This bronze statue of UVM's founder, Ira Allen, was executed by sculptor Sherry Fry, a member of the National Academy of Design who also modeled Ceres, Greek Goddess of Green for the state capital building dome in Jefferson City, Missouri. James B. Wilbur, a wealthy businessman from Manchester, Vermont who wrote the 1928 biography of Ira Allen, gave the statue to the University. The statue displaced the Lafayette statue which was relocated to the north side of the University Green, thus severing the logical connection between the original placement of the statue of Lafayette and Old Mill. Wilbur also gave the funds for building Ira Allen Chapel in 1925. The Wilbur Room at the Robert Hull Fleming Museum was also a gift from the Wilbur and was initially built to house his library of Vermontiana but now is used as a gallery for prints and drawings.