Statue of Freedom, (sculpture).

Statue of Freedom, (sculpture).

Crawford, Thomas, 1813?-1857, sculptor.

Walter, Thomas Ustick, 1804-1887, architect.

Clark Mills Foundry, founder.

Statue of Freedom, (sculpture).

Armed Liberty, (sculpture).

Designed 1856. Modeled 1857. Cast 1860. Installed Dec. 1863.

Digital Reference:

H. 19 ft. 6 in. (14,985 lbs.).

A standing female figure with her proper right hand resting on the hilt of a sheathed sword and her proper left hand holding a wreath and a shield. She is dressed in long robes with a brooch bearing the letters 'U.S.' at her waist holding the drapery in place. Her head is covered by a helmet encircled with stars and surmounted by an eagle's head crest.

Allegory -- Civic -- Liberty

Dress -- Historic -- Classical Dress

Outdoor Sculpture -- District of Columbia -- Washington

United States Capitol, Dome, Washington, District of Columbia 20201

The sculpture was created as the crowning feature of the new cast-iron dome of the United States Captiol authorized by Congress in 1855. Thomas U. Walter, the Architect of the Capitol, first designed the dome with a classical figure of Liberty at the top. Two preliminary designs submitted by Thomas Crawford showed a figure with a liberty cap (the emblem of freed slaves in Greece adopted as a symbol of liberty during the American and French revolutions), holding a wreath of wheat and laurel, a shield and sheathed sword. Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War in charge of the construction of the dome, objected to the liberty cap, so Crawford devised an unusual helmet crested with eagle feathers and draped the figure in a heavy, fringed robe. The new design was approved in May 1856.

Crawford first created the full-size figure of the approved version of Freedom in clay. Molds were made in his Rome studio and a full-size positive plaster model was cast in sections. The model was completed in Feb. 1857. After Crawford's untimely death in Oct. 1857, his widow shipped the models from Italy. They arrived in Washington in March 1859. Clark Mills was hired to cast the statue at his foundry, a few miles from the Capitol. Completed sections of the bronze statue were brought to the Capitol in August 1862 on four wagons and Freedom was assembled for temporary display on the grounds. The Capitol dome was not ready until November and the final five sections of the statue were lifted in place on Dec. 2, 1863. Once the statue was in place, twelve forts around the city answered a 35-gun salute from the artillery at the Capitol-one gun for each state in the union, which was then divided by civil war. The sculpture cost $23,796.82, plus the cost of erecting it.

In 1988, the need to restore the statue and its pedestal became evident. The U.S. Capitol Preservation Commission provided privately raised funds for the restoration. On May 9, 1993, Freedom was lifted from its pedestal and lowered to the east front plaza, where the restoration work took place. The statue was restored Fine Objects Conservation, Inc. The restoration was completed in Sept. 1993, the month of the Capitol's bicentennial.

IAS files contain related excerpt from Registrar's Quarterly, Fall 1993, pg. 4, 6; and pamphlet "The Statue of Freedom," n.d., prepared by the Architect of the Capitol.

Index of American Sculpture, University of Delaware, 1985.

"Compilation of Works of Art and Other Objects in the United States Capitol," the Architect of the Capitol, 1965.

Architect of the Capitol, "Art in the United States Capitol," Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1976.

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

Michael Richman, SAAM curatorial assistant, 1967-1969.

Goode, James M., "Washington Sculpture: A Cultural History of Outdoor Sculpture in the Nation's Capitol," Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, no. 1/17.

"Compilation of Works of Art and Other Objects in the United States Capitol," the Architect of the Capitol, 1965, pp. 364.

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

Goode, James M., "Washington Sculpture: A Cultural History of Outdoor Sculpture in the Nation's Capitol," Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, no. 1.17.

For model see: 08580348.

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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