all original hand carved early 20th century american interior residential solid oak wood figural rearing lino staircase newel post cap with original stained finish largely intact. the highly unique and finely crafted fraternal or emblematic newel cap was removed from a lawrenceville school campus building built around the turn of the century. one of the oldest prep schools in the u.s., lawrenceville was founded in 1810 as the maidenhead academy. as early as 1828, the school attracted students from cuba and england, as well as from the choctaw nations. it went by several subsequent names, including the lawrenceville classical and commercial high school, the lawrenceville academy, and the lawrenceville classical academy, before the school's current name, "the lawrenceville school," was set during its refounding in 1883. an 18 acre area of the campus built then, including numerous buildings, has been designated a u.s. national historic landmark district, known as lawrenceville school national historic landmark. a newer portion of the campus, not intruding into that district, was built in the 1920s. the sitting or rearing lion is grasping a shield containing the latin motto "virtus semper viridis" which translates as "virtue is always flowing." measures 15 1/2 inches in height by approximately 5 1/2 inches in width.