National Statuary Hall Collection

The concept of a National Statuary Hall originated in the middle of the nineteenth century, before the completion of the present House wing in 1857.

Suggestions for the use of the chamber were made as early as 1853 by Gouverneur Kemble, a former member of the House, who pressed for its use as a gallery of historical paintings.

On April 19, 1864, Representative Justin S. Morrill asked: "To what end more useful or grand, and at the same time simple and inexpensive, can we devote it [the Chamber] than to ordain that it shall be set apart for the reception of such statuary as each State shall elect to be deserving of in this lasting commemoration?"

Statues representing ten of the thirteen original colonies were moved to the Central Hall of the East Front Extension on the first floor of the Capitol.

The remainder of the statues were distributed throughout the Capitol, mainly in the Hall of Columns and the connecting corridors of the House and Senate wings.

Proceedings for the donation of a statue usually begin in the state legislature with the enactment of a resolution that names the citizen to be commemorated and cites his or her qualifications, specifies a committee or commission to represent the state in selecting the sculptor, and provides for a method of obtaining the necessary funds to carry the resolution into effect.

In 2002, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced a bill in Congress to allow the District of Columbia to place two statues in the collection, in parity with the 50 states.

While the bill was not enacted, the district commissioned two statues, one of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the other of D.C. master planner Pierre L'Enfant, and housed them in One Judiciary Square in hopes of eventually placing them in the Capitol.

A 2010 version of the bill to accept D.C.'s statues stalled after House Republicans began adding amendments in an attempt to soften D.C.'s gun laws.

[23][24] A few months later, on Juneteenth, 2013, a statue of Frederick Douglass was placed in the Capitol Visitor Center as a gift of the District of Columbia.

In March 2018, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed legislation to replace the statue of Edmund Kirby Smith with one of African American educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune.

[29] These include CSA President Jefferson Davis and Vice President Alexander Stephens and Confederate soldiers, most in Confederate Army uniforms: Generals Joseph Wheeler, James Z. George, Wade Hampton III, as well as Colonel Zebulon Baird Vance and former enlisted soldiers John E. Kenna and Edward Douglass White.

[26][27][30] In 2019, Arkansas decided to replace both its statues, including the one of Uriah M. Rose, with civil rights activist Daisy Bates and Johnny Cash.