When there was Columbia blue When there was Columbia blue Carlos Ochoa / Senior Staff Illustrator By Jacob Mazzarella | April 12, 2021, 10:03 PM As I walked into Butler Library a month before my graduation, I saw a fellow senior dressed in Columbia blue, posing for pictures outside Ref. 301. She stood in front of the wall-length canvas that memorializes King George VI and Queen Elizabeth’s stop at Columbia on their 1939 North American tour. Long after the graduate left, I stared at this painting. I had passed by it hundreds of times without ever caring to look. Now, having just seen the senior dressed in Columbia blue, I was able to see the University’s colors throughout the canvas for the first time. From the carpets to the curtain, the painting shows the interior of Low Library covered in blue. Their royal highnesses take center stage. Embroidered onto the curtains, the University’s crown insignia hovers like a halo.