, often requiring alterations and simplifications to meet individual project needs.

When competitive marketplace pressures emerged, many institutions formally adopted the tools of branding—logos, taglines, refreshed visuals—without fully embracing their strategic discipline. The result was a proliferation of marks that reflected activity, energy, and growth—but not always a unified visual system.

Education was among the last sectors to embrace formal branding practices. By the 2020s, the question wasn’t whether schools needed coherent visual identity, but whether they could build systems that served contemporary needs while honoring their past.

Identity in a Digital- First World

The rise of the internet in the late 1990s and social media in the 2000s fundamentally reshaped how schools communicated. What had once been primarily print-based— viewbooks, brochures, direct mail—shifted to digital platforms where families researched schools, engaged with content, and formed first impressions.

By the 2020s, most prospective families encountered Tabor online before ever setting foot on campus. In this environment, visual identity needed to function clearly and consistently at small scale—across websites, mobile devices, social platforms, and digital navigation systems—as effectively as it once had in print.

The school seal—rich in detail and designed for formal print-based reproduction—proved difficult to translate into these formats. When reduced to the tiny circular icons required for social avatars, app icons, and browser tab favicons, the intricacies of the ship, rigging, birds, clouds, and typography became indistinct. At that scale, many institutional seals appeared visually similar, limiting differentiation and recognition in crowded digital spaces.

At the same time, Tabor’s broader visual identity had become fragmented. Publications developed independent mastheads, programs introduced standalone logos, and marks proliferated without coordination, reflecting a communications landscape shape more by need than by system and strategy.

In 2023, following years of research that included more than 130 prospective parent interviews and multiple surveys of students, faculty/staff, and alumni, Tabor introduced a new logo designed specifically for everyday and digital use. The mark incorporated ocean waves and the North Star, responding to research in which 89 percent of participants referenced water, marine, or nautical themes when describing the school.

The color palette expanded to include two shades of blue—both a reflection of Tabor’s waterfront identity and a visual nod to the seal’s original hue and the crest’s blue. The update also retained the iconic “Tabor red” introduced in the early 1900s.

At the same time, Tabor introduced updated visual identity guidelines to bring coherence to an increasingly complex communications landscape. The work established a clear hierarchy: the seal reserved for formal and ceremonial use such as diplomas, the new logo used for everyday and digital applications, and guardrails designed to prevent future uncoordinated proliferation.

Today, the icon functions across digital and physical environments—from website interfaces and video end slates to admissions materials, campus signage, and institutional merchandise—extending the school’s waterfront identity into contemporary communications systems.

Looking Forward from 150

As Tabor marks its 150th anniversary, this visual history reveals a consistent pattern: each generation adapted the school’s identity to serve contemporary needs while maintaining connection to tradition. Elizabeth Taber chose a stock art image for the school’s diplomas to communicate its educational mission with clarity and efficiency. Students in 1892 wanted badges they could wear. The 1916 Tabor boy image, used in national advertisements, introduced the school to broader audiences. The seal commemorated institutional transformation. The crest ushered in an era of official school blazer tradition. The burgee enabled international maritime recognition. The 2014 Tabor Boy logo celebrated maritime heritage. The 2023 icon and branding systems addressed the new realities of digital communications.

Visual identity at Tabor has never been static because Tabor itself has never been static. From Elizabeth Taber’s small academy to the School by the Sea—now a federally registered trademark for Tabor—to today’s globally minded institution, evolution has been constant. The marks, colors, and symbols that represented the school have evolved alongside it.

For the sesquicentennial year, Tabor revived the Lillard Hall Clock Tower—2026 also serving as the 100th anniversary for Lillard Hall—as a commemorative mark, creating an anniversary version for 2025–2026. Rather than introducing an entirely new symbol, the decision honored a familiar element from the school’s visual past while serving the specific needs of this milestone celebration.

In Tabor’s 150th year, the school’s visual identity reflects more than design evolution. It reflects an institution continually responding to the moment while honoring its roots. The symbols may change, but the story they tell remains steadfast.