Lawn Chowder and Marching Society, 1979, courtesy University of Virginia Library
The Lawn Chowder and Marching Society is a loose organization of residents of the Lawn at the University of Virginia. With an origin in the 1909 East Lawn Chowder and Marching Society, which engaged in friendly rivalry with the West Lawn Chowder Society, the only known activity of the latter day Lawn Chowder and Marching Society is a mock procession at the end of the class year, generally clad in bathrobes.
The Virginia Pep Band, whose full name is the "Fighting Cavaliers Indoor/Outdoor Precision(?) Marching Pep Band and Chowder Society Revue," claims descent from the East Lawn Chowder and Marching Society.
Dabney traces the current incarnation of the group to post-World War II:
New vitality came to the Lawn after World War II with the reactivation of the West Lawn Chowder and Marching Society, an ancient association of congenial spirits inhabiting the west side of the Lawn. The society had been founded more than half a century before but had become extinct "due to lack of interest and chowder." In 1953 the organization changed its name to the Lawn Chowder and Marching Society, thus making eligible any dweller on either side of the lovely stretch of green extending from the Rotunda to Cabell Hall, provided he was "a great guy and a good friend." Officers were elected, and the head marcher and chowder consumer rejoiced in the sobriquet of "The Purple Shadow." All and sundry were assured that the organization was "under no circumstances a scholarship or a drinking club, but an honorary society." Another manifesto spoke somewhat confusingly of an "Operation Barrel," but lest this be misconstrued it was explained that what the society is seeking is to "determine how much fun a `barrel of monkeys' really is." Photographs of the group in Corks and Curls show the members dressed in all varieties of nondescript and outlandish costumes.[1]
Members[]
See Category:Lawn Chowder and Marching Society members