Alma Mater Group, (sculpture).

Alma Mater Group, (sculpture).

Taft, Lorado Zadoc, 1860-1936, sculptor.

Buchholz, William, contractor.

Rovelstad, Trygve A., 1903-1990, assistant.

American Bronze Company, founder.

Henry C. Smalley Granite Company, carver.

Alma Mater Group, (sculpture).

Modeled 1922. Cast 1929. Dedicated June 12, 1929.

Bronze on a granite base.

Sculpture: approx. 162 x 164 x 125 in.; Base: approx. 49 x 144 x 121 in.

(Lower proper left side of bronze:) LORADO TAFT. Sc. 1929 (Lower proper right side of bronze:) American Art Bronze Fdry (three small triangles) 1929/Jules Bercham and Son. Chicago (one small triangle) (Bronze plaque base front:) ALMA MATER, CONCEIVED IN 1922/BY LORADO TAFT, A GRADUATE OF/THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS IN/1879, WAS FORMALLY PRESENTED/AT COMMENCEMENT IN 1929. ORIG-/INALLY PLACED SOUTH OF THE/AUDITORIUM, THE SCULPTURE WAS/RELOCATED AUGUST 22, 1962 ON/THIS SITE BY THE UNIVERSITY OF/ILLINOIS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. (Base front:) ALMA MATER/TO THY HAPPY CHILDREN/OF THE FUTURE/THOSE OF THE PAST/SEND GREETINGS (Base proper left:) HER CHILDREN ARISE UP/AND CALL HER BLESSED/PROVERBS 31 . 28 (Base proper right:) GIVEN TO THE UNIVERSITY/BY THE SCULPTOR/THE ALUMNI FUND/AND THE SENIOR CLASSES OF/1923 . 1924 . 1925 . 1926/1927 . 1928 . 1929 signed Founder's mark appears.

A group of three figures and an armchair. The center front figure, Alma Mater, is a standing female wearing an academic robe. Her arms are outstretched at chest height, with her palms open. The chair is directly behind her. The proper right figure, Labor in back, is a male wearing a blacksmith's apron. His proper right arm is extended over the chair in a handshake with the female to his proper left. His proper left hand rests on the chair back. A sheaf of plans or drawings is behind the legs. The proper left figure, Learning is a model of the Lemnia Athena, a female in a classical gown with a sun bas-relief on front. Her proper left arm is flexed with her hand on her hip. Her proper right arm extends across the chair in a handshake with the proper left male. The armchair has a bas-relief seal of the State of Illinois on the back, visible only from behind. The chair legs have paw feet.

Allegory -- Arts & Sciences -- Industry

Allegory -- Arts & Sciences -- Education

Object -- Furniture -- Chair

Outdoor Sculpture -- Illinois -- Urbana

Administered by University of Illinois, Board of Trustees, 506 South Wright Street, 354 Henry Administration Building, Urbana, Illinois 61801

Located University of Illinois, Altgeld Hall, Southeast corner of Wright & Green Streets, Urbana, Illinois 61801

IAS files contain copies of Scheinman, Muriel, "Art collecting at the University of Illinois: a history and catalogue," Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois, 1981, pg. 43-45, pg. 346; the Illinois Alumni News (Urbana, IL), Oct. 1962, pg. 1, discussing the moving of the piece on campus in 1962 to Altgeld Hall lawn from the South Quadrangle; and Illinois Week (Urbana, IL), June 11, 1987, vol. 6, no. 30, discussing Trygve Rovelstad as the model for the "Labor" figure in the piece. The Alma Mater grouping is one of the symbols of the University of Illinois and appears frequently on notebooks, calenders, etc. IAS files contain a photocopied illustration of the work in its original site. Taft was a resident of Champagne and a graduate of the school. He initially conceived the idea as early as 1883. The full scale model was done in 1922.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Illinois survey, 1992.

National Park Service, American Monuments and Outdoor Sculpture Database, IL0051, 1989

Monumental News, July 1922; Oct. 1929.

Scheinman, Muriel, "Art Collecting at the University of Illinois: A History and Catalogue," Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois, 1981, pg. 43-45, 63-65.

Illinois Alumni News (Urbana, IL), Oct. 1962, pg. 1.

Illini Week (Urbana, IL), June 11, 1987, pg. 1, 6.

Scheinman, Muriel, "Art Collecting at the University of Illinois: A History and Catalogue," Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois, 1981, pg. 346.

Monumental News, Oct. 1929, pg. 488.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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