INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF ARTS AND SCIENCE
Reading edition
ALMA MATER
Photogravure of the Statue by Daniel C. French
The colossal figure of French's Alma Mater adorns the fine suite of stone steps leading up to the picturesque library building of Columbia University. It is a bronze statue, gilded with pure gold. The female figure typifying "Alma Mater" is represented as sitting in a chair of classic shape, her elbows resting on the arms of the chair. Both hands are raised. The right hand holds and is supported by a sceptre. On her head is a classic wreath, and on her lap lies an open book, from which her eyes seem to have just been raised in meditation. Drapery falls in semi-classic folds from her neck to her sandalled feet, only the arms and neck being left bare.
Every University man cherishes a kindly feeling for his Alma Mater, and the famous American sculptor, Daniel C. French, has been most successful in his artistic creation of the "Fostering Mother" spiritualized—the familiar ideal of the mother of minds trained to thought and consecrated to intellectual service.