The Maid of the Highlands: Joan of Arc Reflected in West Point Iconography

Abstract

Over 600 years ago, in 1412, Joan of Arc was born. Nineteen years later, she was put to death at the age at which most cadets at the United States Military Academy (USMA) begin to study a foreign language in the Department of Foreign Languages. This is far from the only connection Joan of Arc has with West Point. In fact, cadets, staff, and faculty are surrounded daily by imagery which, in one way or another, is associated with her, sometimes quite obviously—as in the Panorama of Military History in the Cadet mess, and the Saint Joan window in the Catholic Chapel—and sometimes not so obviously. The image of greatest significance linking Joan and West Point is the USMA crest, whose most prominent detail is the helmet of Athena...