| John H. Reagan | |
|---|---|
 The statue in 2015 | |
| Artist | Pompeo Coppini |
| Year | 1933 (1933) |
| Medium | Bronze sculpture |
| Subject | John Henninger Reagan |
| Location | Austin, Texas, United States |
| Coordinates | 31°45′29″N95°37′31″W / 31.75798°N 95.62532°W /31.75798; -95.62532 |
| Owner | University of Texas at Austin |
John H. Reagan is an outdoor sculpture depicting theAmerican politician of the same name byPompeo Coppini. The sculpture was commissioned in 1919 byGeorge W. Littlefield to be included in theLittlefield Fountain on the campus of theUniversity of Texas at Austin. It was installed on the university's South Mall inAustin, Texas from 1933 until its removal in 2017.
In 1919, University of Texas regentGeorge W. Littlefield donated funds to pay for the construction of a "Memorial Gateway" at the south entrance to the university's campus that would honor theConfederate dead from theCivil War. He hiredSan Antonio-based Italian-born sculptorPompeo Coppini to design the monument, which was to include a number of statues of notable figures from the history of Texas and the American South. The memorial was ultimately redesigned as theLittlefield Fountain and instead dedicated to the university's students and alumni who had died in the Great War (now known asWorld War I).[1]
As part of the memorial project, in the 1920s Coppini sculpted bronze statues ofJohn Henninger Reagan and five other Texan and Confederate notables selected by Littlefield, which he intended to display around the fountain. However, as construction on the memorial proceeded in the early 1930s, campus architectPaul Cret decided to instead install the six statues along the university's South Mall, where they were placed in 1933 as the construction of the fountain complex was completed.[1]
Beginning in 2015 and accelerating in 2017, a national controversy grew over the prominent positions of monuments and memorials to the Confederacy in many public spaces across the United States, and particularly in the American South.[2] In this context, the statues of Confederate notables along the university's South Mall that Coppini had designed for the Littlefield Fountain attracted increased public criticism.
In March 2015, UT's student government passed a resolution calling for the removal of Coppini's statue ofJefferson Davis from the South Mall.[3] That August, the university in fact removed the statues of both Davis andWoodrow Wilson from the Mall and placed them in storage, despite a lawsuit from the Texas Division of theSons of Confederate Veterans, which failed to persuade theTexas Supreme Court to block the plan.[4] On August 20, 2017, in the aftermath of theUnite the Right rally inCharlottesville, Virginia, the university removedReagan and the three other remaining Coppini statues of Confederate-Texan notables from the South Mall.[5][6][7]
Media related toJohn H. Reagan by Pompeo Coppini at Wikimedia Commons
