On Friday, August 28, also known as National Bow Tie Day, Washburn University will celebrate the 217 birthday of Ichabod Washburn. To celebrate Ichabod Washburn’s life, President Jerry Farley and the Ichabod mascot will be handing out cupcakes decorated with like blue bowties in the Union starting at 11:30 a.m. while supplies last.

 Ichabod Washburn is famous around the Washburn campus for donating $25,000 in 1868 to the then Lincoln College in order to save it from closing.  In gratitude to his gift, the Board of Trustees changed the name from Lincoln College to Washburn College.  Although Washburn died from a stroke in 1868, his wife, Ann Brown Washburn, continued to donate money to the college that now boasted her husband’s name. 

 In 1938, Washburn alum Bradbury Thompson created the Ichabod mascot.  He said in the 1938 Kaw yearbook that the “it is not intended that only one picture should represent Ichabod, for he adapts himself to any situation…but if he is to live, he must keep his essential characteristics of courageous spirit, democratic courtesy, kindness, and the studious love of truth.”

 For more information about the event, please contact Amanda Hughes, Assistant Director of Universtiy Relations, at [email protected] or 785-670-2153.