Winged Victory - Gift of the Class of 1915

Known simply as "Winged Victory" for the majority of its time on campus, the armless, headless, statue of Nike (as she was known in Greek) or more properly, The Winged Victory of Samothrace (as the original is called by the Louvre) is an example of a plaster cast statue, created from an original ancient marble statue. The method of production of this type of statue has been discussed here before and in that regard, this statue is no different.

Plaster cast statue of Winged Victory located in the Forney Building, 2018 (photo by author)

The Winged Victory of Samothrace original is located in the Louvre. It was discovered in 1863 on the island of Samothrace by Charles Champoiseau and is believed to have been created about 190 BC, possibly to commemorate a major Rhodian naval victory. 1

The Winged Victory of Samothrace original statue located in the Louvre 2

 UNCG's Winged Victory arrived in 1915, as a gift of the graduating class. Although it's impossible to say where the Class of 1907 bought the statue of Minerva, Winged Victory has its maker's stamp clearly visible.

"Caproni Casts" maker's mark on UNCG's Winged Victory

Caproni Borthers was a well-regarded plaster cast statue manufacturer in the days when these type of statues were in vogue. On page 18 of their 1911 catalog, Winged Victory statues are available in a variety of sizes and prices.

1911 Caproni Brothers catalog, page 18 3

Much like the Class of 1907 Minerva statue, Winged Victory has had a long journey on UNCG's campus. The statue was presented during class day ceremonies in May, 1915, by the senior class and stood for the next 35 years in the old Student's Building (no longer extant), the same building as Minerva.

Image of Winged Victory in the Student's Building from 1929 Pine Needles (yearbook)

The old Student's Building was razed in 1950, leaving Winged Victory without a home. The statue next showed up in a garage behind the "old Scarborough House" which was located about where the Ferguson Building now stands. Winged Victory was saved by Dr. Jim Cooley who was quoted as saying, "One day, I believe some sort of maintenance crew came around and was about to take the statue and all of the contents of the garage out to the dump." Luckily, Dr. Cooley had recognized the importance of the statue, partially due to the small plaque at the base of the statue, identifying it as a gift of the Class of 1915.

Plaque that helped save the statue, identifying it as a gift of the Class of 1915 (photo by author)

Dr. Cooley had the statue moved into his office at the Scarborough House and when his office moved to 313 McIver, the statue went with him. The statue suffered some damage while in McIver from a leaking roof and fallen ceiling tiles and when Dr. Cooley was about to leave campus for research leave in 1985, a group of concerned UNCG staff members had the statue transferred to the basement of Alumni House.
Winged Victory's next location was possibly Weatherspoon Gallery, where it was stored until a permanent home was found. Sometime between 1985 and 1987, the statue was placed in the lobby of the Forney Building where it resides to this day. 4
In 1987, Winged Victory finally received some much needed maintenance and was restored by Simone Spicer-Raab (Class of 1987).  5

1- https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/winged-victory-samothrace
2- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nike_of_Samothrake_Louvre_Ma2369_n4.jpg Public Domain image 
3- The 1911 Caproni Brothers catalog can be viewed online.
4- Today on Campus Wednesday, September 25, 1985 No. 59
5- Campus Weekly Sept. 21-Oct. 5, 1987, page 1

The Class of 1907 Minerva Statue

The oldest statue on campus was a plaster statue of Minerva, the school’s patron goddess and symbol. That statue was a gift of the Class of 1907 and stood prominently in the entrance hall of the Student’s Building from 1908 to 1950, when the building was razed. The Class of 1907 Minerva statue was a type of plaster sculpture popular in the late 1800s-early 1900s and made from molds taken directly from the original ancient marble statue. The statue from which the cast was taken is known as the Minerva Giustiniani (MC 278), and is located in the Braccio Nuovo of the Musei Capitolini in Rome, Italy. This original statue is a Roman copy of a no longer extant Greek statue of Athena, thought to have been sculpted in the 5th century BC.

