Ohio! Put a woman in Statuary Hall!
The statue of Gov. William Allen in National Statuary Hall has been slated for replacement.
Ohio is in the process right now of choosing a replacement for one of its statues.
For more than a century, Ohio has been represented in Statuary Hall by the marble likenesses of President James Garfield and Governor William Allen. Garfield is still secure on his perch, but Allen’s racist views have made him something of an embarrassment. In 2006 the Ohio General Assembly voted to form a Committee to find a suitable replacement for the Allen statue.
That process is now nearing its conclusion. After several months of investigation and deliberation, the Statuary Committee announced in February 2010 that it had narrowed the list of candidates to ten finalists. Three women made the list.
- Thomas Edison, inventor
- Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and author
- Jesse Owens, Olympic gold medal winner
- Harriet Taylor Upton, women’s suffrage activist
- James M. Ashley, Toledo congressman and abolitionist
- Wright brothers, Dayton aviation pioneers
- William McCulloch, Piqua congressman and civil rights supporter
- Judith Resnik, Akron astronaut who died on the Challenger
- Albert Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine
- Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president and Civil War general
What’s Next:
The next step is the public balloting. Ohioans will be given a chance to vote for their top choices at museums, historical sites, and other locations around the state from March 20 to June 12, 2010.
- To kick off the voting, EVE is sponsoring its first public event: a living history presentation on Saturday, March 20, featuring the three women nominees. Read our press release here and check out this great picture of the actor who plays Harriet Beecher Stowe!
- Go to the Statuary Committee’s website for a list and map of all 36 voting locations in the state. Online ballots will be available beginning March 20, and you can email your ballot if you’re unable to visit one of voting locations in person.
The public vote isn’t binding, but the Statuary Committee is expected to take the results into account in making their final recommendation to the General Assembly.
What You Can Do:
- Read up on the ten Ohio finalists. Visit our pages dedicated to Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Taylor Upton, and Judith Resnik to find out why one of these women would make a great addition to Statuary Hall. We’re also compiling information on the other candidates, including reasons why they might not be the best choice for Ohio.
- Spread the word! We’ve created a one-page flyer for distributing in Ohio, explaining briefly the voting process and urging citizens to Put a Woman in Statuary Hall! Send it to everyone you know — friends, family, teachers — and as well as to women’s clubs, Girl Scout troops, school groups, etc. It’s in pdf format, suitable for printing out or sending as an email attachment:
ohiostatue.pdf
Click to open the file, and then either print it out, or, if you plan to send it as an email attachment, save it to some handy location on your own computer.
(If you don’t already have the free Adobe Reader installed on your computer, you’ll need to download it.) - If you’re on Facebook, become a fan of our page: Put a Woman in Statuary Hall. We’re tracking developments there hour by hour!
- Write letters! At our Ohio Action Center you’ll find contact information for Ohio newspapers and members of the Statuary Committee, along with sample letters to inspire you. You can also share your own stories and suggest ideas on how to get the word out.
- Take our poll! Who do you want to represent Ohio? We’ll compile the results and send them to the Statuary Committee, along with a selection of your comments and stories.
Ohio Statue Project Action Center
Visit our Action Center for resources and samples to get you started. Share your own ideas and letters too!
- Ohio Newspapers Contact Information
- Sample Letters to the Editor
- Statue Committee Contact Information
- Sample letter to Statue Committee
Have Your Say
Take our poll! Who do you think should represent Ohio in Statuary Hall? We'll send the results to the Ohio Statue Committee:
- Harriet Beecher Stowe?
- Harriet Taylor Upton?
- Judith Resnik?
- One of the guys?
Ohio Statue Project Updates
Ohio voters choose another man for Statuary Hall
July 10, 2010 by EVE · 2 Comments »
Sorry, we couldn’t resist. Here’s the press release from the Ohio Historical Society:
Ohioans Choose Edison for National Statuary Hall
(COLUMBUS, OHIO) -On behalf of the National Statuary Collection Study Committee, the Ohio Historical Society announces that inventor Thomas A. Edison was the top vote-getter for Ohio’s representative to National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol.
From March 20 to June 12, more than 46,000 Ohioans statewide cast ballots for one of 10 nominees for whom they thought should stand for Ohio in Washington, D.C. Of the total, Edison received 14,261 votes, followed by the Wright Brothers with 13,363 votes and Jesse Owens with 4,921 votes, according to Burt Logan, executive director and CEO of the Ohio Historical Society.
“The response to the popular vote was extraordinary,” Logan said. “Ohioans of all ages and from every region of the state took this opportunity to tell state legislators who they want to represent the state in National Statuary Hall and Thomas Edison, world-famous inventor born in Milan, Ohio, is the people’s choice.”
The public vote isn’t binding, but most of the news reports in Ohio seem to be taking it as given that Edison will be the state’s new statue. …continue reading
Are the Wright Brothers the Right Choice for Ohio?
June 30, 2010 by Lynette Long, Ph.D., President of EVE · 1 Comment »
The polling in Ohio has come to a close, and now it’s time for six members of the Ohio state legislature to decide who is the right choice to represent Ohio in National Statuary Hall. Two of the final candidates are Wilbur and Orville Wright, credited with the first flight. Their remarkable achievement is memorialized in a frieze in the Capitol Rotunda called “The Birth of Aviation.” This frieze is one of nineteen friezes that surround the dome of the Rotunda. Only one of the nineteen friezes depicts a recognizable woman, Pocahontas.
The Wright Brothers are also recognized on the reverse of two quarters in the new state quarter series. The quarters from Ohio and North Carolina both honor the Wright Brothers. The quarter from only one state (Alabama) commemorates the achievements of a woman, that woman being Helen Keller.
The contributions of the Wright Brothers were significant, but they have already been honored in the U.S. Capitol and on our nation’s currency. It’s time for Ohio to grant visibility to one of the other candidates for National Statuary Hall. Ohio’s National Statuary Committee has the power to make the world different for the next generation of girls. I hope they put a woman in National Statuary Hall.
If a picture is worth a thousand words…
June 18, 2010 by EVE · No Comments »
…maybe this poster will be worth at least one statue!
That’s the poster we had made up and shipped to the members of the statue committee in Ohio this week. See our press release for the full details.
Read more posts in Ohio Statue Project Updates
Ohio Statue Project in the News
News roundup: week ending July 9, 2010
July 8, 2010 by EVE · 1 Comment »
Ohioans want Edison as U.S. Capitol statue Edison in running for D.C. statue pick Edison still wins contest after boxes of uncounted ballots discovered Ohio Historical Society Will Recount Statuary Hall... ...continue reading
News roundup: week ending June 11, 2010
June 16, 2010 by EVE · 1 Comment »
Make your mark in history: Only a week left to cast ballots for Edison statue at U.S. Capitol Vote now or never on Ohio’s choice to stand in Statuary Hall Historic Ohioans vying for spot in Statuary... ...continue reading
Voting closes this weekend for statue of influential Ohioan to be on display at U.S. Capitol
June 7, 2010 by EVE · Comments Off
Published on June 7, 2010 in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: COLUMBUS, Ohio – Voting closes Saturday to help decide which influential Ohioan will be memorialized as a statue and represent the state at the... ...continue reading
Read more posts in Ohio Statue Project in the News