Located on the second floor of the Mary Couts Burnett Library, between the Reference Reading Room and the Map Room is the Sumner Academic Heritage Room. Dedicated in 2015, the room houses portraits of TCU’s chancellors; faculty award winners; archived copies of The Horned Frog Yearbook dating back to 1905; the University’s Phi Beta Kappa charter; and the University Mace.

The Sumner Room is named in recognition of Dr. George and Sue Sumner, both TCU alumni. Dr. Sumner is also a past president of Friends of the TCU Library.

In Medieval times, the mace was a weapon designed to protect the dignitary in a procession. Academia borrowed that tradition, designating the mace as a symbol of the power of a university and its leader. Academic maces, similar in appearance to ancestral weaponry, usually are constructed of wood or metal and may have symbols of the institution worked into the design. TCU’s mace was constructed to commemorate the inauguration of Chancellor Michael R. Ferrari in 1999.

TCU staff member Robert Kramer, a master wood carver, made the shaft of the mace. It is fashioned from a wooden beam from the first TCU building in Thorp Spring, Texas. The head of the mace was created by sculptor and TCU parent Seppo Aarnos, the same artist who created the Horned Frog statue between Sadler and Reed Halls. The stone on the mace glows with TCU’s colors – purple for royalty and white for purity.