Above: E. M. Viquesney and his most popular creations, "The Spirit of the American Doughboy" and the "Imp-O-Luck".
The E. M. Viquesney
Doughboy Database
''The lamp that launched a website''.
Welcome
Les Kopel, Oxnard, California
Les Kopel, Webmaster
Hello, and welcome to the E. M. Viquesney Doughboy Database.
The first version of this Website originally appeared in March of 2002, as "Grandma Quater's Spirit of the American Doughboy Lamp", and was primarily concerned with a small table lamp by sculptor Ernest Moore "Dick" Viquesney (1876 - 1946) that my maternal grandmother had bought in 1923 and was passed down to me by my mother. It's shown in the photo above. I had no idea at the time that my lamp was a miniature of an actual outdoor WWI memorial statue, "The Spirit of the American Doughboy", found in 39 states.
In 1991, I tried to have my lamp researched; but no information on it nor the artist could be found. But unknown to me at that time, an eight-page newsletter had just been published in Spencer, Indiana, by T. Perry Wesley, Editor Emeritus of the Spencer Evening World newspaper. Although the main purpose of the newsletter was to document known locations of Viquesney's famous statue, Mr. Wesley had also included just about everything that was known at that time about the artist and his works. Although no mention was made of the Doughboy lamp in the newsletter, Mr. Wesley knew of its existence, but had not yet seen one.
I hardly expected a narrow-focus subject like an obscure little lamp by a nearly-forgotten sculptor would attract much attention. But since then, with the addition of data supplied by Viquesney researcher and Mr. Wesley's friend, the late Earl Goldsmith, this site has grown to over 300 pages and includes not only information on all known locations of Viquesney's Doughboy, but descriptions of many of the artist's other creations as well. There is also an auxiliary site with archival information and documents.
Les Kopel, Webmaster
Oxnard, CA
March 30, 2022
The first version of this Website originally appeared in March of 2002, as "Grandma Quater's Spirit of the American Doughboy Lamp", and was primarily concerned with a small table lamp by sculptor Ernest Moore "Dick" Viquesney (1876 - 1946) that my maternal grandmother had bought in 1923 and was passed down to me by my mother. It's shown in the photo above. I had no idea at the time that my lamp was a miniature of an actual outdoor WWI memorial statue, "The Spirit of the American Doughboy", found in 39 states.
In 1991, I tried to have my lamp researched; but no information on it nor the artist could be found. But unknown to me at that time, an eight-page newsletter had just been published in Spencer, Indiana, by T. Perry Wesley, Editor Emeritus of the Spencer Evening World newspaper. Although the main purpose of the newsletter was to document known locations of Viquesney's famous statue, Mr. Wesley had also included just about everything that was known at that time about the artist and his works. Although no mention was made of the Doughboy lamp in the newsletter, Mr. Wesley knew of its existence, but had not yet seen one.
I hardly expected a narrow-focus subject like an obscure little lamp by a nearly-forgotten sculptor would attract much attention. But since then, with the addition of data supplied by Viquesney researcher and Mr. Wesley's friend, the late Earl Goldsmith, this site has grown to over 300 pages and includes not only information on all known locations of Viquesney's Doughboy, but descriptions of many of the artist's other creations as well. There is also an auxiliary site with archival information and documents.
Les Kopel, Webmaster
Oxnard, CA
March 30, 2022
Contact Info:
Foreword
Earl D. Goldsmith, The Woodlands, Texas
Earl D. Goldsmith
Viquesney Researcher
Viquesney Researcher
[Editor's note: Earl passed away March 6, 2018.]
The first order of business on this site is for me to express my thanks to Les Kopel of Oxnard, California for his gracious willingness as Webmaster to undertake the work needed to present this material online. Les and I have had very frequent contact since early 2002. Having been on an active quest for information about E.M. Viquesney's “Spirit of the American Doughboy” for a few years by the time of our first contact, I was able to provide some information about a Viquesney Doughboy table lamp in his possession. While I continued to be able to help him with information as our contacts continued, it reached the point some time ago where his capabilities to search the Internet and perform other research on the topic has resulted in his being of far more help to me than vice-versa. That’s particularly been true about locating Doughboys I hadn’t discovered. Now, his willingness to manage this site has enabled the information I’ve collected to be disseminated on a wide basis. It wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t have been for Les, and I’m grateful to him for that.
I’ve personally been to many Viquesney Doughboy locations, including two of the rare stone versions, five with the companion “Spirit of The American Navy” sculptures, and two of the four known with Walter Rylander copyrights (mentioned above and explained in more detail in the following pages). I've also visited the original Viquesney Doughboy now standing in Nashville, Georgia, the Americus, Georgia and Spencer, Indiana, Doughboys, and the New Ulm, Minnesota replacement.
Les has visited a few that I haven't, including the one in Kingman, Arizona. I've also visited Viquesney's gravesite in Spencer, Indiana.
Together we've collected photos of every Viquesney "Spirit of the American Doughboy" WWI memorial sculpture currently known to exist, all eight "Spirit of the American Navy" and "Sailor" statues, and all five WWII "Spirit of the Fighting Yank" statues, taken either by us or provided to us by residents, officials, newspapers, and libraries of the cities involved.
The first order of business on this site is for me to express my thanks to Les Kopel of Oxnard, California for his gracious willingness as Webmaster to undertake the work needed to present this material online. Les and I have had very frequent contact since early 2002. Having been on an active quest for information about E.M. Viquesney's “Spirit of the American Doughboy” for a few years by the time of our first contact, I was able to provide some information about a Viquesney Doughboy table lamp in his possession. While I continued to be able to help him with information as our contacts continued, it reached the point some time ago where his capabilities to search the Internet and perform other research on the topic has resulted in his being of far more help to me than vice-versa. That’s particularly been true about locating Doughboys I hadn’t discovered. Now, his willingness to manage this site has enabled the information I’ve collected to be disseminated on a wide basis. It wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t have been for Les, and I’m grateful to him for that.
I’ve personally been to many Viquesney Doughboy locations, including two of the rare stone versions, five with the companion “Spirit of The American Navy” sculptures, and two of the four known with Walter Rylander copyrights (mentioned above and explained in more detail in the following pages). I've also visited the original Viquesney Doughboy now standing in Nashville, Georgia, the Americus, Georgia and Spencer, Indiana, Doughboys, and the New Ulm, Minnesota replacement.
Les has visited a few that I haven't, including the one in Kingman, Arizona. I've also visited Viquesney's gravesite in Spencer, Indiana.
Together we've collected photos of every Viquesney "Spirit of the American Doughboy" WWI memorial sculpture currently known to exist, all eight "Spirit of the American Navy" and "Sailor" statues, and all five WWII "Spirit of the Fighting Yank" statues, taken either by us or provided to us by residents, officials, newspapers, and libraries of the cities involved.
