Classics Library student worker Yo Shionoya, in a John Miller Burnam Classics Library t-shirt he had designed with an image of the Lupa and twins on an Urbs Roma commemorative coin minted during the reign of emperor Constantine and included in our Return of… exhibition (see below), held up the library’s cardboard cut-out of the Eden Park Lupa on a float representing the Italian American Community at the opening day of the Major League Baseball season. Rebecka was relegated to the streets. The atmosphere was electric and full of anticipation with some 200,000 Cincinnati baseball fans lining the streets in downtown Cincy. The float was featured on several local TV stations.
If you are wondering what a Japanese and a Swedish person are doing on an Italian American float, you may want to look back at some of the other classics library blog posts. An exhibition we organized on November 3 to celebrate the Return of the She-Wolf to Eden Park was much appreciated. As a result, the leadership of ‘the Sons and Daughters of Italy’ appointed the classics librarian and the student to be honorary Italian Americans on a float celebrating Italian heritage.
The Lupa and a Ferrari were great hits with the public. They were much photographed, including the poster of the library’s exhibition.
As I walked along the streets, I repeatedly heard kids excitedly shout “look at the Wolf!”
A rather exhausted but cheerful lot. The event for the float participants started at 7:30 am on a frigid March morning.
The day may have started out chilly, but the afternoon saw warming sun with cherry blossom trees in full bloom.
GO CINCINNATI REDS AND THE UC CLASSICS LIBRARY!
