The Story of Union's Chinese Stone Lion

Items

• Skidmore College students paint the lion (Concordiensis).
• Delphic Society's key represents the lion.
• Article discusses lion imagery on college pennants, flags, and banners.
• Concordiensis article details additional painting done by fraternities, military students, and other organizations on campus.
• Union College student council president objects to bringing the stone lion indoors and treating it as sculpture, rather than its "maginficant and rather unique tradition".
• "Iconflagration" of statue when it was set on fire.
• Union College's literary magazine is named "The Idol".
• Majority of lion cub chiselled away with iron bar (NY Times Article).
• Frank A. DePuy writes in Union Almni Monthly about witnessing the installation of the lion: "...inquisitive students began to ask what it all meant, and then they learned for the first time about the idol." The students deem it "hideously ugly" and "to act" on it.
• Postcard stamped April 19, 1913 presents a photograph of "The Idol".
• Approximately 300 layers of paint are removed from the lion (Union-Star article).
• An account about Moving Up Day describes how the Chinese stone lion would be repainted white, painting over the year's green and red paint, representing clashes between sophomores and freshmen (Concordiensis).
• Postcard describes the yearly painting of the statue by freshman, using green paint.
• Freshman pin for the class of 1900 represents the lion.
• Lion designated as "Union's Patron Saint" and featured on a commemorateive spoon.
• The Concordiensis publishes the poem "The Lament of the Idol".
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed.
• Photograph of lion shows head, teeth, tongue, and mane; lion cradles a cub.
• Union College devotes resources to clean the sculpture when it was vandalized.
• 1878 yearbook shows a cartoon of the painting of the lion and reactoin of president Porter.
• A tradition of "worship," or repeated paintings, begins on campus.
• On the first night the lion was installed, students paint the sculpture; president Eliphalet Nott Porter is aghast.
• Lion installed near the service lane behind the president's house on campus
• Chinese stone lion arrives on campus and remains unopened in a barn