Evening star. [volume], July 03, 1960, Page 12, Image 80

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
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Original: Tourists can see plaster cast of "Statue of Freedom" in Washington's Smithsonian Institution
12
See Front Cover
Who’s
Pocahontas? Sitting Bull?
Joan of Arc? Everyone in
Washington has different
ideas about this mystery
statue. Here’s the truth
By LESLIE LIEBER
This Week Roving Editor
Washington
The most familiar building in the world to Ameri
cans is the national Capitol. Photographers snap it,
cartoonists ’draw it, politicians pose in front of it
and tourists swarm all over it. And for the past
year, its resplendent dome has drawn even more
attention than usual by undergoing its first overhaul
job in 97 years. The repairs spotlighted one of
America’s most misunderstood women the statue
on the Capitol dome.
Who in the world is this lofty but lonely lady
(who’s pictured on our cover today)? Baked by the
sun, drenched by downpours, silhouetted and often
struck by lightning, she has stood for nearly a cen
tury on her stormswept pedestal, 287 feet above the
heads of our Congressmen.
Where did she come from? How did she get
there? What’s she doing on the roof anyway? Few-
Washington sight-seers are even sure whether the
Capitol’s crowning glory is indeed a lady or a
man in a flowing Roman toga.
Seven million tourists can be wrong
"Seven million tourists pass through this city
every year,” sighed one downhearted local historian
recently. "They arrive with absolutely no idea who
that figure on the dome is. When they leave, they
have seven million ideas all cockeyed.
"I guess it’s those Indian feathers stuck in the
cap that throw people off. Everybody’s convinced
she’s Pocahontas. All over America, millions of
people are returning home and telling other people
they saw Pocahontas on the roof. By now the whole
thing’s gotten out of hand. A lot of our guides tell
people it’s Pocahontas just to avoid an argument.”
We didn’t quite believe our historian friend, so
we decided to conduct our own street-corner survey.
Half the people we polled thought the statue was
Pocahontas all right. But there was a strong dis-
THIS WEEK Mosoiin. / July 3, 1960