Page 6 - July Newsletter
P. 6
the tip of a ring finger. Restorers at small change at the feet of the
the Louvre proved that the items goddess to insure victory in passing
were indeed part of their Winged your tests. I don’t think I ever saw
Victory. Still another act of the her without the pennies surrounding
drama lay ahead. The Lehmans her lower extremities. I still
decided to make a detour to Vienna remember a classmate standing
on their way home to the United before the statue in tears, wailing:
States. Phyllis went to the Vienna a “Lady, I gave you every penny I had,
Museum storeroom and found the and you didn’t help me pass my
cartons delivered there more than test!” Personally, I soon found that
70 years before. She sifted carefully offering the pennies to the carved
through the fragments and figure always helped me pass my
discovered the rest of the ring finger tests, provided that I had also
and the thumb as well! These parts studied very hard.
went off to the Louvre to be joined
to the hand. All are on display in a The lady of the pink marble hallway
case adjacent to the lady. Since her has become a Girls’ High icon. She
head is lost, we do not know if a has been with us for more than a
smile lit up her face at the sight of century. When the school moved
her lost parts. to Broad and Olney, she moved with
it. A plaque on her base carries this
Old photographs from our Archives statement:” Presented 1905 by
collection indicate that the statue Alumnae, 1849 to 1867. A tribute to
first stood in the Assembly Room of Their Teachers Mary E. Houpt and
the 1876 building at 17th and Spring Mary E. Tazewell who were
Garden. Later, she was moved to drowned at Bar Harbor, July 24,
the center hallway of the second 1867. Noble Women Nobly
floor of the 1933 building to reign planned.” The two women were
over a collection of other sculptures. members of the first faculty of The
By the time of my years at GHS Philadelphia High School for Girls.
(1942-1946), it had become a
custom to put pennies or other
