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The Search Has Gone GPS! As of January 16, 2009: Join leader "macleod1" and company on a GPS search for Viquesney's Doughboy at Waymarking.com! |
Members
Links to External Sites
Head Doughboy Searcher:
Earl Goldsmith
Doughboy Searcher:
Harlan Ogle
Sumter County GA Archivist:
Alan Anderson
Mailing List:
Tommy Bruhn
Rudy Dichtl
Larry Hartsock
Michael McLane
Kathie & Bill Plack
Glenn Smith
Editor and Webmaster:
Les Kopel
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Who Are the "Doughboy Searchers"?
Imagine going on a nationwide scavenger hunt, only all the items on your search list are the same thing: a World War One memorial statue called "The Spirit of the American Doughboy", by sculptor Ernest Moore Viquesney. That's what the "Doughboy Searchers" do. We got our nickname from T. Perry Wesley, whose hobby was trying to find them. And why was he looking for them? We don't really know why he got started on this; perhaps as editor of the local Spencer, Indiana newspaper, The Evening World, he might have been researching information about the Viquesney Doughboy statue that still stands in front of the Owen County Courthouse in town. Or perhaps, told that there were many copies of the same statue placed around the United States, Mr. Wesley just might have thought it would be fun to track them all down. After all, how difficult could that be? Write a few letters; make a few phone calls...
Mr. Wesley began searching for Viquesney's Doughboy around 1949; he was still looking almost up to the time of his death in 2001.
Many people who contacted him became interested in his project themselves, and thus became part of Mr. Wesley's Doughboy Searchers. After his death in 2001, the person who became most involved in continuing his research was Earl Goldsmith, who himself had been searching for Viquesney's Doughboy since 1965.
Viquesney Doughboy Researcher
Earl picked up where T. Perry Wesley left off, and now has "Doughboy Searchers" of his own, including myself, Les Kopel.
Harlan Ogle
One of our Many Doughboy Aficionados
Harlan Ogle, of Monticello, KY, first became enthused over Viquesney Doughboy lore after "scoring" a miniature statuette on eBay (he has since acquired other items, including two versions of Viquesney's rare Imp-O-Luck and even rarer Spirit of Americanism plaque. An author, columnist, and "retired" minister, he is now Executive Director/Curator of the William Crenshaw Kennedy, Jr. Memorial Museum in Monticello. He is the author of a 60-page book on Monticello's Viquesney Doughboy, and lectures to schoolchildren on the statue, bringing along his Doughboy miniature.
Our Man in Americus
Alan Anderson, Archivist for the Sumter Historic Trust, Inc., probably knows more about Viquesney's time in Americus, GA, than anyone. Alan also has a personal connection with E. M. Viquesney: His office is in the same room where 12-inch miniatures of The Spirit of the American Doughboy were first produced (in Walter Rylander's former Ford dealership building in Americus, GA, now the headquarters of Habitat for Humanity). Also, Alan's maternal grandfather, Ed Purvis, was one of the sculptor's coworkers at Clark's Monuments during his time in Americus. When Viquesney's first wife, Cora, died suddenly in 1933, Mr. Purvis wrote him a letter of condolence. Viquesney's reply appears on the Personal Glimpse page on this site.
Les Kopel
Webmaster
As for me, Les Kopel, I was searching for information on an old Doughboy lamp my grandmother bought in 1923 when I was put in contact with Earl. The result was a collaboration called Earl Goldsmith's Viquesney Doughboy Database, where he has collected information on all currently known Viquesney Doughboy statues. I have my own Web site (Grandma Quater's Doughboy Lamp) concerning the artist's miniature creations.
In short, we're looking for copies of E. M. Viquesney's WWI memorial monument The Spirit of the American Doughboy, pictured below (better picture, next page).
Viquesney's Doughboy at Spencer, IN.
Various situations affect and even impede the search: There are three versions of the statue, each varying slightly in appearance from the others; Viquesney's company underwent a temporary ownership change early in its existence, resulting in some statues having the name Walter Ryander on them instead of E. M. Viquesney; the statue resembles another work by another sculptor, John Paulding; Viquesney himself left few records of where his statues were placed, and was prone to exaggerating their numbers; and finally, T. Perry Wesley's 1991 list gradually assumed an aura of authority and completeness, even though it contained numerous errors.
As it turned out, only about 100 Doughboy statues listed in T. Perry Wesley's 1991 list were actually Viquesney's Spirit of the American Doughboy; most of the rest were statues that were mistaken for it, or others that were reported by people who apparently misunderstood and thought Mr. Wesley was looking for any Doughboy statue.
Beginning in 1965, but primarily since 1997, Doughboy researcher Earl Goldsmith has added over thirty more Viquesney Doughboys to the list, and I have discovered six more since 2002 (all on the Internet!). Doughboy Searcher Harlan Ogle also discovered an interesting variant in Cincinnati, OH.
A "new" recently discovered Viquesney Doughboy, this one at Peshtigo, WI.
Photo: Mike Noonan, Marinette, WI.
The total now stands at 140 existing statues (including later copies and replacements) in 38 states (Omaha, NE, would have made 39 states, but the statue is no longer there).
You Can Help... Thanks for your help!
We though it would be a fitting tribute to Mr. Wesley to be able to find any remaining Viquesney Doughboys by doing an electronic repeat of his original mail-in campaign, this time using modern home computers and digital cameras. If you know of a Viquesney Doughboy that isn't listed on our main site at Earl's Doughboy Database, please let us know and send us a picture and description of the location. There is a link in the navigation bar to the left, or you can copy and paste the following URL into your browser's address field: http://doughboysearchers.tripod.com/.
