The root for alma meaning nourishment can be recognized in the English word alimentation for nourishment or alimentary tract as a synonym for the GI tract. ![]() Alma Mater in Latin means “nourishing mother” and the maternal figure nourishes her children (the young babes that surround her) with her knowledge. She holds a book in her right hand with the Greek words “Logia Zonta,” which, roughly translated, mean “living oracle or living words,” alluding to the words Moses received on Mount Sinai and which he passes down to us, in a likely reference to Acts 7:38: “He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors and he received living words to pass on to us.”Īlthough the central maternal figure is not explicitly named “Alma Mater” as is the Low Library statue and iconic image of Columbia by Daniel Chester French, she clearly is the inspiration for it. The central figure is a majestic maternal figure surrounded by the young babes she is educating. His vision for the University was an enlightened education with moral structure.īiblical and religious references in the seal are many. Johnson attended what is now Yale University, then located in Saybrook, Conn., and was a minister and educator. ![]() Raised in Connecticut and educated in Hebrew at the age of 5, Rev. Samuel Johnson (not the lexicographer), the first president of Columbia when it was known as King’s College and located in Trinity Church in what is now downtown Manhattan and the financial district. The Columbia seal was designed by the Rev.
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