Lady Freedom:
Heart of the Nation
Book Chapters
Lady Freedom:
Heart of the Nation
Atop one of the most visible and visited buildings in the world, stands the Statue of Freedom whose story has yet to be fully told. Raised up onto the Capitol on a windy day during the Civil War, her origins can be found in the very name of America. She is adorned with symbols that tell a story and celebrate a new nation. Katya Miller’s upcoming book, Lady Freedom - Heart of the Nation will reveal a powerful untold history. Hidden in plain sight, she is ready to be seen. We need her story now.
Book Chapters: Published Writings on the Statue of Freedom by Katya Miller
Chapter 1
The Woman Named America -16 -20th Centuries
Prominent yet unseen, the statue of Freedom stands on the US Capitol welcoming visitors arriving by air, land, and sea. Her image has roots in America, the indigenous female based on New World maps and atlases. As America, she became the representative of the United States through the 19th and 20th centuries on prints, ceramics, and broadsides. She was incorporated into U. S. Capitol art in sculptures and frescos, and on the Capitol Dome as The Statue of Freedom.
Chapter 2
Liberty’s Revolutionary Stars, Stripes and Feathers - 18th Century
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The second chapter focuses on Revolutionary Art that uses images of America as she merged with Liberty. Iroquois Chiefs met with Benjamin Franklin and other founding fathers inspiring them to unite the colonies, similar to their Six Nations. The blending of European and American Culture and Iconography became the basis of symbols for the United States of America. Pocahontas became a popular image of “America” which idolized native women without understanding their contribution and sacrifice.
Chapter 3
Romanticizing Indians, Moving Westward - 1820-1860
Romanticizing Indians, Moving Westward, 1820 -1860 Commissioners Montgomery Meigs (northerner) and Jefferson Davis (southerner) were both graduates of West Point in the 1820s, and they differed in their ideas about the statue’s design. Davis’s line drawing of Minerva inspired him to suggest a “Warrior” for the Capitol’s pinnacle symbol. Paintings of Plains Indians date from this period. They wore the President’s Friendship Medallions, fur-fringed robes and plumes of feathers which influenced the Statue of Freedom’s symbols.
Chapter 4
The Design of Freedom: Liberty & America, 1855-1856
The Design of Freedom: Liberty & America, 1855-1856 Chapter Four shows three designs influenced by the letters written back and forth across the Atlantic by sculptor Thomas Crawford, and the US Capitol commissioners. She changed from Freedom Triumphant in Peace and War, to Armed Liberty to ultimately be the Statue of Freedom which was Thomas Crawford’s final design with the prominent eagle headdress which honors original Americans.
Chapter 5
A Sculptor, A Senator and Three Graces- 1814-1857
A Sculptor, A Senator and Three Graces, 1814-1857 The fifth chapter shares the triumphs and tragic death of Sculptor Thomas Crawford. Some of his immediate family and friends were abolitionists, including Charles Sumner, who helped him win commissions, and whose infamous winning on the Senate floor helped ignite the Civil War. Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic and the Mothers’ Proclamation of Peace, became Crawford’s sister-in-law after his marriage to Louisa Ward in 1844.
Chapter 6
Shipping, Casting and the Greatest Event in National History -1857-1861
Shipping, Casting and the Greatest Event in National History, 1857-1861 The sixth chapter describes the difficulty getting the plaster model shipped in six crates to the United States from Rome, Italy in 1857. Philip Reid, the slave working for Clark Mills Foundry, cast the statue in 1859 and was emancipated before the Statue was raised. Lincoln called her a symbol of unification for a divided nation. The “Greatest Event in National History” December 2, 1863, lifted Freedom atop the dome and called forth innovation, celebration and secrecy.
Chapter 7
Renewing Freedom – Protectress of Capitol - 20th and 21st Centuries
The woman named America continued to appear in statues and stamps into the 20th Century. In 1989, a Native Kahuna Morrnah Simeona successfully lobbied her congressman to have Crawford's original and forgotten plaster statue model restored, efforts supported by her Foundation. She also appealed to the Hawaiian legislature to recognize the Lady of Freedom as the “consciousness of the nation.” The bronze statue (atop the dome) was taken down, washed and conserved by the Architect of the Capitol in 1993 after 130 years of weathering. The Capitol Visitors’ Center, built in 2008, displays the restored, plaster model as the centerpiece of its Emancipation Hall. She may be more relevant in the 21st Century than ever.
