Welcome to the first installment of the Icie Chronicles! Over the past couple of months I have been so fortunate to discover Icie Florence Johnson. A prolific journalist, columnist and writer of non-fiction, Icie found her way into my life because of three library size boxes labeled Icie Johnson in the tombs of the Johnson County Historical Society here in Warrensburg. I somehow recognized her name and decided to see what those boxes contained! I will soon formally introduce Icie to you – so stay tuned! But for today, the fourth of July, I will give you one of her essays. Enjoy!
THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN
By Icie Johnson (1976)
The recent dedication of the extension to the Capitol building in Washington D.C., renewed the interest in the story of the statue on top of the dome of the original part of the building. A variety of conflicting stories are told about this woman. She does not represent an Indian. Her name is not Pocahontas. She was not given to the United States by a foreign country.
The statue was designed by Thomas Crawford, father of the American novelist, F. Marion Crawford, and the plaster model was executed by Mr. Crawford in his studio in Rome. The statue is an American product in every sense of the word, for it was created by an American, cast in an American Foundry, and paid for by American taxpayers. The statue represents the ample figure of a woman symbolizing the greatest treasure of American democracy – freedom. Her official name is the Statue of Freedom.
When Mr. Crawford had been commissioned by the United States to model a statue for the top of the Capitol dome in Washington, DC, the country was in the throes of civil strife. He visualized the dream of all Americans – that of freedom – and now union. His statue must symbolize that powerful moving spirit of a young nation determined to guide its own destiny.
In his studio, a young Crawford drew his plan for the great statue which he wanted to represent his best efforts. His statue would be a woman – a strong, robust woman like those pioneer women who had helped to win American Freedom. Like a mother, she would symbolize the eternal struggle for protection of mankind’s God-given rights. That was Mr. Crawford’s dream for his statue.
In the spring of 1856, Crawford presented his first plan for the statue, but there were criticisms. Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, didn’t like the liberty cap on the lady’s head and suggested a helmet instead. Crawford made those changes, and the day he completed his model, he sighed wearily and said, “Genius of America! You’re finished!” Ill and almost blind, the famous American sculptor, only forty three years old, touched the great plaster model with affection and understanding of what her symbolism would mean to young America, for her home was to be on the national capitol of the United States.
Mr. Crawford had named the statue, Armed Freedom, but she was officially named Statue of Freedom and was thus accepted by the United States government in 1857. Soon after Mr. Crawford completed his plaster model of the statue, he went to London where he died October 16, 1857.
For six months after Crawford’s death, Lady Freedom remained unclaimed in his studio in Rome. She was take in several sections aboard the “Emily Taylor” bound for New York. When the boat sprung a leak, it was necessary to put into Gibraltar for repairs. Again on the sea, the boat ran into stormy weather, and more leaks developed. This time most of the cargo had to be thrown overboard and for a time it looked as if Lady Freedom would never reach her destination. But it was finally agreed to save the statue and the crippled boat limped in Bermuda in July. The boat was then condemned and sold. For five moths Lady Freedom lay in a dusty storehouse waiting for the United States to claim her again.
In December of 1858, parts of the statue arrived aboard the boat “G. W. Horton” in New York. There had not been enough room on the vessel for the whole statue, and the other parts did not arrive in New York until later. It was March of 1859 before the last of the statuary was shipped to Washington on the schooner, “Statesman”.
When all of the portions of the statue were received in Washington, they were sent to the Clark Mills foundry located near Bladensburg, MD. Here the plaster model of the statue was to be cast in bronze but because of the conditions created by the Civil War, the work on the statue was ordered stopped in May of 1861. For another six months, Lady Freedom was the forgotten woman while Americans destroyed each other in another devastating war.
During the blackest of the war, someone got the idea that the completion of the Statue of Freedom might spur the people on to victory. So the statue was completed and this announcement was made by the architect of the Capitol Extension in November of 1862. The Statue of Freedom, which was intended as the crowning feature of the dome and was completed and moved to the grounds east of the Capitol where it was placed on a temporary pedestal in order that the public might have an opportunity to view it before it was raised to its final position.
The Statue of Freedom stands nineteen feet six inches above the dome. Its total weight is 14,985 pounds and the final cost, including the $3000 paid to Mr. Crawford for the model was $23,796.82.
The flowing draperies which adorn the great bronze woman are held at the waist by a huge broach having the letters “U.S.” which are easily read as one gazes up at the statue. A wreath, presumably an olive branch of peace, and a shield also designated with stars and bars are held in her left hand. The head of Lady Freedom is covered by a helmet encircled with stars and surrounded by a crest composed of an eagles head and an arrangement of feathers suggested by the costume of American Indian Tribes. It is these feathers that give the impression that the statue is an Indian figure and many stories have been told from generation to generation about the Indian maid, Pocahontas atop the Capitol dome. The Statue of Freedom was erected in parts, but the final date for placing the completed head and shoulders of the statue above the Capitol was December 2, 1863. It was a gala event designed by the War Department with a special order providing a national salute of thirty-five guns to be
fired from a field battery on Capitol Hill at the moment the American flag was unfurled from the top of the statue. The last gun from the salute was to be answered by a similar salute from the twelve forts which fortified the City of Washington at that time. In spite of the war anxiety, people came in great numbers that cold December day to watch the symbol of American Freedom secured to her final place on the Capitol dome. Uneasy eyes watched the movement of the statue as it was slowly carried upward by a steam hoisting apparatus from the ground in front of the building. In twenty minutes, the three hundred feet were covered, and the head and shoulders of Lady Freedom were moved to their place and secured to the other parts of the figure. As soon as the assembling of the statue was complete, the Stars and Stripes of the Union was unfurled over the head, and the National Salute resounded through the hills of Virginia and Maryland. This simple ceremony was said to spur the people on to more determined acts to save the Union which was still being threatened by the war between the states. The original plaster model from which the bronze status was cast is now a museum piece in the National Museum.
