Statues of the Noted

I have visited our nation’s capitol on four different occasions, twice on business and twice as a tourist. While there it is almost mandatory to visit the National Statuary Hall where every state has placed two statues of their notable people.  Sakakawea and John Burke have been selected as North Dakota’s contribution to the collection. I set out to write this little article about them but hesitated after thinking it’s a bit mundane. Maybe some other time.

Would the sculptors of Sakakawea and Burke make for some interesting reading? Leonard Crunelle sculpted the statue of Sakakawea and Avard Fairbanks sculpted the statue of John Burke. Both of them did a nice job, but ho-hum, their personal lives don’t jump out to demand my writing about them. There was something else that begged a closer look.

That something else would be the mismatched proportion of women to men. Of the 100 statues in the Statuary Hall, women account for just fourteen of them. The familiar political name Senator Amy Klobuchar tells us what she thinks. “You don’t have to have a Ph.D. to walk around here and think, ‘Huh, they’re all men,’ ” Klobuchar says. “And that’s just wrong.”  She and a few others pushed legislation to add two more women, both Supreme Court justices: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor. That bill saw passage in March of 2022. 

A Washington Post article appearing a few years back reported that a nationwide count of public outdoor sculptures tallied 5,193 with only 394 or about 8% of women. The reason for the mismatched numbers probably relates to our history of male-centeredness. Our heroes have been political or military man figures. We often hear Willie Nelson’s song “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.”  

An artist pair named Gillie and Marc created a movement called Statues for Equality after noticing most of their orders for statues were for men. It has turned into a worldwide movement and some changes are resulting.

Returning to the fourteen women in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall, some familiar and unfamiliar names. Our own Sakakawea found a place in North Dakota’s books. It seems she became a replacement for Lewis and Clark when their guide abandoned them near Washburn, North Dakota. Her husband offered her services as an interpreter so they could  communicate with tribes as they made their way, and her personality was forever established as an important figure in the journey.

Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins represents Nevada. A Paiute Indian she received encouragement to get an education, learn English, learn the white culture so as to help the tribe in their interaction with the whites, to defend Paiute rights, and to create understanding. Life Among the Piutes is Sarah Winnemucca’s powerful legacy to both cultures, the Native Americans and the whites. Her autobiography Life Among the Piutes appeared in 1883, the first book ever published and written by a Native American woman. 

I recognize a few of the other names. Willa Cather stands in one of Nebraska’s spots. Many of us have read her books about life on the great plains, such as My Antonia, O Pioneers, Death Comes for the Archbishop, and more. Many consider her one of the foremost American female writers of the 20th century.

Alabama chose Helen Keller for one of their statues. At about the age of two she suffered an illness that caused her to lose both her sight and hearing. That would have stymied most people, but a tutor named Anne Sullivan came into her life who taught her to communicate. She developed her ability into the Helen Keller International that aids people with vision loss, malnutrition, and diseases enabled by poverty.

Amelia Earhart of Kansas became interested in aviation in 1920 after attending an air show where she took her first ride in an airplane. Two years later Amelia sets an unofficial altitude record for female pilots after flying to 14,000 feet. In 1932 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Her attempt to fly around the world ended badly. She crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, but she had made quite a name for herself.

Montana’s Jeanette Rankin became the first woman to hold federal office in the United States. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from Montana in 1916 for one term. Rankin was elected once again in 1940. A pacifist, she joined 49 others to oppose our entering World War I. Then in 1941 she became the sole member of congress to vote against the declaration of war on Japan, even after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The 19th Constitutional Amendment gave voting rights to women nationwide. She introduced its legislation. One other notable achievement was her helping to found the American Civil Liberties Union.

States have the right to exchange their statues for another person if they so choose to do so. Maybe with the awakening of this unequal proportion of women to men, other women will be added.