The E. M. Viquesney "Spirit of the American Doughboy" Database
- Welcome / Contact
- Introduction
- Site Map
- "The Spirit of the American Doughboy"
- "E. M. Viquesney, Sculptor"
- The Doughboy War: Viquesney vs. John Paulding
- "Our Mr. Wesley"
- Currently Known Viquesney Doughboy Locations
- Alabama>
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- Virginia>
- Washington>
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- The Cast Zinc Doughboys
- The Stone Doughboys
- Possible Viquesney Doughboys
- Joseph Nicolosi's Doughboy
- Misidentifications and Bogus Locations
- Viquesney Doughboy Dedication Dates
- Repair, Restoration, and Conservation
- Viquesney Doughboy Myths
- The Miniature Doughboys
- Miniature Doughboy FAQs
- Grandma Quater's "American Doughboy Art Lamp"
- Other Works by E. M. Viquesney
- 1913: Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Wichita, Kansas
- 1920: New-Type Burial Vault
- 1922: The United States Infantry Association Trophy
- 1923: The "Imp-O-Luck"
- 1924: Viquesney's Version of "Over the Top"
- 1925: The Viquesney Building
- 1927: "The Spirit of the American Navy"
- 1927: "The Spirit of the Skies"
- 1928: The Tivoli Theatre
- 1930: "Zero Hour"
- 1934: "The Unveiling"
- 1936: "Resting Doughboy"
- 1936: "The Spirit of America" / "The Spirit of the Flag"
- 1938 - '39: "Lincoln as an Indiana Boy"
- Copies, Derivatives, and Rip-offs
- 1939: The Viquesney Pavilion
- 1940: "Creation"
- 1942: "Remember Pearl Harbor"
- 1942: "The Yanks Again" Series
- 1943: "The Spirit of the Fighting Yank">
- 1946: "Comrades", Viquesney's Last Piece
- "And So the Scene Closes"
- Epilogue
- Viquesney Document Archive
- Viquesney Family on Find A Grave Website
- Other Viquesney Doughboy Search Sites
- Credits / Acknowledgements
VIQUESNEY DOUGHBOY MYTHS
MYTH 1: The first completed Viquesney Doughboy statue was placed at Centralia, Washington.
No; Nashville, Georgia had its order in by August, 1920, months before the statue was even finished. The myth stems from the fact that in April of 1921, Viquesney was notified in a letter from the American Legion that his statue had won its design competition and was to be "adopted ... as its National Memorial" that was then being being planned for Centralia's George Washington Park. But the statue that stands there today is another WWI memorial statue, The Sentinel, by Alonzo Victor Lewis. What went wrong? Nobody knows.
MYTH 2: The first completed Viquesney Doughboy stands in Spencer, Indiana, the sculptor's hometown.
Again, no. Although the letterhead of Viquesney's primary researcher, T. Perry Wesley, read "Spencer, Indiana, Home of the Doughboy", Spencer didn't get its Doughboy until May 29, 1927, years after many others had been installed at other locations. It seems as though Viquesney was waiting until he could reaquire his Doughboy company from his business partner, Walter Rylander, to whom he had sold it in 1922. This he did in January 1926, and once Viquesney was in control again, he offered his Doughboy at cost to the town of Spencer, which readily accepted.
MYTH 3: The first completed Viquesney Doughboy stands in Americus, Georgia.
Still no, although closer to correct than the other beliefs. Although Viquesney was living in Americus, Georgia at the time he completed his first Spirit of the American Doughboy in March, 1921, and the statue was put on public preview in the lobbies of the Rylander Theater and Windsor Hotel in that city, it had been already ordered by the city of Nashville, Georgia in August of 1920, before it was even finished. It was later shipped there, where it still stands today. Americus did get its own Viquesney Doughboy a few months later, on November 11, 1921.
MYTH 4: The Metal Viquesney Doughboys are bronze castings.
Many people over the years have just assumed their city or town's Viquesney Doughboy to be the usual one-piece casting. But as these statues eventually get restored one after the other, it's becoming evident that most of them (with the exception of possibly seven known stone versions, which themselves are actually made of local Alabama or Georgia marble, rather than the advertised "Italian" marble) are actually formed from sheets of hammered copper or bronze welded together over an internal frame. And in the case of the later 1934 copyright version, another surprise: People who thought these were also made of copper or bronze are discovering they're made of cheaper copper-plated zinc. Apparently Viquesney was forced to cut costs to make the statue more affordable during the Great Depression, when sales of his Doughboy plummeted to zero in 1933.
MYTH 5: The popular miniature 12" desktop Doughboy was the model for the full-size statue.
