Following adoption of House Concurrent Resolution 216 by the Congress in September 1996, the massive marble monument to the pioneers of the woman suffrage movement has been relocated from the Capitol's first-floor Crypt to the second-floor Rotunda. (A photograph of the sculpture [31k] is available.) The sculpture was moved from the Capitol Crypt to the adjoining first-floor landing on Saturday, May 10; it was hoisted to the second floor and moved to the Rotunda on Mother's Day, May 11, and was set on its new base early on Monday, May 12. As specified by the resolution, the move was paid for with private funds, which were raised by the Woman Suffrage Statue Campaign. Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony was sculpted by Adelaide Johnson (1859-1955) from an 8-ton block of marble in Carrara, Italy. The three portrait busts are copies of the individual busts she carved for the World's Columbian Exhibition in 1893. The monument was presented to the Capitol as a gift from the women of the United States by the National Woman's Party and was accepted on behalf of Congress by the Joint Committee on the Library on February 10, 1921. The Committee authorized the unveiling ceremony in the Rotunda on February 15, 1921, and the monument's subsequent location in the Crypt, where it was on continuous display.
The approximately 14,000-pound sculpture formerly rested on rectangular slabs of black and white marble, making the total estimated weight 26,000 pounds. Because of structural considerations, the base slabs will be replaced with a hollow structure of the same configuration.
The inscription stenciled on the monument when it was first delivered to the Capitol appears below.
Additional information about the sculpture and the sculptor is available.
Inscription Originally Stenciled on the Portrait MonumentTHE THREE GREAT DESTINY CHARACTERS OF THE WORLD WHOSE SPIRITUAL IMPORT AND HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE TRANSCEND THAT OF ALL OTHERS OF ANY COUNTRY OR AGE.
LUCRETIA MOTT AND ELIZABETH CADY STANTON IN THE CALL OF THAT FIRST WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION OF 1848 INITIATED AND SUSAN B. ANTHONY MARSHALLING THE LATENT FORCES THROUGH THREE GENERATIONS DOWN MORE THAN A HALF CENTURY OF TIME GUIDED THE ONLY FUNDAMENTAL UNIVERSAL UPRISING ON OUR PLANET. THE WOMAN'S REVOLUTION.
PRINCIPLE NOT POLICY; JUSTICE, NOT FAVOR; MEN, THEIR RIGHTS AND NOTHING MORE; WOMEN, THEIR RIGHTS AND NOTHING LESS, WAS THE CLARION CALL TO THE MOST ASTOUNDING UPHEAVAL OF ALL TIME. A CALL WHICH WAKED THE WORLD, SIGNALED AND INAUGURATED A REVOLUTION WITHOUT TRADITION OR PRECEDENT, AND PROCLAIMED THE FIRST INCONTROVERTIBLE CONCEPT OF HUMAN FREEDOM-THAT OF INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY-PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, INCLUDING WOMEN.
WOMAN, FIRST DENIED A SOUL, THEN CALLED MINDLESS, NOW ARISEN DECLARED HERSELF AN ENTITY TO BE RECKONED.
THIS MIGHTIEST OF REVOLUTIONS ENCIRCLING THE GLOBE ACCOMPLISHING WITHOUT BLOODSHED THE OVERTHROW OF ENTRENCHED DOGMA AND HOARY BIGOTRIES REACHED TO THE FARTHERMOST ROOTS OF BEING. HERE INDEED WAS THE FIRST, THE ONLY IMPEACHABLE DEMAND FOR RIGHT AS MIGHT EVER MADE.
SPIRITUALLY THE WOMAN MOVEMENT IS THE ALL-ENFOLDING ONE. IT REPRESENTS THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMANHOOD. THE RELEASE OF THE FEMININE PRINCIPLE IN HUMANITY. THE MORAL INTEGRATION OF HUMAN EVOLUTION COME TO RESCUE TORN AND STRUGGLING HUMANITY FROM ITS SAVAGE SELF.
HISTORICALLY THESE THREE STAND UNIQUE AND PEERLESS.
