February 1, 1927

Silk draperies caught fire when a freshman rushing for breakfast left an electric curling iron on a celluloid tray on her dresser in Main Building. Smoke filled two rooms and a corridor before college staff extinguished the blaze with hand-operated chemical tanks.

The next day, college authorities banned the use of curling irons in any of the college buildings, and a few days later Keene Richards, the college’s manager, had the charred curling iron framed and hung on a wall in Main “near busts and paintings of famous men and women” as an admonition to students.

The New York Times