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!