Minerva Giustiniani, on left; Class of 1907 Minerva, on right

Although the Minerva/Athena issue has been discussed before, it is enlightening to see how the history of talking about art may have also influenced the identification of Minerva as Athena. It seems that many who studied sculpture retrospectively, that is, far after the sculptures had been made, were more familiar with Roman history than Greek and so described many Greek sculptures in terms of Roman gods and goddess.* This perhaps helps to understand why McIver chose Minerva, rather than Athena, as the symbol for our school.

1911 Caproni Brothers catalog, page 12

We do not know exactly who made our plaster statue of Minerva, but there were several companies who produced such statues and one of the most well-regarded was Caproni Brothers in Boston. A 1911 catalog from Caproni Brothers shows on page 12, their Minerva Giustiniani plaster statue sold for $100 (shipping excluded), which would be about $2,500 today, adjusted for inflation.

Plaster statues such as this were a common sight in universities, colleges, schools, and museums in the late 1800s and early 1900s and companies like Caproni Brothers supplied complete museums-worth of statues to institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Cornell Universities, as well as the University of Texas, which still has one of the largest collections of statues of this kind. Eventually, around the 1930s and 1940s, plasters casts began to fall out of favor and many collections were sold off, dismantled, or destroyed.

Notes
The Blanton Museum of Art (The University of Texas at Austin) has a great presentation about plaster cast statues, how they were made, why they were acquired, and how they were used at the height of their popularity. Check it out!

*"...most antiquarians before Winckelmann (1717-1767) had been far more familiar with Roman than with Greek history and literature, and a majority of the most admired antique statues had therefore been given Roman titles." Haskell and Penny, Taste and the Antique, The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, Yale University Press, 1981

The 1911 Caproni Brothers catalog can be viewed online.

Photo of the Minerva Giustiniani is from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAtena-Giustiniani---Vatican.jpg By Tetraktys (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Lost Statue of Minerva

Minerva has been associated with The University of North Carolina at Greensboro since its beginning, when she appeared on the seal of the first diplomas awarded. But she has appeared elsewhere as well. The Class of 1907 gave the College (it was at that time the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College) a statue of Minerva which was installed in the entrance of the Students’ Building (no longer extant). The seven and a half foot plaster statue of Minerva stood on a wooden base (given by the class of 1908) in that spot from 1908 to 1950.

Photo from 1909 Carolinian (Yearbook)

In 1950, the Students’ Building was razed and Minerva no longer had a place to stand watch over the students. From the 1950s to about 1980 she was placed variously around campus. She spent time in Aycock Auditorium, in storage and in the lobby, and then was moved to the new student building (the Elliott Center, completed in 1953), where she spent time in Cone Ballroom, sometimes on stage, sometimes behind the curtain. At one point, she served as a prop for the Greensboro Garden Club’s flower show in 1965. Throughout all of her journey across campus, she slowly lost pieces and limbs. The plaster statue was designed from the beginning to be taken apart by pieces for ease of shipping and movement, but unfortunately this meant that by the time she ended up in the attic of the Alumni House in the 1980s, she had lost fingers, part of an arm, the snake, and eventually her head!

In 1985, she, or what was left of her, was brought down from the attic and propped up (for her base had become to broken to hold her up) against a wall in the Virginia Dare room for the 13th Annual Senior Day. A movement led by SGA president Lorie Tyson was attempted to restore the statue. Pat Wasserboehr, a faculty member of the art department, thought that the statue could be restored on campus, although she did think it would be “a major task,” since “two arms and a head” would have to be made from scratch. She also estimated the cost in excess of $2,000 dollars.

Minerva in 1985. Photo from Alumni News, Summer 1985.

Unfortunately, the historical record leaves us with no answer as to what happened to the statue after this restoration campaign. What is clear, is that the statue was gone by the 2000s, and a new statue of Minerva was commissioned by the Class of 1953. This newer, beautiful statue of Minerva, sculpted by UNCG Alumnus James Barnhill, now stands in the east courtyard of the Elliott University Center, greeting the newest generations of students of UNCG with opportunities for personal growth through education.

We will revisit the story of the Class of 1907 Minerva Statue in the near future on Spartan Stories, and give more background on the statue itself!

Origin of a Goddess: Minerva on the Consolidated University era seal

During the period of the Consolidated University of North Carolina (1931-1971), a seal for the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) appeared featuring an image of Minerva quite different from those previously used for the school's seal.

Letterhead from Consolidated University period

The seal appeared together with the seals of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University on official documents and letterhead from the office of the Consolidated University throughout this period.  The seal, by itself, was also used sporadically on items produced by the Woman's College such as Bulletins and Programs.

Seal from 1943 Bulletin of Courses

As has been discussed in previous blogs and exhibits, a wide variety of images has been used for our school's seal and unfortunately, we don't have much information on how many of these images came to be.  We still do not know who came up with the Consolidated University era seal, but we can now state that we know the original source of the image.
In the Louvre Museum in Paris, there is a Greek pot (Krater) dating back to about 460 B.C. This Krater, a form of Greek pottery used to mix wine and water, is an example of Attic red-figure painting. This particular Krater is the name vase of the Niobid Painter, so-called because of the scene depicting the slaughter of the children of Amphion and Niobe by Apollo and Artemis. The scene illustrates a central theme of the Greek world, Hubris, since Niobe had boasted that she had more children than Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis.

The Niobid Painter Krater, showing scenes on both sides

It is not the scene for which the Painter is named, but the scene on the opposite side (image on the right in the above picture), which reveals a familiar face (indicated with red arrow above).  It is a question of debate as to what this side of the Krater depicts, but there is no doubt about one particular figure.  Near the handles stands a robed figure of a woman, wearing an aegis (breastplate of armor) with the head of Medusa, a war helmet, and carrying a shield and spear.  Sound familiar? It's Athena, and it's the source of the image for the Consolidated University era Woman's College seal. The drawing taken from the Krater in the image below shows a better view of the goddess.1


Drawing from Niobid Painter Krater showing detail of Athena and seal



It's very clear that officials weren't aware of the origin of the image used in this seal. In 1963 when the official seal currently used by The University of North Carolina at Greensboro was adopted, long-time Registrar Hoyt Price curiously said, "the 1963 rendition of the university seal actually is more authentic in so far as Minerva is depicted, especially her headdress and the wreath around the figure."2  

1-The Niobid Painter Krater is located in the Louvre and designated as Louvre G341; All Images used here of the Krater are from Tufts University's Perseus Digital Library

2- Quote is from "Today on Campus" October 2, 1983.



The Many Faces of Minerva

1894

Minerva has been with the university almost since its inception, but her image has undergone many transformations during her tenure as UNCG's representative goddess.  The first extant image appears on an 1894 diploma.  Indeed, many of the very early images we have of Minerva come from diplomas bearing the university seal.

1897

The next seal, from 1897, not only reflects the change from "School" to "College," but also shows a completely different image of Minerva.  By the time the school's name changed again in 1919 to the North Carolina College for Women, Minerva had once again transformed, and unfortunately it wasn't her best image.  When the name changed again, it was no more kind to Minerva than the previous version.

1919

1937

1943

The 1937 seal shows another revision of Minerva's image. Around this same period, yet another image of Minerva appeared concurrently, but on different forms of media.  A strong departure from the previous seals altogether, this seal from the 1943 Bulletin of Courses shows perhaps a more artful version of Minerva.
This seal was used on the letterhead during the period of the "Consolidated University".  A time when the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (also known as Woman's College of the University of North Carolina) were governed together as a system.

