Caption: Booklet - Alumni Fund for the Alma Mater Statue
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Tfay Alma Mater"— its conception and development iBgaagiiigMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiii I ORADO TAFT, '79, our distinguished sculptor .alumnus, has had in mind since 1883 the idea of modeling a sculptural group to be placed on the camgus of our Alma Mater. Gn his return from Paris in 1883, four years after his graduation from the University he modeled a relief of Learning and Labor clasping hands. Although this was not preserved it came back into his mind again in 1916 when he made a sketch of his proposed "Alma Mater" and made some experiments as to the size of the figures to be included in the group. With the approach of the fiftieth Commencement in June 1922 Mr. Taft again took up his study of this work and finished the plaster cast of his first conception of "Alma Mater" in time to have it brought to the campus and temporarily erected on the steps of the auditorium in order that those attending the Commencement might have an opportunity to see it, to study it, and to express their ideas about it. He wanted his classmates and old time companions to join him in his expression of a message to the other generations of students and alumni who are to follow in their footsteps. You will note that the figure of "Alma Mater" stands in front with outstretched hands to welcome the oncoming students and alumni. To the rear stands the figure of Learning clasping the hand of an earnest man representing Labor, thus typifying the motto of our University. Mr. Taft in speaking of his group at the Alumni Reunion in June 1922, told his classmates and fellow alumni that the modeling of the statuary "has been a labor of love, a period of happy toil, recalling the wonderful days of the early practice of my art. I have been going to my studio at five o'clock every morning—returning to the house for breakfast at eight—and these fragrant mornings have brought back memories of similar dewy dawns of nearly fifty years ago when I used to hasten over to my spacious studio in the basement of old University Hall and work in the clay until breakfast time." Professor Taft—for he is non-resident professor of art at the University—contemplates several changes in the figure of Labor in his group as it was originally worked out in a few short weeks. He hopes to complete the model within the next several months so that the Alumni Fund Board may arrange to have the group cast in bronze as a tribute to the University and no doubt in time a fitting memorial to Lorado Taft himself. The frontispiece illustrates Mr. Taft's plaster model of his "Alma Mater" group as it appeared when temporarily placed on the steps of the University of Illinois Auditorium at the fiftieth Commencement in June 1922.
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