ALMA MATER

Photogravure of the Statue by Daniel C.French

The colossal figure of French's Alma Mater adorns thefine suite of stone steps leading up to the picturesque library buildingof Columbia University. It is a bronze statue, gilded with pure gold.The female figure typifying "Alma Mater" is represented as sitting in achair of classic shape, her elbows resting on the arms of the chair.Both hands are raised. The right hand holds and is supported by asceptre. On her head is a classic wreath, and on her lap lies an openbook, 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 forhis Alma Mater, and the famous American sculptor, Daniel C. French, hasbeen most successful in his artistic creation of the "Fostering Mother"spiritualized—the familiar ideal of the mother of minds trained tothought and consecrated to intellectual service.