Inventory of Iconography 01 09 2021A.Indd
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Inventory and Review of Monuments and Memorials Related to Confederate Iconography Virginia Military Institute DRAFT January 9, 2021 Memorials and monuments take several forms at VMI: statuary, plaques, portraits, and dedicatory building names. There are over 400 such tributes found at VMI. The survey focuses on those tributes which explicitly or implicitly reflect iconography of the Confederacy. For the purposes of this document, the term iconography is understood to encompass visual imagery as well as other semiotic modalities, such as language. The purpose of this survey is to succinctly document and provide an overview of those landscape features subject to review by the VMI Board of Visitors Commemorations and Memorials Naming and Review sub-committee. Several of those honored have multiple dedicatory resources associated with their names; they have been grouped accordingly. The survey includes the following categories: dedicatory building names, statues, paintings, plaques, and monuments. Each entry includes a brief biographical sketch of the honoree, association with the Confederacy, and original intent of the resource by the creator(s), if known. Until 1900 the Institute consisted of a central barracks for academic activities and lodging, a hospital, a mess hall, and several faculty quarters. Rapid expansion of the physical plant after the turn of the 20th century, and a new master plan provided by Bertram Goodhue, provided several opportunities for monuments and dedicatory naming. Throughout the 20th-century buildings were named in honor of people who had dedicated their lives to the academic mission of the Institute. Without exception all the main buildings in the central post were named in honor of DRAFTfaculty and senior administrators. In the late 20th-century and early 21st- century several athletic facilities along the periphery of the central post were named in honor of key financial patrons. No dedicatory name, statue, plaque, or monument is known to have any legally binding obligation of permanency or reversion agreement with any honoree or donor. HONOREE: Francis Henney Smith (1812-1890) BUILDING: STATUE: MISCELLANEOUS: PAINTING: Francis H. Smith Superintendent Smith Quote in Smith Hall Lobby Francis H. Smith Administration Building ARTIST: ARTIST: N/A ARTIST: Max Weyl DESCRIPTION: Francis Ferruccio Legnaioli DESCRIPTION: H. Smith Hall, completed DESCRIPTION: DESCRIPTION: Heroic Quote attributed to Francis Smith: in 1964, is the main bronze statue and granite Oil on canvas portrait of administration building base. The statue was “He who has obtained the Superintendent Smith at the of the Institute. Named dedicated on June 10, 1931 mastery over himself to meet time of his 1889 retirement. in honor of the first near Jackson Memorial and discharge the smallest superintendent, it is the Hall. In 1979 the statue duty has done much to qualify second building to carry the was moved to the front of himself for the greatest.” name. The first Smith Hall Smith Hall. The statue is a Placed in the lobby in 2009. (1900-1920) was located at contributing resource to the what is now the north west VMI Historic District. side of Old Barracks. Francis Henney Smith of Norfolk, In 1851 Smith published a small In 1859 Smith published Scientific Virginia, graduated from the United but influential book titled College Education in Europe encouraging the States Military Academy in 1833 and Reform. Here he presented the adoption of the “polytechnical model.” argument for improving higher was commissioned Lieutenant, United The volume was read with great interest education in the nation. States Army. He was assigned to the by educators around the nation. In USMA Mathematics Department. Smith noted that — addition, Smith published a series of Smith was a 27-year old Professor of This is a practical age, college-level mathematics text. the American people are Mathematics at Hampden-Sydney Smith commanded the cadets at the emphatically a practical College when he was approached by execution of John Brown in December people, and while the public John T. L. Preston to consider the demand has been for the 1859. He was the commanding officer superintendency of the new military knowledge of those sciences by of the execution, giving the order for the college in Lexington. Smith, Preston, which labour may be profitably executioner to carry out the sentence. and first VMI BOV President Claudius DRAFTdirected, the agriculturist, the In 1861 Govenor John Letcher Crozet molded the military college into manufacturer, the mechanic, appointed Smith to the “Council of a new model of higher education. and the merchant, must study Three,” along with Matthew Fontaine Latin, Greek, and logic, or he Francis Smith initially served as the must not think of coveting an Maury and Judge John J. Allen to Superintendent, Commandant, and academical degree. advise the governor on preparing the Principal Professor in the nascent institute. Commonwealth for war. In the 1850s Smith served as He taught