Logo Nostalgia

Introducing Brooklyn Friends School's new visual identity is exciting, yet it also makes us fondly recall logos from our past. Let's take a look back at what can be considered our main logos through the years, beginning with today's and ending with our earliest-known visual identity.

"The Inner Light," 2014

In our new visual identity, the banner represents academic excellence, a core value of Brooklyn Friends School, while the eight-pointed star signifies the inner light of every BFS student. The star also reflects our Quaker heritage: an eight-pointed star was first used by British Quaker relief workers in the Franco-Prussian War and later adopted by the American Friends Service Committee in its own logo.

"Windows into BFS" 2006 to 2014. Over 20 different images provide glimpses into the BFS community, ranging from student artwork to BFS scenes; a few are below. "Windows" also saw BFS begin using the phrase "Inspiring minds and hearts since 1867."

 "Schoolhouse" ca. 1995 to 2005. Designed by long-time BFS employee Anne Garland, this logo referenced early 1990s artwork by BFS students which had previously been adopted for occasional school print materials.

"Friendship" ca. 1975 to 1994. Designed by BFS alum parents Leo and Diane Dillon, noted artists and illustrators. This image was, at times, modified by students to reflect both our school's and our student body's commitment to equity and social justice.

"School Seal" earlier than 1926 to 1975. Our school seal's earliest known print usage is on a 1926 literary magazine, though it was likely around long before. The school seal was incorporated into the Class of 1927's graduation gift to BFS, an artistic rendering of the Brooklyn Meeting House, still found on bookplates in some of our library's oldest books.

"Gift of the Class of 1927"

Printed materials at BFS did not always incorporate our school's visual identities. BFS letterhead apparently did not include images of any kind until 1975. Additionally, images were not used consistently in school letterhead during the 1990s. During this school year, BFS looks forward to fully incorporating its new visual identity into daily life of the school. 

The BFS Panther, a mascot history

Last month, on the BFS Facebook page, an alumna asked about the BFS Panther, the mascot of the BFS Athletics program. The Panther is relatively new to our athletic program as both our nickname and costumed mascot. BFS Athletic Director David Gardella shared his understanding of the history of the BFS Panther and further information was found among school records in the BFS Archives.

In the 1998-1999 school year, Henry Spinella was our Athletic Director: he noted that one of our Upper School student-athletes felt that BFS athletics could benefit from a costumed mascot to help promote our athletics program and that this student was working to make it a reality. A "Fighting Quaker" was suggested, yet that idea was set aside as there have always been those who feel that such a mascot is inappropriate, even thought it is an oxymoron. A fox, likely in reference to Quakerism's founder George Fox was also suggested. Henry Spinella agreed that BFS should have such a mascot, as did the school's administration. 

The beginning of the 1999-2000 school year saw a school-wide vote. Five mascots were suggested for the consideration of the entire school: a superhero, a panther, a penguin, a bear and a dog. David Gardella recalled that "the penguin came in second... but the Panther came in first." Records reveal that the vote was not even close: ballot came in with 143 votes for the penguin and 175 for the panther. It seems a BFS Panther mural was created by an artist in the Pearl Street gym for the following school year. The actual panther mascot costume seems to have finally arrived in the 2006-2007 school year. 

It should be noted that our former student newspaper, The Panther Press, obviously chose a title that reflected our panther nickname and mascot. The first publication of The Panther Press in 2003 was an important moment for our school as BFS had then been without a regularly published student newspaper for many years. Our current student newspaper is The Willoughby Street Journal, a title which will likely be retired when the Upper School moves to One MetroTech in September, 2015. 

