Electricity, Fidelity, Steam, (sculpture).

Electricity, Fidelity, Steam, (sculpture).

Butti, Guido, sculptor.

Walter, Thomas Ustick, 1804-1887, architect.

Mills, Robert, architect.

Electricity, Fidelity, Steam, (sculpture).

Digital Reference:

Reliefs: marble.

Two spandrel figures and one keystone figure adorn the arch over the carriage entrance to the building. Electricity is represented by a winged female figure flying over the left spandrel, her arms raised and her dress swirling around her. She holds up a lightning bolt with her proper right hand and a scroll with her proper left hand. Her thin dress swirls around her and her feathered wings stretch out behind her. Steam is represented by a winged male figure flying over the right spandrel, his arms reaching out holding a small locomotive. A bit of drapery swirls around his legs and his webbed wings stretch out behind him. Fidelity is represented by a keystone head of a female located at the top of the arch. She stares straight ahead, her long hair curling about her face. Around her neck is a choker adorned with a cameo of a seated dog.

Allegory -- Arts & Sciences -- Technology

Allegory -- Quality -- Obedience

Architecture -- Vehicle -- Train

Landscape -- Weather -- Lightning

Object -- Written Matter -- Scroll

Outdoor Sculpture -- District of Columbia -- Washington

Architectural component

Administered by United States General Services Administration, Washington, District of Columbia

Located Old Post Office Department, 701 E Street, N.W., Over arched carriage entrance on 8th Street, N.W., Washington, District of Columbia

Formerly located United States Tariff Commission, 701 E Street, N.W., Over arched carriage entrance on 8th Street, N.W., Washington, District of Columbia

The reliefs are installed on the Old Post Office Department building which has been home to a number of different government agencies over the years including the U.S. Tariff Commission. The building itself has been known as the Old Post Office, the Land Office, and the Old Land Office. The south side of the building was designed by Robert Mills and the north side by Thomas U. Walter, architect of the U.S. Capitol. The relief figures are symbolic for the original occupant of the building, the Post Office Department. Electricity is symbolic for the telegraph (the Post Office Dept. opened the first public telegraph office on April 1, 1845) and Steam is symbolic for the steam locomotive mail trains. Image in Goode publication is of the keystone head of Fidelity and the right spandrel figure of Steam.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, District of Columbia survey, 1993.

Goode, James M., "The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington, D.C., A Comprehensive Historical Guide," Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1974, pg. 233.

Goode, James M., "The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington, D.C., A Comprehensive Historical Guide," Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1974, F-12.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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