University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod speaks on Monday, May 20, 2019, during a rededication ceremony of "The Victory Eagle" sculpture, a World War I memorial honoring Douglas County residents who died during the war.  

KU rededicates WWI memorial ‘Victory Eagle’ in new location on campus 

By Dylan Lysen
via the Lawrence Journal-World (KS) newspaper web site

For the third — and likely final — time, the University of Kansas on Monday dedicated “The Victory Eagle” statue in honor of the Douglas County residents who lost their lives fighting in World War I.

“Monuments like this ‘Victory Eagle,’ commissioned to honor those from Douglas County who answered their country’s call, makes this world history our local history,” said Lorie Vanchena, who is a KU associate professor of German Studies. “Eighteen of the 68 individuals whose names appear on the plaque were KU students and alumni. So this monument makes this world history our university history.”

The university rededicated the World War I commemorative statue because it was moved to a new location on the east side of Memorial Drive in April. The statue was previously displayed on Jayhawk Boulevard near the front of Dyche Hall but was moved closer to other war memorials on campus.

The bronze eagle statue, which had been sitting in front of Dyche Hall since 1982, depicts a female bald eagle defending her nest. The sculpture was originally placed on the Douglas and Leavenworth county line in 1929 but was removed in 1980 because of vandalism. The sculpture was rededicated on KU’s campus two years later.

The KU sculpture is one of six eagle statues produced in the 1920s to be placed along “Victory Highway,” a planned roadway from New York to San Francisco that was meant to honor those who died in WWI, but the plan was never fully realized.

Read the entire article on the Lawrence Journal-World web site here:

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