Pen used by President Woodrow Wilson to sign Bill S-544 into law

Item

Legacies Classification
Memorial Object
Memorial Type
Object
Memorial Context
Lost Cause
Memorialized Subject
Wilson, Woodrow
Title
Pen used by President Woodrow Wilson to sign Bill S-544 into law
Background and Context
On June 11th and 12th of 1864, General Hunter of the Union Army conducted a raid through the Valley of Virginia. During this raid, several physical structures at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) were severely damaged. Hunter’s Raid became a focal point of the Lost Cause at VMI during the postwar era. About 50 years after the Raid, committees on war claims in United States Senate and the House of Representatives recommended a bill to reimburse VMI for damages from Hunter’s Raid. In 1915, the Senate and House passed the bill with strong bipartisan support, illustrating the extent to which the Lost Cause permeated national politics by the early twentieth century. Likewise, one of the chief advocates of reparations for VMI was Republican Senator Henry A. du Pont of Delaware, a former Union officer who served under Hunter.

President Woodrow Wilson—a Virginian, segregationist, Lost Cause intellectual, and the first southerner in the White House since the 1840s—used this dip pen to sign bill S-544 into law. The $100,000 was used by VMI to extend the existing Jackson Memorial Hall (then part of the Barracks) and to build a new Jackson Memorial Hall (renamed Memorial Hall in 2021). Both structures were named after Confederate general and Lost Cause icon Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. VMI wasn’t the only institute to receive reparations from the U.S. Government during the Lost Cause movement. Washington and Lee University, VMI’s neighbor in Lexington, also received an appropriation of $20,000 for the damages it sustained during Hunter’s Raid. In 1915, Wilson’s pen was brought to the museum at VMI, although the provenance was not recorded.
Physical Description
The bronze-colored dip pen has a steel and gold washed nib that is stamped with “048 / R. EASTERBOOK & CO’S / FALCON PEN”. The pen holder appears to be a Bakelite with circular gripping groves and a wide flattened end. A repair had been made to a break in the narrowest part of the diameter of the holder after it was fractured. There is a crystal-like formation on parts of the surface of the pen from an unknown source. The length of the pen without the nib is 6.25 inches and the length with the nib is 7.250 inches.
Memorial Inscription
President Woodrow Wilson used this pen to sign Bill 544 into law. Introduced by Senator Henry du Pont, who had been a captain with the Union forces in Lexington, the bill reimbursed VMI for damages done by the Union army during the Civil War. The $100,000 appropriation was used to build Jackson Memorial Hall.
Creator/Participating Person(s)
Virginia Military Institute
Wilson, Woodrow
Date created, installed or dedicated
1915
Historical Period
1890-1945: Era of the Lost Cause, Jim Crow legal segregation and discrimination, and organized anti-Black racism
Funded by
United States Congress
Location: Institution, City, State
Virginia Military Institute; Lexington City, Virginia
Learn More About this Subject
"V.M.I. to receive $100,000," The Cadet, March 13, 1915.
"V.M.I. to receive $100,000," The Cadet, March 13, 1915.

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