The N. I. S. N. S. Mosaic

The letters embedded in the mosaic stand for The Northern Illinois State Normal School -- the first name given to this institution in its charter in 1895. Originally placed in the lobby floor at the main entrance, behind "the arches" on the south side of Altgeld Hall, workers removed the damaged mosaic during the remodeling of Altgeld's lobby during the 1968-69 school year. Italian mosaic artists in Rockford, IL restored the seal in 1971, and placed it in the floor of the Founders' Library in the summer of 1976. Sororities and fraternities once guarded a time-honored tradition of never stepping on the seal. Never the official seal of the institution, European mosaicists originally laid this seal from the conception of an unknown designer.