The Lady on the Dome
America’s Most Visible, Yet Invisible, Monument
Why This Book, Why Now: The Lady on the Dome
She is the most photographed woman in America. Almost no one knows her name.
Every time the Capitol dome appears on the evening news, or events at the Capitol, she is there — 15,000 pounds of bronze, nearly twenty feet tall, standing watch over the seat of American government. She has looked down on every act of Congress since the Civil War. And yet very few know who she is, who made her, or what she represents.
That contradiction — total visibility paired with total obscurity — is the subject of The Lady on the Dome: America's Most Visible, Yet Invisible Monument. It is the product of more than thirty years of archival research, by a fellow of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. She is a lens onto the unresolved contradictions of American democracy.
“As engaging as it is erudite, Katya Miller’s book masterfully uses the statue atop the Capitol dome to shed light on American art and history. This may be the best book ever written on a single art object in our nation’s Capitol. It is certainly the definitive study of the ‘Lady on the Dome’—who has never before seemed so complex, so fascinating, and so alive. A remarkable achievement.”
Matthew Restall, historian
Author, "The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus"
“I used to work under that dome, walking under it every day, and wondered about the statue’s progeny. I long had hoped for an accurate, well-written history about it. WELL, HERE IT IS!
Bruce E. Johansen, PhD
Professor of Native American Studies
University of Nebraska
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KATYA MILLER
Katya Miller is an art historian, metalsmith and filmmaker with a BA in design and art history from the University of California, Berkeley. A fellow of the United States Capitol Historical Society, she has conducted over two decades of research at the Library of Congress and the Architect of the Capitol Curator’s Office. Her articles have been featured in the US Capitol Historical Society’s quarterly magazine, The Capitol Dome. She has also archived cultures through film, helping revitalize native languages of the Americas, and has directed Telly Award-winning films on the art of interviewing and the art of storytelling.
