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Statue of Freedom
The Statue of Freedom, also known as Armed Freedom or simply Freedom, is a bronze statue designed by Thomas Crawford that, since 1863, has crowned the United States Capitol dome. Originally named Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace, a U.S. government publication now states that the statue "is officially known as the Statue of Freedom." The statue depicts a female figure bearing a military helmet and holding a sheathed sword in her right hand and a laurel wreath and shield in her left.
The Statue of Freedom is a colossal bronze figure standing 19+1⁄2 ft (5.9 m) tall and weighing approximately 15,000 pounds (6,800 kg). Her crest peaks at 288 feet (88 m) above the east front plaza of the U.S. Capitol. She is an allegorical figure whose right hand holds the hilt of a sheathed sword, while a laurel wreath of victory and the Shield of the United States are clasped in her left hand. Her chiton is secured by a brooch inscribed "U.S." and is partially covered by a heavy, American Indian–style fringed blanket thrown over her left shoulder. She faces east toward the main entrance of the building and the rising Sun. She wears a military helmet adorned with stars and an eagle's head which is itself crowned by an umbrella-like crest of feathers. Although not actually called "Columbia", she shares many of her iconic characteristics. Freedom stands atop a cast-iron globe encircled with one of the national mottoes, E pluribus unum. The lower part of the base is decorated with fasces and wreaths. Ten spikes are attached to her headdress, shoulders and shield to deter birds from roosting. The statue conducts lightning to its base, where it is grounded by thick copper wire connected to a spike in the earth as a safe, high-current pathway for lightning strikes.
A monumental statue for the top of the national Capitol appeared in architect Thomas U. Walter's original drawing for the new cast-iron dome, which was authorized in 1855. Walter's drawing showed the outline of a statue representing the Goddess of Liberty; Crawford proposed instead an allegorical figure of Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace. In doing so, Crawford invoked the goddesses Minerva, Bellona, or Athena.
Crawford was commissioned to design Freedom in 1854 and executed the plaster model for the statue in his studio in Rome, Italy. U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (who would later become President of the Confederacy) was in charge of the Capitol construction and its decorations. According to David Hackett Fischer in his book Liberty and Freedom, Crawford's statue was...
...very close to Jefferson Davis's ideas in every way but one.... Above the crown he [had] added a liberty cap, the old Roman symbol of an emancipated slave. It seemed a direct affront to a militant slaveholder, and Jefferson Davis exploded with rage. The northern sculptor and the southern slaveholder had already clashed over a liberty cap in the interior decoration of the Capitol.
Davis sent his aide, Captain Montgomery Meigs, with orders to remove the cap, saying that "its history renders it inappropriate to a people who were born free and would not be enslaved". A military helmet, with an American eagle head and crest of feathers, replaced the cap in the sculpture's final version. (Today many casual observers take the statue, with its eagle and feathers, to be a Native American.)
Crawford died in 1857 before the full-size plaster model left his studio. The model, packed into six crates, was shipped from Italy in a small sailing vessel in the spring of 1858. During the voyage, the ship began to leak and stopped in Gibraltar for repairs. After leaving Gibraltar, the ship began leaking again to the point that it could go no farther than Bermuda, where the model was stored until other transportation could be arranged. Half of the crates finally arrived in New York City in December, but all sections were not in Washington, D.C., until late March 1859.
Beginning in 1860, the statue was cast in five main sections by Clark Mills, whose bronze foundry was located on the outskirts of Washington. Work was halted in 1861 because of the Civil War, but by the end of 1862, the statue was finished and temporarily displayed on the Capitol grounds. The cost of the statue, exclusive of installation, was $23,796.82.
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Statue of Freedom
The Statue of Freedom, also known as Armed Freedom or simply Freedom, is a bronze statue designed by Thomas Crawford that, since 1863, has crowned the United States Capitol dome. Originally named Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace, a U.S. government publication now states that the statue "is officially known as the Statue of Freedom." The statue depicts a female figure bearing a military helmet and holding a sheathed sword in her right hand and a laurel wreath and shield in her left.
The Statue of Freedom is a colossal bronze figure standing 19+1⁄2 ft (5.9 m) tall and weighing approximately 15,000 pounds (6,800 kg). Her crest peaks at 288 feet (88 m) above the east front plaza of the U.S. Capitol. She is an allegorical figure whose right hand holds the hilt of a sheathed sword, while a laurel wreath of victory and the Shield of the United States are clasped in her left hand. Her chiton is secured by a brooch inscribed "U.S." and is partially covered by a heavy, American Indian–style fringed blanket thrown over her left shoulder. She faces east toward the main entrance of the building and the rising Sun. She wears a military helmet adorned with stars and an eagle's head which is itself crowned by an umbrella-like crest of feathers. Although not actually called "Columbia", she shares many of her iconic characteristics. Freedom stands atop a cast-iron globe encircled with one of the national mottoes, E pluribus unum. The lower part of the base is decorated with fasces and wreaths. Ten spikes are attached to her headdress, shoulders and shield to deter birds from roosting. The statue conducts lightning to its base, where it is grounded by thick copper wire connected to a spike in the earth as a safe, high-current pathway for lightning strikes.
A monumental statue for the top of the national Capitol appeared in architect Thomas U. Walter's original drawing for the new cast-iron dome, which was authorized in 1855. Walter's drawing showed the outline of a statue representing the Goddess of Liberty; Crawford proposed instead an allegorical figure of Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace. In doing so, Crawford invoked the goddesses Minerva, Bellona, or Athena.
Crawford was commissioned to design Freedom in 1854 and executed the plaster model for the statue in his studio in Rome, Italy. U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (who would later become President of the Confederacy) was in charge of the Capitol construction and its decorations. According to David Hackett Fischer in his book Liberty and Freedom, Crawford's statue was...
...very close to Jefferson Davis's ideas in every way but one.... Above the crown he [had] added a liberty cap, the old Roman symbol of an emancipated slave. It seemed a direct affront to a militant slaveholder, and Jefferson Davis exploded with rage. The northern sculptor and the southern slaveholder had already clashed over a liberty cap in the interior decoration of the Capitol.
Davis sent his aide, Captain Montgomery Meigs, with orders to remove the cap, saying that "its history renders it inappropriate to a people who were born free and would not be enslaved". A military helmet, with an American eagle head and crest of feathers, replaced the cap in the sculpture's final version. (Today many casual observers take the statue, with its eagle and feathers, to be a Native American.)
Crawford died in 1857 before the full-size plaster model left his studio. The model, packed into six crates, was shipped from Italy in a small sailing vessel in the spring of 1858. During the voyage, the ship began to leak and stopped in Gibraltar for repairs. After leaving Gibraltar, the ship began leaking again to the point that it could go no farther than Bermuda, where the model was stored until other transportation could be arranged. Half of the crates finally arrived in New York City in December, but all sections were not in Washington, D.C., until late March 1859.
Beginning in 1860, the statue was cast in five main sections by Clark Mills, whose bronze foundry was located on the outskirts of Washington. Work was halted in 1861 because of the Civil War, but by the end of 1862, the statue was finished and temporarily displayed on the Capitol grounds. The cost of the statue, exclusive of installation, was $23,796.82.