Restoring Freedom From Historic Separations

The saw rasped through the towering plaster masterpiece cast in Rome and destined to be the centerpiece of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center (CVC): the Statue of Freedom. But on that day in 1967, the grating sound echoed through the Smithsonian rotunda, white dust drifted to the floor and the robed figure was separated into pieces — a crown, a hand, a wreath. Packed into crates, the statue was carried away, not to be seen for decades.

From the time all of its pieces arrived in America in 1859, the 15,000-pound plaster Statue of Freedom has relied on many skilled hands over many generations to preserve it. But before each restoration effort, the beautiful plaster figure had to be cut into pieces. Repeatedly.

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The plaster model stands on display above busts in National Statuary Hall in 1860, after its delivery from Rome.

American sculptor Thomas Crawford, working in his studio in Rome in the 1850s, cast the plaster model of Freedom from his original clay sculpture in five separate sections. When it arrived in Washington, D.C. — where skilled craftsmen and artisans were rare — an Italian sculptor assembled the plaster statue for display in National Statuary Hall.

However, when the plaster model of the Statue of Freedom had to be moved to the foundry for casting in bronze, no one knew how to separate the sections and the sculptor refused to help unless given a pay raise. Unfortunately for the sculptor, Philip Reid was there.

Reid was an enslaved laborer in the foundry. He determined that pulling up on the lifting ring at the top of the plaster model would reveal the seams between the sections. When this was done, the statue was successfully separated into its five sections and transported to the foundry.

Reid was instrumental in casting the bronze monument that was mounted atop the Capitol Dome on December 2, 1863, hundreds of feet above the next resting place of the plaster model that it was cast from.

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Plaster pieces of the Statue of Freedom model following a period of storage.

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Moving a larger section of the plaster model Statue of Freedom.

Plaster pieces of the model following a period of storage; moving larger sections of the model.

With no suitable space for the assembled plaster statue in the U.S. Capitol Building, then-Architect of the Capitol Edward Clark had the disassembled model stored in crates in the basement. But Clark believed the plaster statue should be displayed, so he showed Joseph Henry, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution the sections of the statue in the U.S. Capitol basement and asked if the museum could display the reassembled original.

The Secretary was receptive to the proposal, but there was no space large enough in the Smithsonian. Yet. The sections of the statue remained in storage until the Smithsonian completed construction of the Arts and Industries Building in 1881, where Crawford's work took center stage, standing tall over display cases for decades to come.

However, the years it waited in storage took a toll on the fragile plaster, as described in the 1891 report of the Smithsonian Board of Regents:

The model, which had remained for nearly thirty years in the basement of the capitol, was found to be so broken, many of the more delicate parts being entirely gone, that its complete restoration from the fragments seemed impossible. In addition to difficulties of this sort, in order to move and place safely in position the immense pieces of the statue which remained intact, it was found necessary to saw them carefully into smaller parts, which after being lifted into place were securely reunited.¹

Painstakingly reassembled and placed in the Arts and Industries Building rotunda, the Statue of Freedom gazed out over the museum galleries as displays were moved in and out around it, including aviator Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis monoplane and a full-sized model of the Mariner 4 spacecraft.

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Freedom stands over a model of the Mariner 4 spacecraft in the rotunda of the Smithsonian Arts and Industries building.

Freedom stood in the museum from 1900 to 1967, when Smithsonian employees once again carefully sawed apart the statue. They removed smaller sections, then separated the top and bottom of the massive plaster model. Once all the parts were secured in protective crates, they were again put into storage.

When the Statue of Freedom made a final return to Capitol Hill in 1992, an Architect of the Capitol (AOC) paint crew exfoliated the statue's leaded paint surface. AOC Paint Division General Supervisor Ken Riley spent many hours carefully scraping off the flaking paint. He remembered, "The biggest challenge was not damaging the brittle — and historic — plaster substrate."

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The hand holding the wreath being removed from the plaster model Statue of Freedom.

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The hand holding the wreath being removed from the plaster model Statue of Freedom.

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The hand holding the wreath from the plaster model Statue of Freedom.

To preserve the fragile plaster model, Smithsonian employees carefully sawed off and lifted away smaller pieces, such as the hand holding the wreath, before moving the larger sections.

Riley thought the plaster model's shield looked like it had been in a battle. "Because I'd worked on the restoration of the pedestal on top of the Capitol, I'd seen the bronze statue's shield up close with its beautiful concise straight lines. I knew that the plaster model must have at one time looked like that, so I ended up spending a lot of time working to correct the alignment of the 13 stripes on the shield."

After restoration, the Statue of Freedom model was transported — with just inches to spare in some hallways — to the basement rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building. In 2008, AOC employees once again expertly disassembled and moved Crawford's masterpiece to its current location as the centerpiece of Emancipation Hall. In the towering stone room at the center of the CVC, in the early morning quiet before its doors opened to the public, the only sound was the soft scrape of a plaster knife.

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An AOC craftsmen carefully rejoins a section of the plaster model Statue of Freedom.

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An AOC craftsmen carefully replaces pieces of the plaster model Statue of Freedom that had fallen off during moving and storage.

After the Statue of Freedom model was placed in Emancipation Hall in the CVC, AOC craftsmen carefully rejoined the sections and replaced the pieces that had fallen off during moving and storage.

Skilled AOC artisans were once again sealing the cuts that had separated the figure into two large halves. They carefully reattached elements, such as the hand holding a wreath and all the decorations from her gown.

For 165 years, AOC employees have preserved the Statue of Freedom in her many forms, restored her when necessary and always inspired awe in those who experience the beauty and power of her presence.

¹ Smithsonian Institution. Board of Regents & United States National Museum. (1846). Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution (1891 Incl Rpt US Natl Mus). Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved from https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/annualreportofbo1891smitso