The origin of many of the seals is unclear. Changes might be attributable to style of the time, name change requiring a new seal, type of object upon which the seal was placed, or even (lack of) talent of the artist.



Letter from Bill Friday explaining need for new seals -note the letterhead using the "1943" Bulletin seal posted above

Official seal adopted 1963/1964

In 1963, when the university's name changed to The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, an official seal was created to adorn diplomas and official documents and it has a face very familiar to those who have had a connection with UNCG's recent history.  Never a cause for concern before the university was to become coeducational in 1963 and admitted it's first male students for the fall semester of 1964, suddenly even Minerva's gender was challenged.  Helen P. Yoder, administrative assistant to Chancellor Singletary, said, "Some people thought Minerva looked too much like a woman" and Hoyt Price, long-time Registrar (1960-1987) agreed that one objective of the 1963 redesign was to make Minerva, "less feminine."*

This is just a small sampling of the many, many different images of Minerva from the Archives.  Please take a look at our online exhibit featuring even more diverse images of our goddess!
(*quotes from "Today on Campus" Oct. 2, 1983)

Minerva, Our Goddess

How long has Minerva been associated with UNCG? An 1894 diploma in our Archives (the earliest diploma we have) proudly displays Minerva within the seal.

Seal from 1894 diploma featuring Minerva

 It is strictly conjecture, but certainly plausible that the school's founder, Charles Duncan McIver, is the person responsible for selecting Minerva. McIver won a medal in Greek and honors in Latin while attending The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Edwin Alderman, a former classmate and charter member of the school's faculty, was also in the classics course at Chapel Hill, and is another possible source for the use of Minerva on the school seal.  Whoever is ultimately responsible for the selection, a short history of the goddess reveals why she was such an apt choice for the school.

Minerva was a Roman goddess whose origin is believed to be Etruscan, her Etruscan antecedent being known as Menrva.  Menrva was the third part of the Etruscan holy triad composed of Tinia and Uni, which is later reflected in the Roman Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. By the time Minerva was worshipped along with Jupiter and Juno in temples known as Capitolia, Minerva was visually indistinguishable from the Greek goddess Athena.  People of the classical world had no problem borrowing gods from other cultures!

Bronze votive figurine of Minerva, she originally held a spear in her right hand and shield in her left. (Image from Dictionary of Roman Religion, Lesley Adkins & Roy Adkins, 1996)

 Throughout her history and various guises, the goddess has been associated with many aspects of worship. She was a tutelary goddess in Athens and to a lesser extent, Rome.  She was associated with aspects of war and this is evident in numerous depictions of her in arms (notice the war helmet in the seals and figurine). She was a goddess of arts, crafts, teaching, and music (she invented the flute), and in these aspects enjoyed festivals called Quinquatria held in her honor in Rome. As Minerva Medica (also Athena Hygeia) she was the goddess of healing.

If all these aspects seem disjointed (Latin poet Ovid calls her the "goddess of a thousand things"), it helps to keep in mind that she is most renowned for her wisdom and mental prowess.  Was it most likely this aspect that McIver had in mind when he chose her as our representative goddess? Perhaps so, but he may have also read and heeded the words of Ovid's Fasti, "Una dies media est, et fiunt sacra Minervae...quod est illa nata Minerva die...Pallada nunc pueri teneraeque orate puellae, qui bene placarit Pallada, doctus erit" or "After an interval of one day, rites are performed in honor of Minerva...because that is her birthday...Make your prayers to Pallas* (Minerva) boys and gentle girls, those who honor her well, will be learned!" (Fasti 3.809-816) A very appropriate verse for a teacher's school!

Official University seal adopted in 1963

As the University has grown, it is interesting to see how many of her other aspects have been fulfilled with the mission of the University. From teacher education and home economics, to the inclusion of arts, music, and even nursing degrees being offered, Minerva has proven a very wise choice for The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

(*Pallas is another name for Athena/Minerva-)