University Archives News

Object Lesson: Whatsoever Things Are Furry

A monthly feature highlighting the artifact collection of the University Archives.

Opening a large archival box in artifact storage we are met with a set of dagger-like teeth filling lips curled back in a snarl and yellow eyes that shine with anger. Thankfully, this ferocious beast was killed and stuffed sometime in the 1920s, so the danger is long past. You are looking at a taxidermy wildcat that has a long Northwestern history.

It was originally purchased at a taxidermist in Lena, IL by Jesse N. Gates, WCAS 1907, so that his two daughters could display the school mascot in the dorm room they shared in Pearson Hall (located where Rebecca Crown now stands). The daughters, Genevieve Gates Porter, WCAS 1930 and Evelyn Gates Berry, Speech 1932, named the cat "Quaecy" (pronounced "Quacky") after the school motto and hymn: "Quaecumque sunt vera." The two alumnae, along with several other dorm mates, came to visit the John Evans Alumni Center in 1966 and donated the item to Northwestern. In 1990 the wildcat was transferred to the University Archives where it continues to reside. About once a year a nutritionally rich taxidermy rabbit is placed in the box and left there so the feline's coat can retail its vital sheen.

The Archives holds many photographs of the Northwestern Wildcat in its various iterations through the mascot's history, as well as newspaper clippings and subject files. Watch a video entitled "The History of the Wildcats" to learn more about this proud feline.