The Johnny Ring Statue
Hidden behind Mitten Hall is a secret garden where a little Union soldier stands tall. This statue traces its roots to Temple’s founding, and to its founder, Russell Conwell. While the monument pays tribute to Conwell, for some observers it commemorates heroism, friendship, and selfless sacrifice, but others draw different connotations. Why does this statue stand there, and what does it represent today?
Johnny Ring in Life
John Quincy Ring, the statue’s subject, was a native of Worthington, MA. The 20-year-old store clerk enlisted in the Union Army with Company D, 2nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery in August 1863, then commanded by Ring’s neighbor, Captain Russell Conwell. Corporal Ring was present on 2 February 1864 when a Confederate force attacked the regiment at the Battle of Newport Barracks, NC while Conwell was absent without leave. Ring survived the Union retreat but ultimately perished from tuberculosis on 13 March 1864.
Johnny Ring in Memory
From this battle arose Temple’s founding myth of “Johnny Ring.” Told and retold countless times in many ways since the late nineteenth century, the core idea of each version is that Ring was an intensely loyal and religiously devout young man who died rescuing Conwell’s ceremonial sword from flames. Conwell credited his conversion to Christianity and entry into the Baptist ministry to his story of Ring’s perseverance and self-sacrifice. Historical details surrounding the heroic action cast great doubt on Conwell’s tale, but this myth and its presumed values remain an important part of Temple University’s foundation and tradition. Students adopted it when founding the “Sword Society” for upperclassmen in 1947, and the sword and myth are still symbolic for Temple’s ROTC and Christian organizations.
The Statue
Inspired by the myth, Johnny Ring’s statue was designed by Tyler School of Art founder and then Dean Boris Blai as a gift from Temple’s Class of 1958. Originally, the statue was displayed in front of Tyler’s main building, until an expansion of Mitten Hall was completed in 1964 that included a new terrace area gifted by the Temple class of that year. While offering more space for student activities, this terrace also became the statue’s new home. A dedication ceremony was held in April 1965, which also happened to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. However, it also fell in a time of social unrest within Temple's neighborhood, which was shaken by the Columbia Avenue Riots in the summer of 1964, bringing questions of discrimination and civil rights directly to campus.
How Should We Remember?
In recent years there have been wide-ranging calls to dismantle Civil War monuments, both Confederate as well as Union ones. The Johnny Ring story was told by Conwell, and reinforced throughout the years by various actors, as a tale of faith and friendship hardly related to the Civil War that makes no mention of the larger context of the war. Any war commemoration runs the risk of depoliticizing messy conflicts in favor of simple palatable stories, and it seems that Johnny Ring is no exception. Recently, graffiti scribbled on the statue’s base reading “no more civil wars” invites us to reflect not only on the role of mythmaking on university campuses but on a national scale. Though the Ring monument commemorates the life of a heroic man in each iteration of the myth surrounding it, its presence also forces observers to question Johnny Ring’s commemoration and ask how myths belonging to historical figures create and extend meaning.
The Statue in Context
Created by Paige Bartello and Stephen Kostes