No. Although Viquesney produced many other miniatures with the thought and hope that they would materialize as full-scale monuments (and a couple of them did), the miniature Doughboy came only after Viquesney was swamped with requests from Veterans for a miniature of his newly completed life-size statue. However, he did sculpt a clay model for use while working on the original.
MYTH 6: The Doughboy miniatures were made of bronze.
Unfortunately, no. Wording in Viquesney's ads, referring to the "bronze" finish of the statuette, sometimes led readers to believe the whole statuette was bronze. In reality they were cast of an easily breakable lead alloy called pot metal, which often didn't last long, with children running about the house. The fragile bayonet and rifle assembly was usually the first casualty.
MYTH 7: "Doughboy lamps" found today on eBay and elsewhere today are just homemade conversions of the statuettes, and thus not worth as much because of this "modification".
Well, not exactly. Although all Viquesney "Doughboy lamps" are nothing more than the 11.5" Doughboy statuettes with shades and electrical hardware added (which anybody handy enough could do), they were, from at least 1922 and on into the late 1930s, sold as the "American Doughboy Art Lamp" from the factory, and are in fact just as valuable as the statuette version to collectors (and possibly more so, since ones with original hardware and in operating condition are quite rare, and the original shade is almost impossible to find; I've only seen one in good condition). To see an original sales brochure for the various versions of the 11.5" miniature Doughboy, go to the E. M. Viquesney Archive website).
MYTH 8: Viquesney's "Spirit of the American Doughboy" was the most successful of his creations.
No; although "The Spirit of the American Doughboy" is the most famous and remembered of Viquesney's creations, and the miniature version of it sold in the tens of thousands, the honor of best in sales goes to the artist's fantasically successful "Imp-O-Luck", a good luck charm which came in many forms, including a pocket medallion which outsold anything else Viquesney produced. In just one year during the 1920s, the Spencer, Indiana Post Office logged 80,000 "Imp-O-Luck" shipments.
MYTH 9: There are over 300 "Spirit of the American Doughboy" statues throughout the country.
Not that can be found as yet; less than 150 are known to exist or once exist. Although Viquesney quoted this figure in ads and newspaper articles in the 1930s and '40s, it's thought that he either inflated the figures, or let other similar statues, like those of sculptor John Paulding, be included in the count.
MYTH 10: Viquesney placed at least one "Spirit of the American Doughboy" statue in every state of the Union.
Not unless there are any in California, Delaware, Louisiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, or Rhode Island (Alaska and Hawai'i weren't yet states during Viquesney's lifetime). It appears the artist fudged the numbers again.
MYTH 11: All of Viquesney's Doughboy monuments were fabricated at his studio in Spencer, Indiana.
Actually, orders received by Viquesney for his metal Doughboy, whether at his original bases of operations in Americus and Atlanta, Georgia, or later in Spencer, Indiana, were forwarded to foundries in Cinncinati and Chicago. The stone versions were carved of local marble by McNeel Marble Company of Marietta, Georgia, then passed off as "beautiful, pure Italian marble" to customers. Even the miniature Doughboy statuettes were subcontracted to various manufacturing facilities in the East and Midwest.
MYTH 12: Real rifles, coated in bronze paint, were mounted on the Doughboy statues to add realism.
No. On the metal statues, the rifle was part of the originally manufactured sculpture. The stone versions did have a separate cast zinc rifle that fit into the stone left hand.
No; Nashville, Georgia had its order in by August, 1920, months before the statue was even finished. The myth stems from the fact that in April of 1921, Viquesney was notified in a letter from the American Legion that his statue had won its design competition and was to be "adopted ... as its National Memorial" that was then being being planned for Centralia's George Washington Park. But the statue that stands there today is another WWI memorial statue, The Sentinel, by Alonzo Victor Lewis. What went wrong? Nobody knows.
MYTH 2: The first completed Viquesney Doughboy stands in Spencer, Indiana, the sculptor's hometown.
Again, no. Although the letterhead of Viquesney's primary researcher, T. Perry Wesley, read "Spencer, Indiana, Home of the Doughboy", Spencer didn't get its Doughboy until May 29, 1927, years after many others had been installed at other locations. It seems as though Viquesney was waiting until he could reaquire his Doughboy company from his business partner, Walter Rylander, to whom he had sold it in 1922. This he did in January 1926, and once Viquesney was in control again, he offered his Doughboy at cost to the town of Spencer, which readily accepted.
MYTH 3: The first completed Viquesney Doughboy stands in Americus, Georgia.
