Walla Walla is a city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. It had a population of 34,060 at the 2020 census, estimated to have decreased to 33,927 as of 2021. The population of the city and its two suburbs, the town of College Place and unincorporated Walla Walla East, is about 45,000.
The National Statuary Hall is a chamber in the United States Capitol devoted to sculptures of prominent Americans. The hall, also known as the Old Hall of the House, is a large, two-story, semicircular room with a second story gallery along the curved perimeter. It is located immediately south of the Rotunda. The meeting place of the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 50 years (1807–1857), after a few years of disuse it was repurposed as a statuary hall in 1864; this is when the National Statuary Hall Collection was established. By 1933, the collection had outgrown this single room, and a number of statues are placed elsewhere within the Capitol.
The National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol is composed of statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history. Limited to two statues per state, the collection was originally set up in the old Hall of the House of Representatives, which was then renamed National Statuary Hall. The expanding collection has since been spread throughout the Capitol and its Visitor's Center.
Marcus Whitman was an American physician and missionary. He is most well-known for leading settlers across the Oregon Trail, unsuccessfully attempting to Christianize the Cayuse Indians, and being killed by the Cayuse Indians in the Whitman massacre.
The Whitman massacre refers to the killing of American missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, along with eleven others, on November 29, 1847. They were killed by a small group of Cayuse men who accused Whitman of poisoning 200 Cayuse in his medical care during an outbreak of measles that included the Whitman household. The killings occurred at the Whitman Mission at the junction of the Walla Walla River and Mill Creek in what is now southeastern Washington near Walla Walla. The massacre became a decisive episode in the U.S. settlement of the Pacific Northwest, causing the United States Congress to take action declaring the territorial status of the Oregon Country. The Oregon Territory was established on August 14, 1848, to protect the white settlers.
Franklin Bachelder Simmons was a prominent American sculptor of the nineteenth century. Three of his statues are in the National Statuary Hall Collection, three of his busts are in the United States Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection, and his statue of Ulysses S. Grant is in the United States Capitol Rotunda.
Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart, S.P. was a Canadian religious sister who led a group of the members of her congregation to the Pacific Northwest of the United States. There, under her leadership, they established a network of schools and healthcare to service the American settlers in that new and remote part of the country. She was the first female architect in British Columbia. For her contributions to the development of that region, she was honored by the State of Washington as one of the two people allowed to represent it in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C.
Avard Tennyson Fairbanks was a 20th-century American sculptor. Over his eighty-year career, he sculpted over 100 public monuments and hundreds of artworks. Fairbanks is known for his religious-themed commissions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints including the Three Witnesses, Tragedy of Winter Quarters, and several Angel Moroni sculptures on spires of the church's temples. Additionally, Fairbanks sculpted over a dozen Abraham Lincoln-themed sculptures and busts among which the most well-known reside in the U.S. Supreme Court Building and Ford's Theatre Museum.
George Washington is a statue by the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon from the late 18th century. Based on a life mask and other measurements of George Washington taken by Houdon, it is considered one of the most accurate depictions of the subject. The original sculpture is located in the rotunda of the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, and it has been copied extensively, with one copy standing in the United States Capitol Rotunda.
Anne Whitney created two public statues of Samuel Adams. One, made in 1876, resides in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the US Capitol, Washington, D.C. The other, made in 1880, is located in front of Faneuil Hall Plaza in Boston.
Stephen F. Austin is a statue of Stephen F. Austin by Elisabet Ney, originally modeled in 1893 and installed in 1905; it is part of the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., as one of the two statues from Texas. The other Texas statue, Sam Houston, is also by Ney and was produced in parallel. Another carving of Stephen F. Austin is displayed in the Texas State Capitol, where it was installed in 1903.
Sam Houston is a statue of Sam Houston by Elisabet Ney, originally modeled in 1892 and installed in 1905; it is part of the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., as one of the two statues from Texas. The other Texas statue, Stephen F. Austin, is also by Ney and was produced in parallel. Another carving of Sam Houston is displayed in the Texas State Capitol, where it was installed in 1903.
John Burke is a bronze sculpture depicting the American politician of the same name by Avard Fairbanks, installed at the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall, in Washington, D.C., as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. The statue was gifted by the U.S. state of North Dakota in 1963.
Samuel Kirkwood is a bronze statue created by Vinnie Ream and placed in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., one of the two statues there from Iowa. It was dedicated in 1913.
Brigham Young is a marble statue by Mahonri Young representing the Mormon religious leader of the same name, installed in the United States Capitol, in Washington D.C., as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. It is one of two statues donated by the state of Utah, and is unusual in the collection in that Young is portrayed sitting down. The statue was unveiled by Alben William Barkley on June 1, 1950.
Henry Clay is a 1929 bronze sculpture by Charles Henry Niehaus depicting the lawyer and politician Henry Clay, installed in the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. It is one of two statues donated by the state of Kentucky. The statue was accepted into the collection by Virgil Chapman on March 3, 1929.
Helen Keller is a bronze sculpture depicting the American author and political activist of the same name by Edward Hlavka, installed in the United States Capitol Visitor Center's Emancipation Hall, in Washington, D.C., as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. The statue was gifted by the U.S. state of Alabama in 2009, and replaced one depicting Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, which had been donated in 1908.
Esther Hobart Morris is a bronze sculpture depicting the first woman justice of the peace in the United States by Avard Fairbanks.
John Hanson is a bronze statue by Richard E. Brooks of Founding Father John Hanson, installed in the United States Capitol, in Washington, D.C., as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. It is one of two statues donated by the state of Maryland.
