Ornamental Yale

5 August 2010

Hail Yale University!
• A premier Ivy League school (sorry, Brown!)
• Alma mater to former (and, no doubt, future) US Presidents and Supreme Court Justices.
• Selective beyond reason (only 7.5% of applicants are admitted to their freshman class).
• More than 300 years old!
• The second wealthiest university in the US (endowment ~ $20 billion).



Although mainly known for their liberal arts undergraduate program, their law school, and maybe their divinity school, Yale does have a good (albeit quite small) engineering school. I've been collaborating on research with a professor here in Chemical and Environmental Engineering. This week, I'm here for a research progress and planning meeting.



This is my 3rd visit to Yale and I don't yet have a feel for the "soul" of the place. One aspect: Yale is a walled-in fortress defending itself from the surrounding somewhat rundown community of New Haven. A second aspect: Gothic architecture that makes me expect to turn a corner to find Severus Snape or Draco Malfoy. A third aspect: The intricate, often humorous, sometimes bizarre ornamentation depicted here from the vintage buildings in and around the older parts of campus.



This year I'm staying at the Study Hotel on Chapel Street just a block or so away from the old campus. On this block, there are three Thai restaurants. Each morning, I've tried a different locally-owned coffee shop (two very good, two not so much). It's a pleasant mile-long walk to the Mason Laboratory where I've been working.



The weather was terrific for the first few days. Yesterday it turned hot and humid, but not horribly so. Each day, I've spent a half day in meetings with the Yale team and a half day working on Berkeley projects or tasks.



These photos are all from core parts of the Yale campus, mostly taken while I've been walking to work in the morning or back to the hotel in the afternoon.
1. The Master's House at Calhoun College.
2. Ornament at eye level on the side of the entrance gate to Davenport College.
3. Ornament at the entrance to the Sterling Memorial Library (note the bird's nest!).
4. From the Law School, I think. A drunken gambler. Maybe bootlegged liquor?
5. Definitely from the law school! A policeman whistling and a hardened criminal.
6. (Above) From outside the Sterling Library, maybe the strangest of all! A pilgrim shooting a native.
7. (Below) Above one of the doorways to enter the Law School, a professor's view of the classroom. He's enthusiastically pontificating to a sleeping class! (The complement appears above the other doorway: Passionate students and a disinterested professor.)



I leave Connecticut tomorrow afternoon and travel by train to New Jersey.