Still no, although closer to correct than the other beliefs. Although Viquesney was living in Americus, Georgia at the time he completed his first Spirit of the American Doughboy in March, 1921, and the statue was put on public preview in the lobbies of the Rylander Theater and Windsor Hotel in that city, it had been already ordered by the city of Nashville, Georgia in August of 1920, before it was even finished. It was later shipped there, where it still stands today. Americus did get its own Viquesney Doughboy a few months later, on November 11, 1921.
MYTH 4: The Metal Viquesney Doughboys are bronze castings.
Many people over the years have just assumed their city or town's Viquesney Doughboy to be the usual one-piece casting. But as these statues eventually get restored one after the other, it's becoming evident that most of them (with the exception of possibly seven known stone versions, which themselves are actually made of local Alabama or Georgia marble, rather than the advertised "Italian" marble) are actually formed from sheets of hammered copper or bronze welded together over an internal frame. And in the case of the later 1934 copyright version, another surprise: People who thought these were also made of copper or bronze are discovering they're made of cheaper copper-plated zinc. Apparently Viquesney was forced to cut costs to make the statue more affordable during the Great Depression, when sales of his Doughboy plummeted to zero in 1933.
MYTH 5: The popular miniature 12" desktop Doughboy was the model for the full-size statue.
No. Although Viquesney produced many other miniatures with the thought and hope that they would materialize as full-scale monuments (and a couple of them did), the miniature Doughboy came only after Viquesney was swamped with requests from Veterans for a miniature of his newly completed life-size statue. However, he did sculpt a clay model for use while working on the original.
MYTH 6: The Doughboy miniatures were made of bronze.
Unfortunately, no. Wording in Viquesney's ads, referring to the "bronze" finish of the statuette, sometimes led readers to believe the whole statuette was bronze. In reality they were cast of an easily breakable lead alloy called pot metal, which often didn't last long, with children running about the house. The fragile bayonet and rifle assembly was usually the first casualty.
MYTH 7: "Doughboy lamps" found today on eBay and elsewhere today are just homemade conversions of the statuettes, and thus not worth as much because of this "modification".
Well, not exactly. Although all Viquesney "Doughboy lamps" are nothing more than the 11.5" Doughboy statuettes with shades and electrical hardware added (which anybody handy enough could do), they were, from at least 1922 and on into the late 1930s, sold as the "American Doughboy Art Lamp" from the factory, and are in fact just as valuable as the statuette version to collectors (and possibly more so, since ones with original hardware and in operating condition are quite rare, and the original shade is almost impossible to find; I've only seen one in good condition). To see an original sales brochure for the various versions of the 11.5" miniature Doughboy, go to the E. M. Viquesney Archive website).
MYTH 8: Viquesney's "Spirit of the American Doughboy" was the most successful of his creations.
No; although "The Spirit of the American Doughboy" is the most famous and remembered of Viquesney's creations, and the miniature version of it sold in the tens of thousands, the honor of best in sales goes to the artist's fantasically successful "Imp-O-Luck", a good luck charm which came in many forms, including a pocket medallion which outsold anything else Viquesney produced. In just one year during the 1920s, the Spencer, Indiana Post Office logged 80,000 "Imp-O-Luck" shipments.
MYTH 9: There are over 300 "Spirit of the American Doughboy" statues throughout the country.
Not that can be found as yet; less than 150 are known to exist or once exist. Although Viquesney quoted this figure in ads and newspaper articles in the 1930s and '40s, it's thought that he either inflated the figures, or let other similar statues, like those of sculptor John Paulding, be included in the count.
MYTH 10: Viquesney placed at least one "Spirit of the American Doughboy" statue in every state of the Union.
Not unless there are any in California, Delaware, Louisiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, or Rhode Island (Alaska and Hawai'i weren't yet states during Viquesney's lifetime). It appears the artist fudged the numbers again.
MYTH 11: All of Viquesney's Doughboy monuments were fabricated at his studio in Spencer, Indiana.
Actually, orders received by Viquesney for his metal Doughboy, whether at his original bases of operations in Americus and Atlanta, Georgia, or later in Spencer, Indiana, were forwarded to foundries in Cinncinati and Chicago. The stone versions were carved of local marble by McNeel Marble Company of Marietta, Georgia, then passed off as "beautiful, pure Italian marble" to customers. Even the miniature Doughboy statuettes were subcontracted to various manufacturing facilities in the East and Midwest.
MYTH 12: Real rifles, coated in bronze paint, were mounted on the Doughboy statues to add realism.
No. On the metal statues, the rifle was part of the originally manufactured sculpture. The stone versions did have a separate cast zinc rifle that fit into the stone left hand.
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