days of old
By George! George Washington statue’s symbolism: Washington wears his Revolutionary War uniform but holds a civilian walking cane. Behind him is a plowshare signifying his role as a farmer and agriculture as our nation’s strength. His left hand rests on a column that represents civil authority, its 13 rods equaling the 13 colonies. His sword leans against the column next to his cape, showing independence gained.
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miamian magazine
George Washington arrived on campus 100 years ago this spring, and he still looks dapper, greeting all who enter Alumni Hall. It’s most fitting that this life-size statue graces the hall’s stately rotunda, since the United States’ first president signed the 1792 law that led to the founding of Miami University. The statue came into being after fire destroyed North Carolina’s statehouse and its statue of Washington. Virginia legislators, fearing the same disaster, commissioned William Hubard of Richmond, Va., to make replicas of their statue by French sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon. Based on precise measurements that Houdon took of the living George Washington, the marble piece is considered one of the most accurate depictions of the man, representing him at age 53. According to “Dear Bronze George, What’s Your Story?,” a history compiled by Lois Kelly Cocanougher ’71 MEd ’75,
Miami’s copy of the original was the sixth and final one molded by Hubard. Cast in 1860, it weighs 2,300 pounds. Samuel Spahr Laws, Class of 1848, donated the artwork to Miami on Graduation Day in June 1920. A minister, attorney, physician, businessman, educator, and inventor, Laws is best known for inventing an early version of the ticker tape machine for the stock market. A young Thomas Edison worked for him at the time. Although George started in Alumni Hall, the Alumni Library back then, he has moved around the Oxford campus. In 1960, he oversaw the lobby of old Benton Hall, known as Hall Auditorium today. In 1978, he was moved to the art museum for its grand opening, then put in storage for two years. In 1981, he returned to Alumni Hall, now home to the architecture and interior design department. Students have made him part of their traditions, rubbing his left boot for good luck and posing with him in graduation photos.
To read Lois Cocanougher’s full article on Miami’s George Washington statue, go to: www.tinyurl.com/gwstatue.