Alma Mater
Enrico Licari
University of Denver Faculty, 1929 - ?
Bronze, granite, 1928
Erected by Students, Faculty, and Friends in Memory of Margery Reed Mayo - 1919 - and in Appreciation of the Benefactions of Mrs. Verner Z. Reed
Alma Mater was dedicated in 1929, the same year that artist Enrico Licari joined the University of Denver faculty. The sculpture comments on the link between past, present, and future, and centers around themes of remembrance. The Alma Mater archetype was established by sculptor Daniel Chester French (famous for his Lincoln Memorial sculpture). The title literally means “nourishing mother,” but also references the role of the university as a parental figure in the lives of students.
Licari’s sculpture is an idealized portrait of mother and daughter Mary and Margery Reed. Margery, the Reed’s first child, graduated from the University of Denver. A poet and a playwright, she became an assistant professor in the English department, where she met her husband Paul Mayo (also a DU alumnus). Margery died in 1925 at the age of thirty.
The following year, Mary Verner Reed gifted the University with the funds to build Margery Reed Mayo Hall, and commissioned a work of art to further commemorate her daughter. Alma Mater was originally placed on the steps of the Hall where it presided over summer commencement ceremonies, symbolizing the familial relations among past alumni and new graduates. The figure group was relocated to its current site in the Humanities Garden in 1992.
University of Denver Art Collections, 1929.001