Photo: Al McCormick, WMA Alumnus.

LEXINGTON, MISSOURI, VIQUESNEY DOUGHBOY REPLICA

Inside Wentworth Military Academy Museum, 1128 Main Street, Lexington, Missouri.

Sharp-eyed viewers may notice some minor differences between this Viquesney "Spirit of the American Doughboy" and others (aside from not having a bayonet; more on that later). That's because this statue was constructed by computer-scanning and scaling up from one of the miniature foot-tall statuettes (which look a little different from the actual outdoor sculptures) and 3D-printed life-size in Styrofoam for a traveling WWI exhibit that began in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was sponsored by the Minnesota Historical Society under the direction of Richard Rummel. After the exhibit ended in August of 2019, the replica needed a new home, or else it, along with the rest of the exhibit, would have ended up being dismantled and destroyed. I suggested the Wentworth Military Academy Museum in Lexington, Missouri as a good candidate to receive the statue. Museum Chairman George Hittner of the Houston, TX, area was helpful in coordinating the fundraising efforts to pay the transportation costs of the statue from its last exhibit location in Austin to the museum. Mr. Hittner picked up the statue after the exhibit ended and headed a caravan the 700+ miles to its destination. 

The replica was constructed by William Maple and crew of Maple & Associates of Newbury Park, California. The bayonet was not present on the original miniature, and it was not added onto the scaled-up replica because of safety concerns and the difficulty of constructing a reproduction of a thin bayonet blade out of fragile Styrofoam.

The Wentworth Military Academy Museum is quite happy with its new acquisition.