Take a closer look at the rise and fall of Milne’s ambassador, Minerva.
By Robyn Rime
Geneseo’s statue of Minerva, much beloved, is not unique. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, plaster replicas of classical statues were popular additions to museums, schools, and private collections in the US. Many New York State normal (or teacher-training) schools had their own versions of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom. Geneseo’s Minerva Giustiniani (the marble original of which resides in the Vatican Museums) arrived in 1906 and took up residence at a major hallway intersection in Old Main.
The former Minerva statue in Old Main. /SUNY Geneseo file photo
Within 15 years, however, Minerva had outgrown her neighborhood. Hallway traffic jams, a weakening floor, and concerns about the statue’s weight (a brawny 350 lbs.) led to her relocation on the ground floor in the library’s reading room.
For decades, Minerva presided over diligent students … until she didn’t. Legend has it that the statue was bulldozed into a ravine when Old Main was razed in 1951. But was she?
More than 50 years after she was last seen, doubt still remained, and the Milne Library director launched a campus-wide campaign to determine if the statue was rubble or recluse. Wanted posters and rewards for information spread to alumni and the wider Geneseo community. The search led only to dead ends, though, and the campus eventually accepted that Minerva had indeed disappeared.
To replace her, Milne officials commissioned a statue from the Giust Gallery (now the Caproni Collection) in Woburn, MA, a renowned studio providing replicas of classical statuary. The commission was funded in part by a generous Class of 2005 Senior Challenge gift.
The new statue—both taller and lighter than Geneseo’s original Minerva—was installed in Milne Library’s lobby and dedicated in June 2005. During the library’s recent renovation, she moved to temporary digs in Fraser Hall. Now, more than a century after arriving on campus, Minerva once again greets visitors to Geneseo’s library.
FUN FACT: One morning in Spring 1938, The Lamron student newspaper reported that the “stolid and conservative” Minerva suddenly sported bright red toenails. The toe-polishing perpetrator remains anonymous to this day.
Learn more at History of Minerva at Geneseo
