For those celebrating Bastille Day this week, we’ll focus on one of Davidson’s connections to French history – Peter Stuart Ney. Legend (and college history) has it that the scholar who designed the college’s seal was none other than Napoleon Bonaparte’s Marshal Michel Ney. Michel Ney joined the French army in 1787 and was 20 years old when the Bastille was stormed on July 14, 1789. Ney’s military career ended with his facing a firing squad on December 7, 1815.
How did Ney come to design the college seal? The full answer is in our Davidson Encyclopedia article on Peter Stuart Ney
For this entry, I want to highlight some recent acquisitions and creative ways Ney resurfaces on campus.The Davidson College Archives has several manuscript collections related to the mysterious Mr. Ney. Two of the collections are from researchers looking into the legend, another consists of donations of manuscripts and artifacts related to Michel and Peter.
The Reisch family donated a pair of eye glasses used by Peter Stuart Ney. He left this pair in a boarding house, surely not the only one of us to leave glasses behind in a move. The glasses are on display as part of a permanent exhibit of Ney artifacts in the college library.
Another donor provided an enlarged photograph of P. S. Ney’s gravestone at Third Creek Presbyterian Church. This is of the original gravestone before the grave was enclosed in glass.
Just a few weeks ago, we received a typescript of one of Ney’s poems .
Ney lives on not only in the College Archives. One of the major donor societies is named for him and recently, the student run restaurant project chose the name PS as a tribute to the man and legend.
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