Lincoln at Wabash and Why His Stay Was So Short
The ever-growing discussion of the changes to C&T and possible changes to the student curriculum has presented an opportunity to look at the changes that Wabash has seen over its 178 years of existence. With these changes also came a more influential and vocal student voice. Many of these changes are well known to the student body, like the construction of new buildings and courses, but many of the changes have gone unnoticed by both the current student body and faculty.
A 1954 Cartoon in The Bachelor - Courtesy of Beth Swift
One of these changes was the installment and quick deconstruction of an Abraham Lincoln statue that was erected under the east portico of the Sparks Campus Center when the Center was first dedicated in 1954. The new Center was the center of controversy long before the Lincoln statue was erected. The College had hired an Indianapolis decorator to fill the new building with luxurious furnishings and fixtures. President Byron K. Trippet commented on some of these furnishings in his book Wabash on My Mind. With hand-embroidered English draperies to cover all of the windows totaling 1,000 per window and a large oriental rug for the Great Hall costing between $10,000 and $11,000, the whole budget for the decorating was $75,000 in 1954. The students from the very beginning voiced their discontent with the new building. As President Trippet remembered, “There were repeated references to Creeping DePauwism. One cartoon by Don Cole, the leading student cartoonist, showed a student sinking into the lush carpets as if they were quicksand, while other students threw him life savers attached to ropes.”
The idea of a Lincoln statue to cap off the extravagance of the new Center was the perfect medium for the students to voice their displeasure. President Trippet recollects in great detail all about the statue and its short time on Wabash’s campus. The statue was actually a plaster cast of the original statue, created for Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. in Fort Wayne. It was entitled “Abraham Lincoln: The Hoosier Youth” and was created by world renowned American sculptor Paul Manship. One of his most famous sculptures is the sculpture of Prometheus outside of Rockefeller Center in New York City.
The statue depicts a young Lincoln leaning on an ax handle next to a tree stump. At his side is a large dog that is resting his head on Lincoln’s knee. Eric Gulger, the architect of the new center, had acquired the cast and wanted it put under the east portico facing the mall. Gulger was the architect responsible for Baxter Hall and Lilly Library as well as the construction of the current Oval Office in the White House, and is largely responsible for the way that the mall looks today. When the statue was raised, the student body blew up with criticism about the new addition to campus. President Trippet recalled some of the students’ remarks in his book. “This is a fraud! Lincoln had nothing to do with Wabash! A rich man’s whim! Get this atrocious insult to Lincoln and to Wabash off the campus at once!”
The whole controversy over the Lincoln statue came swiftly to an end in a very humorous way. President Trippet, then Dean of the college, had received a phone call from the President of Indiana University explaining that a group of distinguished European educators wished to get a look at a typical American liberal arts college, and arrangements were made for them to visit the newly renovated Wabash College. The night before the visit, some students crept up to the statue of Lincoln and painted the male dog’s genitalia a scarlet red. The next morning Dean Trippet took a walk around campus and described the scene this way: “As I passed the new Campus Center I was frozen in sudden horror at what I saw. The spot of scarlet was visible from as far away as Yandes Hall! It stood out like a red flare in a black night!”
President Trippet immediately called campus services to come and remove the paint from the area that had been painted before the group of educators was due to arrive. Campus Services was able to remove all of the paint from the genitalia, but the cast was made of plaster, which over time had become a dusty gray in color. The area where the paint was removed, instead of being scarlet, now was bright white. President Trippet described the scene as such: “The paint removal operation left the dog’s genitals as white as newly fallen snow against a gray background. It was the best that could be done.”
After this incident the statue was quickly dismantled and placed into storage. The student body had successfully expressed their views and was instrumental in the Lincoln statue’s removal from campus. The statue remained in storage for a number of years. Occasionally students would drag the statue out and reassemble it, but it would be quickly disassembled and returned to storage. The original bronze statue is still standing outside the Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. Building in Fort Wayne, but the plaster cast that once graced our fair campus was destroyed and sent to the dump. In fact, there is only one known picture of the statue actually standing on campus, and it can be found in President Byron K. Trippet’s Wabash on My Mind, though the picture is easily overlooked.
The student body at Wabash has always been a boisterous bunch, and as the discussions of the future course that will replace C & T and possible curriculum changes that may accompany this course go on, it is important to remember the tale of Lincoln at Wabash to fully understand just how powerful the student voice can be.
Related posts:
