Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase used to proclaim a school that a person has attended or, more usually, from which one has graduated. Alma mater is also a honorific title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. Later, in Catholicism, it became a title of Mary, mother of Jesus.
Alma Mater statue by Daniel Chester French, 1903, Columbia University, New York City
John Legate's Alma Mater for Cambridge in 1600
Alma Mater, University of Havana
Alma Mater by Lorado Taft (1929), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
College of William & Mary
The College of William & Mary in Virginia, is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and the ninth-oldest in the English-speaking world. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High Research Activity". In his 1985 book Public Ivies: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities, Richard Moll included William & Mary as one of the original eight "Public Ivies". The university is also one of the original nine colonial colleges.
King William III and Queen Mary II, the college's namesakes
James Blair, founder of William & Mary
The College Building as it appeared from 1859–1862 with Italianate towers
The Wren Building, c. 1902
