Join us for a thought-provoking discussion of the statues that make up our National Statuary Hall collection in the Capitol, including those figures from both sides of the American Civil War with author Gene Schmiel.
Recent years have seen a “new civil war,” a debate over who should be honored in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol. This book is the first ever to review the history of the relationship between Statuary Hall and these wars. Statuary Hall was created in the midst of the Civil War, in 1864, via legislation authored by Representative Justin Morrill of Vermont to fill the space left by the House of Representatives when it moved to its current chambers. Morrill’s legislation invited each state to honor two of its citizens by providing representative statues.
The first statue, Nathanial Greene of Rhode Island, was emplaced in 1870. By 1971 each state had contributed at least one statue. Recently, as Confederate monuments were taken down in many cities, and as federal legislation was passed requiring the re-naming of army bases originally named for Confederate Generals, suggestions (and demands) for replacements in Statuary Hall have increased. Several changes have been made, and it is likely the future will see more.
Like all USCHS programs, this webinar is free and open to the public; registration is required.
