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Three years after Washington and Lee University leaders pledged to reinstall two plaques honoring Robert E. Lee’s beloved horse, Traveller, the memorials remain missing from public view.
Campus leaders have yet to honor their 2023 assurance they they will reinstall the markers as part of a campus renovation project, according to an alumni group concerned with preserving the university’s heritage.
Newly renovated chapel galleries that reopened over the summer do not feature the two horse memorials, nor two others related to the Confederate Civil War general that were stripped away: a plaque commemorating Lee’s first campus office, and another that marked the location of his swearing-in.
But the university stated in June 2023: “Four historical plaques relocated on campus this week are being installed along with other historically significant plaques in a new exhibit, located in University Chapel, titled ‘The Power of Memory: Remembering Robert E. Lee.'”
The Generals Redoubt alumni group decried the fact that the Power of Memory exhibit has not been installed among the new galleries.
“The Power of Memory is nowhere among the newly renovated Chapel galleries that reopened this June. Neither are the four plaques,” the alumni group reported.
“Museums, of course, may change exhibitions and move historic objects. But W&L justified these removals by assuring the community that the plaques would be reinstalled in an educational exhibit and properly contextualized. That plan changed,” the group stated.
The new set of exhibits in the chapel are titled “Foundations and Frameworks” and “Setting the Stage.” These exhibits are a look back at the construction process of the chapel.
Reached for comment by The College Fix, W&L spokesperson Drewry Sackett said the Lee “memory” exhibit has been shelved.
“Plans for the exhibit titled The Power of Memory: Remembering Robert E. Lee changed with a change in leadership in the Institutional History Museum and Galleries in 2024,” she said via email.
“The new exhibits, developed with various stakeholders, now center around the history of University Chapel. All university artifacts that are not currently on exhibition are housed in the museum’s collection storage, where they may be considered for future exhibits,” Sackett added.
“As the current exhibits have just opened, and the institutional history museum has not yet been built, future exhibits have yet to be determined,” she said.
The Foundations exhibit “traces the Chapel’s history from President Robert E. Lee’s original concept to its construction and the present day. Lee designed the Chapel to support the institution’s needs and his educational philosophy, which included shaping the next generation of Christian gentlemen and modernizing the curriculum by adding a law school, journalism, engineering, natural science and modern languages,” the university website states.
General Redoubt’s Executive Director Kamron Spivey, an alumnus of the university, said the turn of events illustrates what he believes is a level of dishonesty from campus leadership.
“I personally watched over two dozen plaques just disappear in the time I was there,” Spivey said in a telephone interview with The College Fix, adding that made him feel “sad.”
Spivey alleges he was told by an administrator that there are currently a wide selection of places to learn about Lee and his role in the Civil War, and that the university is “not going to be one of those places.”
In a recent conversation with a student on campus, Spivey said he mentioned the plaques and the student replied: “What do you mean plaques removed? What are you talking about?”
“And it occurred to me,” Spivey said, “that freshmen don’t know anything about any of this because they’re new to campus.”
The Generals Redoubt is now planning to pursue a “broader review” of the newly unveiled exhibits.
This includes an investigation of their “factual accuracy, historical interpretation, design and accessibility, and the policies governing W&L’s historic collections,” the group stated.
In an attempt to preserve the memory of the dozens of mothballed plaques, Spivey said he took it upon himself to create a catalog, and the organization plans to publish a collection of all of the missing plaques in the near future.
Editor’s note: This article has been modified to clarify a statement from Spivey.
MORE: Canceled: Washington & Lee University removes plaque honoring Robert E. Lee’s horse
