Athena has our back, and we have hers

Thirty years ago, Athena went missing — kidnapped by five Haverford students as an April Fool’s Day prank. The statue, whisked out of Great Hall, was stuffed into a station wagon and driven to Haverford’s campus, but not before a group of Bryn Mawr students spotted it on its way out. According to an article in The New York Times about the ordeal, Danika Haueisen ’97 “grabbed some friends and followed them to Haverford, where they caught up to the statue and its kidnappers.” Athena’s adventure left her short a head and an arm.

The original Athena cast was likely purchased following the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, where Bryn Mawr had a display and the maker of the cast, August Gerber, first displayed “Athena Lemnia.” In defense of Haverford, her head and arm had been previously damaged by Bryn Mawr students in the 1960s. As part of May Day revelries, Athena was hauled on top of the portico of Old Library and paired with a mannequin (the Haverford representative). After May Day, she moved into artist-in-residence Fritz Janscka’s office. He repaired her, but that initial damage likely contributed to her eventual decapitation and amputation.

Athena remained off view until 1976, when she was part of the exhibition Learning, Revolution, and Democracy, a joint venture between 12 colleges and universities from the Philadelphia region to celebrate the bicentennial. Then-president Harris Wofford was responsible for reinstalling Athena in Great Hall, and reference librarian and archivist Gertrude Reed was quoted in The Bi-College News passing on the lore of offerings to Athena: “They’d have sacrifices to her before exams, and she always got decorated for holidays.”

After her decapitation in 1996, the college decided to have her conserved, repaired, and moved to a more secure location. This meant students no longer had their patron goddess to make offerings to in the Great Hall. Jan Trembley ’75, former editor of the Alumnae Bulletin, stepped up to create the Athena students know and love today.

The original Athena, now retired, resides in Carpenter Library, where she keeps company with other plaster casts of Classical works. Trembley’s Athena, made of paper mache and fiberglass, stands in Great Hall accepting offerings. This spring, she could be seen adorned with paper lanterns, printed-out memes, nail polish, packaged bagels, and more.

These offerings may be ephemeral (despite persistent rumors, we don’t collect them all for the archive), but Athena’s role watching over the students of Bryn Mawr and students’ fondness for her — persisting through loss of limb, kidnapping, and multiple statues — is not.

Illustration by Chelsea Kneedler