During the 20th Century, particularly in the media, we were often known as "The Quakers." Photos from the 1970s and 1980s show that some of our athletics t-shirts - and perhaps even uniforms - included a depiction of a man wearing a traditional Quaker hat. In 1955, BFS Upper School students selected a "Quakerman" as the BFS mascot, as mentioned in The Life. According to 1942's Seventy Five Years of Brooklyn Friends School, we had been known for several years as "the Fighting Quakers." Of course, the Fighting Quakers is the athletics nickname of Sidwell Friends in Washington, DC and, your historian's 2010 visit to Sidwell noted a near-caricature of a"Fighting Quaker." Guilford College's athletics teams are also known as the Fighting Quakers. All schools that use "The Fighting Quakers" for nicknames fully understand and acknowledge that the term is an oxymoron. 

BFS school-year beginnings, today and yesterday

Brooklyn Friends School began its 148th school year this month with its traditional convocation. Our opening assembly for older students, held at the Brooklyn Meeting House on Schermerhorn Street, came to be known as convocation in the early 1990s, yet this year's largest-ever student body required separate convocations for the middle and upper school divisions. Quite similar to years past, as one can see on this page from the 1916 Brooklyn Friends School catalog.

1916: Principal John L. Carver addresses the entire
BFS student body at a Thursday assembly

98 years ago,  each division, then called departments, held separate opening exercises just as we did this year. The photo above was taken at one of the bi-monthly assemblies of the entire school, in the exact same meeting room at the Brooklyn Meeting House. Since 1916, the meeting room has changed slightly and our entire student body has grown by perhaps 300 percent, but BFS and its historic home of the Brooklyn Meeting House remain beloved by students as one can see in this video of the upper school convocation, featuring the upper school student body singing our school song of today "Simple Gifts."

Simple Gifts 2014-15 from Brooklyn Friends School on Vimeo.

Let Your Films Speak: The Bridge Film Festival,15 Years Young

"Know your history, ask questions and follow your heart." 

Garrett Bradley, BFS '03, Bridge Film Festival alumna

It's Spring Break, but it's also time to reserve your tickets for the 15th annual Bridge Film Festival on Thursday, April 10 at BFS. The festival was established in 1999 at BFS by Andy Cohen, BFS director of media services, and it celebrates Quaker ideals in action via short films created by students in grades 5 through 12 from Friends schools and Friends meetings around the world. Judges are members of the film industry and related fields, and selecting finalists is always difficult. Festival director Andy Cohen was interviewed in 2009 on the origins of the Bridge Film Festival. In its short history, the Bridge Film Festival has become an important way for young artists to connect and collaborate while creating purposeful, values-based films which spring from their common background in Quakerism. The founder of Quakerism George Fox once famously stated "Let your life speak," so the Bridge Film Festival encourages young filmmakers to "Let your films speak."

New to the Digital Archives

This week, we have a few additions to the Digital Archives.

• Two new items in Playbills: the 1980 Middle School production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience or Bunthorne's Bride and the 1982 Intergenerational Chorus performance at the CUNY NYC College of Technology's Klitgord Auditorium on Jay Street. 

Canned Heat, with a brief history of Ceramics at BFS

Again, my colleague, director of media services Andy Cohen, comes through with a nice find as he transfers his own VHS collection. BFS has a long history in ceramics education and this short film by BFS students is about the Japanese pottery technique, Raku, as taught by BFS ceramics teacher Ellen Kahan during the Minimester of Winter, 1999.

Che bella voce!

Take a look back to 1993 for a fabulous rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at BFS, sung by Middle and Upper School science teacher and past athletic director Janet Villas. Big thanks for making this possible go straight out to several of my BFS colleagues: director of media services Andy Cohen for the transfer; current athletic director David Gardella for saving the original VHS; and, of course, to Janet for her beautiful voice and performance. And, wow, basketball uniforms have changed over time! 

Video killed the archivist's mind...

Interesting issues emerge with video in the BFS Archives, particularly that VHS quality sure does not stand the test of time. I've now learned that 25 years is a pretty accurate VHS lifespan. Transferring Dance Concert VHS has been the major focus in the archives recently. There are often multiple copies of each Dance Concert, so listening to the same songs over and over can drive one to the brink.