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Dr Charles Aubrey Hamilton Franklyn (1896–1982) was a well-known figure in the study of academic dress, genealogy and heraldry. Perhaps best known for his 1923 work The Bearing of Coat Armour by Ladies, and his 1970 monograph Academical Dress from the Middle Ages to the Present Day, he was in many ways a complicated and often opinionated man.

This biography traces his life and work, together with his contributions to academic dress and heraldry, including his designs of hoods and gowns for several universities and other organisations.

Published in 2016 by the Burgon Society. Hardback. 84 pages. Includes 37 plates (34 colour, 3 B&W).

This book is the first in the Burgon Society Historical Reprints series of important texts on the history of academic dress and related topics. Here are reprinted all the plates of academic dress that appeared in Rudolph Ackermann’s two-volume histories of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge published in 1814 and 1815, giving a valuable snapshot of the academic and official dress in use at these Universities at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

In this special edition of Transactions of the Burgon Society, the Society’s first Chairman, the Rev. Philip Goff, recounts the founding of the Society from his experience and those of the founding fellows.

Published in 2011 by the Burgon Society. Crown Quarto. 450 pages.

This new, much expanded edition is almost twice as long as the 1995 edition, incorporates a comprehensive introduction, includes newly-redrawn diagrams of all the various shapes and patterns of gowns and hoods, photographs of common patterns of brocade and styles of lace and braid, and historical notes on the evolution of modern academical dress. The specifications themselves take up nearly 400 pages and are the result of several years’ careful research. Also included is a bibliography of further sources. As well as purchasing through the shop, copies may be purchased directly from the printer, Lulu for the full non-members’ price.

Published in 2014 by the Burgon Society. Crown Quarto. 234 pages.

This second volume of Shaw’s Academical Dress completes the cataloguing of academic dress in Great Britain and Ireland. Whereas the first volume dealt with degree-awarding institutions (largely universities), this volume deals with non-degree awards, such as diplomas and certificates (where they have not already been dealt with in the first volume), and also with membership robes. As with the first volume, this volume includes diagrams of all the various shapes and patterns of gowns and hoods, photographs of common patterns of brocade and styles of lace and braid, and a bibliography of further sources. It also includes historical notes on all the institutions featured. As well as purchasing through the shop, copies may be purchased directly from the printer, Lulu for the full non-members’ price.

Published in 2005 by the Burgon Society. A4 Bound. 64 pages.

The 2004 Annual contains articles on the evolution of undergraduate dress at Oxford and Cambridge, unrecorded engravings of Oxford dress, the change in colour of the Dublin hood, and a suggested scheme for a national system of academical dress; as well as accounts of last year’s Congregation, Garden Party and the Study Day held at Trinity College, Oxford.

Published in 2019 by the Burgon Society. Hardback. 200 pages.

The second volume in the Burgon Society Historic Reprints series brings together ten important sources and articles on the nature of Lambeth degrees and their academical dress. It includes the complete text of Bishop Francis Gastrell’s legal claim in 1717 that Lambeth degrees were not equivalent to university degrees; a complete list of Lambeth degree recipients 1539-1995; an examination of Charles Franklyn’s claim that the degrees are really ‘state’ or royal degrees; reprints of articles by Noel Cox FBS, and by Graham Zellick FBS (the President of the Burgon Society), on the robes for the degrees. The volume also includes a list of archival holdings related to the degrees and some correspondence in journals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on Lambeth degrees.

Editions of University of London Academic Dress can be purchased directly from the author.

Burgon Society Fellowship Hood

Note: this item may only be purchased by admitted fellows only - please access the member area to purchase

Published in 2008 by the Burgon Society. Crown Quarto. 128 pages.

This issue includes articles on the Tudor Sumptuary Laws; green as the colour for doctor’s robes; Masters of Grammar; the academical dress of the University of Stirling; and academic dress and nursing.

Published in 2011 by the Burgon Society. Crown Quarto. 224 pages.

This issue includes three studies on the Intercollegiate Code of Academic Costume, its development and departures from it; three covering the history and use of robes at Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia Universities; two on Canadian universities in Nova Scotia; an article with detailed illustrations on the making of an American doctoral gown; and a timeline of key events in the history of academic dress in North America.

Published in 2012 by the Burgon Society. Crown Quarto. 128 pages.

