Word: magenta
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...EDITORS OF THE MAGENTA...
Z.MILTON, March 1, 1875.TO THE EDITOR OF THE MAGENTA...
YOUR articles in the issue of February 26, on the Beacon Cup Regattas and the right of Harvard to the magenta as her distinguishing color, seemed to contain a few errors which an older memory than yours might correct...
...this year - 1860 - the Harvards wore magenta, and I think it is probable that this name was used for the first time. It was about this date that chemistry was adding largely to the known colors by developing the beautiful shades to be extracted from coal-oil. Fanciful names were given to these shades, and two were called magenta and solferino from the victories of the French in Italy in the spring and summer of 1859. The date of the battle of Magenta will sufficiently establish the earliest use of the name, even if the shade were known before...
...here we have certainly enough proof that Harvard wore in 1860 handkerchiefs of a color which the papers called red, - not an unnatural error at a time when magenta as the name of a color was little known beyond dry-goods' shops and the ladies. That these so-called red handkerchiefs were in truth of magenta, I have a pleasant reason for knowing, from having been made the object of some light feminine chaff about Harvard's taste in selecting so homely a color. In those days - as now indeed - we sometimes wore a straw hat with magenta ribbon...