It’s Still Not Heraldry, But …

… it’s a lot closer. The two shields below are on the face of one of the buildings of the Chicago campus of Northwestern University. Like the streetside banners of the town of Westchester, these are not really heraldry either. But they certainly come a lot closer than Westchester did.

Indeed, one can see a similarity to the factory in the shield of “Industry” and the castles and towers that appear on many coats of arms (e.g., the castle in the arms of Castile, or the college in the arms of the College of William & Mary, for which see my post of July 29, 2010).

And the ship on the shield of “Commerce” is not all that different (except for being more three-dimensional) from the galleons and drakkars found in many Scottish coats of arms.

So they may not be real coats of arms, but they’re at least close approximations.