The story of WWI Aviator James Rogers McConnell

Charlottesville historian and author Rick Britton joins Coy Barefoot each week on “WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about our area’s past. These days he’s working on a map of the Argonne, where the last major battle of World War I was fought. U.Va alumni James Rogers McConnell ’08 signed up as an aviator before the Americans officially entered the war, before being shot down in March of 1917. Britton tells his story in this installment.

This week’s quiz question is, who sculpted the statue of McConnell that stands outside Alderman Library?

Photo used with Permission of Documenting the American South, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.