This issue includes articles on the history of the Scottish undergraduate scarlet gown; Walter Pope’s successful fight against the abolition of academical dress at Oxford in 1658; the robes for new doctorates at Oxford, 1895-1920; the debate on proposed academical dress for the Royal Institute of British Architects, 1923-24; and an investigation into the perceived decline of academical dress – and how this trend might be reversed or abated – by tracing the social and cultural forces that have acted upon the tradition in the last hundred years.

Published in 2014 by the Burgon Society. Crown Quarto. 144 pages.

This issue includes articles on the evolution of academic dress at Kenyatta University; academical dress in Sweden; the Act of 1554-5 to avoid the excess in apparel; Scottish ecclesiastical dress and ministerial practice since the Reformation; academic robes of the University of Cambridge since the end of the eighteenth Century; and the development of academic dress of the University of Oxford since 1920.

Published in 2016 by the Burgon Society. Crown Quarto. 96 pages.

This issue includes articles on French influence on the dress of Scottish Doctors of Medicine; how academic dress is mobilized in degree ceremonies; a portrait of an early 18th Century nobleman; American degree colours; and the tradition of academic costume at Acadia University.

Published in 2017 by the Burgon Society. Crown Quarto. 96 pages.

This issue includes articles on the previously unknown artist of engravings of Oxford published in 1805; a history of the academic dress of the University of Bradford; the academic dress schemes of twelve universities in British Columbia; a review of tailors’ labels in gowns and caps; and Chinese academic dress from 1994 to 2011.

Published in 2017 by the Burgon Society. Crown Quarto. 100 pages.

Harvard returns honorary doctors’ third crow’s foot; Academic Dress of the University of Essex; American degree colours, 1936–61; The hood of the Determining BA at Oxford; The MA full-dress gown and its use by the Proctors and Assessor of Oxford; An argument for wider adoption of Academic Dress in the Roman Catholic Church.

Published in 2019 by the Burgon Society. Crown Quarto. 126 pages.

Academic and official dress for the University of the Arts London; faculty attitudes towards academic dress at a land-grant university in the US; academic dress at Nashotah House Theological Seminary; academic dress on picture postcards published by Davis’s of Oxford; academic attire at Eton College from 1440.

In memoriam: Robin L. D. Rees; Primary Source: Examining Official Dress in Universities in Aotearoa New Zealand; ‘Different Forms of Gowns for All Sorts of Scholars in their Several Ranks’: Academic Undress at Oxford in 1635; Cap and Gown? Use of Headgear at Graduation in UK Universities in the Twenty-First Century; The Evolution of Undergraduate Academic Dress at the University of Cambridge and its Constituent Colleges; A Grave Decent Gown: The 1690 Glasgow Gown Order; Reaping the Whirlwind: American Degree and Subject Colours (1962-Present); The Hoods of the Three Senior Doctorates at Edinburgh; Reflections of Designing the Academic Dress of the University of Hertfordshire; The Lack of a Theology Hood at the University of the West Indies; ‘Degrees of Degrees’: An Alternative Structure; Response to Professor Zellick’s Article.

The Academic Dress of the University of York; The Robes for Degrees in Music of the University of London; The Academic Dress of Doctors of Philosophy at the University of London; The Oxford Convocation Habit: An Endangered Species of Academic Dress; Costume and Practice: Evolution in Design and Use of the Chancellor’s and Pro-Chancellor’s Robes at the University of Dublin, Trinity College (1800–2020); The Academical Dress of Finland: A Contemporary (Re)Introduction; Academic Dress of the University of Bath 1966–2020; Erratum, Vol. 21: Peculiar and Proper Habits: The Use and Production of Academic Dress in Colonial, Revolutionary, and Federal Philadelphia; In Memoriam: Dr Nicholas Groves, FBS.

St David's College Lampeter was the oldest degree awarding institution in England and Wales after Oxford and Cambridge. It received its charter in 1822 and the power to award bachelor of divinity and bachelor of arts degrees later in the nineteenth century. To celebrate the bicentennial of the founding of the College in 2022, this revised edition of Nicholas Groves's study of the history of Lampeter robes covers the BA, BD, LD and other awards.

This book gives details of the academic dress of Oxford Brookes University. After a brief history of the University it outlines the hats, hoods and gowns worn by those awarded bachelors, masters and doctors degrees. Illustrated throughout, with some of the author's own sketches, it is a guide to the robes worn by graduates of the University.

This book describes the robes of the University of Wales

This book describes the academic robes of the University of Bath