mathematics, mechanics, president of the Board of Visitors at Smith briefly served as Colonel of moral and political philosophy. his alma mater, USMA. the 9th Virgina Heavy Artillery at Craney Island, Portsmouth, VA. 2 Inventory and Review of Monuments and Memorials Related to Confederate Iconography In September, 1861, the Commonwealth supported repatriation projects like was re-located to the front of Smith Hall of Virgina ordered the resumption the American Colonization Society to and rededicated on October 19, 1979. of the regular academic schedule at return former slaves to Liberia. VMI effective January, 1862. Smith Original Intent: In the dedicatory VMI first arranged with their famous tributes to Smith it is clear that returned to Lexington and prepared for alumnus sculptor Moses Ezekiel to the Institute and alumni sought to the reopening of the Institute. After provide an heroic bronze statue of the recognize the person who, more the destruction of the Institute during first superintendent in 1916. The aging than any other, is credited with the Hunter’s Raid (June 12, 1864) Smith artist died before more than a sketch of development of the unique educational established the temporary home for Smith dressed in his VMI professor’s model of the Institute. VMI in Richmond. After the war he set uniform holding a Bible and a out to successfully re-build the Institute. diploma could be completed. It was Except for a very brief period at the beginning of the Civil War, Smith At the 50th anniversary celebration on 1928 before the project was restarted. continued in his capacity as chief November 11, 1889, Smith announced The committee selected Richmond administrator and professor of the his retirement. based sculptor Ferruccio Legnaioli. Institute. There is no mention of his Civil Smith owned nine enslaved persons. Smith’s statue was first located in the War service on any of his memorials. Taking a common position of his time, stone niche to the right of Jackson Smith did not think the two races Memorial Hall where it was dedicated could co-exist in an equal society. He at graduation, June 10, 1931. The statue Major General Francis H. Smith Superintendent November 11, 1839 to December 31 1889 Builder and Rebuilder of the Virginia Military Institute This statue represents him in the act of delivering a diploma to a graduate and memorializes his custom of giving a Bible to every cadet at the DRAFTend of his first class year The inscription on the base of the F. H. Smith statue. Inventory and Review of Monuments and Memorials Related to Confederate Iconography 3 HONOREE: Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873) BUILDING: BUILDING: STATUE: PLAQUE: Maury-Brooke Hall Maury House Matthew Maury Dedicatory DESCRIPTION: DESCRIPTION: ARTIST: William Sievers ARTIST: N/A Designed by William Metcalf The Maury House is one of the two of Metcalf and Associates, and remaining original faculty quarters DESCRIPTION: DESCRIPTION: dedicated in 1989, Maury-Brooke designed by Alexander J. Davis in Heroic-scale plaster Anodized aluminum Hall houses the chemistry and 1852. The quarters were burned artist’s model donated plaques recognizing the biology curricula. For the first 20 during Hunter’s Raid on June 12, by the artist in 1928. building honorees of years the structure was simply 1864. After extensive restoration, the Originally located in Maury-Brooke Hall. known as The Science Building. quarters were assigned to Professor Preston Library, the statue Located to the right inside After a major renovation in 2005, Matthew F. Maury who died in the was moved to Maury- the entrance of Maury- the name Maury-Brooke Hall second floor tower bedroom in Brooke Hall in 2013. Brooke Hall. was transferred from the original 1873. In 1914 the structure, along building so named in 1909 (now with the Superintendent’s Quarters, Shell Hall). was moved to its current location as part of the master plan to enlarge and level the Parade Ground. The Maury House is a contributing resource to the VMI Historic District. Matthew Fontaine Maury Maury charted the route of the first He resigned his USN commission in joined the VMI faculty in 1868 transatlantic cable. He advocated for the 1861 and was quickly commissioned as Professor of Physics after an creation of the US Weather Bureau and in the Confederate Navy, serving internationally acclaimed career the Star Registry. the entire war in England. After as an oceanographer, astronomer, Maury published a series of widely the war Maury resided in Mexico historian, meteorologist, cartographer, used public school text books on world for a brief time at the request of geologist, writer, and United States geography that continued to be used Emperor Maximilian as the “Imperial th Navy officer. He is remembered as well into the 20 century. Commissioner of Colonization.” The the “Pathfinder of the Seas,” “Father of Maury was not a slave owner, but Emperor sought to encourage former Modern Oceanography and Naval he did not believe the races could slave-owning Confederates to relocate Meteorology” and “Scientist ofDRAFT the live together freely.