House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday unveiled a bronze sculpture of novelist Willa Cather of Nebraska, hailing it as a “fitting addition” to National Statuary Hall and the first statue in the ornate Capitol room crafted by a Black artist.
Cather, who lived from 1873 to 1947 and spent many years in Nebraska, illustrated life on the Great Plains in her famous books, including “O, Pioneers” and “My Ántonia.”
“As one of America’s greatest novelists, Willa Cather is a fitting addition to this gallery of great Americans,” Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, said during a ceremony that featured members of the Cather family, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and the Nebraska delegation in Congress.
Sen. Deb Fischer, Nebraska Republican, said Cather’s novels felt like they “grew from the soil of Nebraska.”
“Cather, herself, grew from that land. Her family settled in Red Cloud while she was still a child and her imaginative mind put its roots down there in Webster County,” the senator said.
The bronze sculpture, which depicts the author with a walking stick and a book, was created by artist Littleton Alston, an associate professor of sculpture at Creighton University in Omaha.
“Not only is he the first African American artist to have a sculpture in the Capitol, he grew up just a few blocks from the Capitol as well,” Mr. McCarthy said.
Mr. Alston was raised in Washington and from his home, he could see the dome of the U.S. Capitol down East Capitol Street, according to a profile in Omaha Magazine. He attended the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University and the Rinehart School of Sculpture.
“Thank you, sir, for capturing this American hero’s impact on this nation and on our literary canon with such dignity and honor,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat said.
Each state gets two statues in the statuary hall — a popular tourist attraction on the House side of the Capitol — to honor key historical and cultural figures. Federal legislation in 2000 allowed states to request that one or both statutes be replaced.
The Nebraska legislature in 2018 decided to replace a statue of Julius Sterling Morton, who served as agriculture secretary to President Grover Cleveland, with one representing Cather. Lawmakers in Lincoln also decided to replace the statue of William Jennings Bryan, a key Democratic figure in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with one of Ponca Chief Standing Bear.
“I’m from Brooklyn,” Mr. Jeffries said Wednesday, “but we’re all Nebraskans today.”
Source:Washington Times
