August 17, 2016

Superstitious (or desperate!) Drexel students are allegedly temporarily banned from rubbing the well-worn toe of The Water Boy. It’s a tradition used to bring about good luck with exams for decades though no one knows why or since when. Legend has it that the curator of The Drexel Collection refused to let students rub the piece of art, which was created in 1869 by French artist Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, the creator of the Statue of Liberty, and displayed in Philadelphia’s 1876 Centennial International Exhibit. It’s likely that this toe rubbing was not what Tony Drexel had in mind when he purchased the sculpture, officially named The Alsatian Vintner, sometime after it was first displayed.