Wilcox Classical Museum

In 1888 the Classical Museum of the University of Kansas Department of Ancient Languages and Literatures was dedicated at the June 5th Commencement. The original collection in 1888 consisted of casts and a host of models, maps, charts, and illustrations. A humbler part of the collection was a long oak table that has survived and was duplicated in 2007 to provide seminar space. Soon more casts were added: the Hermes of Praxiteles in 1895, the Apollo Belvedere, the Discus Thrower, a small and large Faun, and Sophocles and Demosthenes - these survived, the Laocoon, several Muses, a Diana, and more busts did not. The last major cast to be added to the collection was a small-scale version of the Victory of Samothrace contributed by the French Department in 1940.