Beale says that the statue is in unusually good condition for a 100-year-old sculpture, a "happy byproduct" of the attempts to keep a step ahead of vandals.
"Acid rain is terribly destructive to bronze sculpture. It reduces metallic bronze to blue green copper sulfate and black copper sulfite," explains Marjorie B. Cohn, a Fogg conservator.
"Without the wax coating, the Harvard statue would look like a piece of soap." Beale adds.
Beale says that he considers the Harvard statue a "National icon."
"I see it all the time. It's got to rank up there with the Mona Lisa, the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln statue in Washington which, by the way, is also by French," he adds.
Admirers have composed poetry about the statue David McCord '21 wrote.
"Is that you, John Harvard"
I said to his statue
Aye that's me, said John
And after you're gone"
The Lampoon, a social club which occasionally publishes parodies, also printed "The Lament of John H in 1924 a verse of which reads.
Great men arise
Before my eyes
From yonder pile I founded
While I must sit
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