The Capitol Dome

side. Carved out of solid block of marble in the style of his teacher Rodin, it also reflects the style of Borglum's other work, (Borglum is famous for his figures carved out of the rock of Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota). Started in 1908 in the wake of the Lincoln Birthday Centennial, it was the gift of the later publisher of the Washington Post Eugene Meyer Jr., a patron of Borglum. One may note that Lincoln was being celebrated elsewhere at this time as the forceful president, a "man of the people" who was also the great man who saved the Union. Originally placed in the Rotunda along with the standing statue by Vinnie Ream, it was moved to the crypt in 1979. Born in 1867 in the Idaho Territory, Borglum left home at age twelve when his polygamous Mormon father did not choose Gutzon's mother to be his wife but rather the boy's aunt. He eventually trained with Auguste Rodin in Paris before moving to New York. His first great success was the equestrian statue of General Philip Sheridan in Sheridan Circle in Washington, D.C. Unlike other stationary equestrian stat- ues throughout Washington, Sheridan is shown galloping at top speed on his horse Rienzi to avert disaster in an 1864 battle in the Shenandoah. A third statue, of the young Abraham Lincoln the legislator (fig. 4), also has been carved from a single block of marble. It stands on the first floor of the U.S. Capitol at the base of the stairs leading to the small House rotunda near the Amateis doors. It commemorates his one-term stay in the Congress as a Whig in the 1840s. Avard Fairbanks was the sculptor in 1985. Born in a highly artistic family in Provo, Utah in 1897, his works of the Angel Moroni were placed in Mormon temples in many sites throughout the world. Just as within the U.S. Capitol, Abraham Lincoln's varied role in American history is depicted elsewhere in Washington, D.C. e first was a statue placed in front of the courthouse in present-day Judiciary Square to illustrate Lincoln the Legisla- tor (fig. 5). Funded by local citizens, it was sculpted by well- regarded local stonecutter Lot Flannery and unveiled on April 15, 1868. After his death in 1865, Lincoln had become the Christ-like martyr evoked by the Republican Party to justify its policies. Yet no major memorial to Lincoln had yet appeared commen- THE CAPITOL DOME 29 Fig. 2. Abraham Lincoln, marble bust by Sarah Fisher Ames, 1868, U.S. Capitol. Fig. 3. Abraham Lincoln, marble bust by Gutzon Borglum, 1908, Crypt of the U.S. Capitol. Fig. 4. Abraham Lincoln, the Legislator, marble bust by Avard Fair- banks, 1985, first floor U.S. Capitol. ARCHI T EC T OF T HE C API TOL ARCHI T EC T OF T HE C API TOL U.S. SENAT E COL L EC T ION

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