[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               BICENTENNIAL OF THE BIRTH OF HIRAM POWERS

 Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, today, July 29, 2005, is the 
bicentennial of the birth of Hiram Powers, an American neoclassical 
sculptor whose works are admired in museums throughout this Nation and 
in this beautiful Capitol. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow lovers of art 
and students of history are gathering in Woodstock, VT, the town of 
Hiram Powers birth and his early years, to celebrate and rediscover his 
contributions to American art and sculpture.
  I sincerely wish I could join the Hiram Powers Celebration Committee 
in Woodstock this weekend. However, to enjoy Hiram Powers work, I only 
have to walk a few steps out of this Chamber. At the foot of the East 
Staircase, just outside the Senate Chamber, stands a statue of Benjamin 
Franklin sculpted by Hiram Powers. That statue, commissioned by 
President James Buchanan in 1859, was delivered to its present location 
in 1862. In the corresponding location in the House Wing of the Capitol 
stands a statue of Thomas Jefferson, completed by Hiram Powers in 1863. 
Also here in the Capitol, a bust of Supreme Court Chief Justice John 
Marshall by Hiram Powers resides, fittingly, in the Old Supreme Court 
Chamber.
  The Smithsonian American Art Museum collection includes 70 works by 
Hiram Powers. The Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Gallery of 
Art, both located here in Washington, also include works by Hiram 
Powers in their distinguished collections. In other U.S. cities--
including New York City, Boston, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee, to name a 
few--museums of fine arts hold Hiram Powers' works.
  Hiram Powers' most well-known sculpture is ``The Greek Slave,'' first 
completed in 1843. One rendition from 1846 sits today at the Corcoran, 
and a later rendition from 1873 can be found at the Smithsonian. To 
quote a curator of American Art at the corcoran, ``The Greek Slave,'' 
the first publicly exhibited, life-size American sculpture depicting a 
fully nude human figure, met with unprecedented popular and critical 
success. Arguably the most famous American sculpture ever, the Slave 
not only won Powers enormous international acclaim but also enhanced 
the overseas reputation of American art and culture.'' Hiram Powers was 
an outspoken abolitionist in the decades preceding the Civil War. ``The 
Greek Slave'', which depicts a Greek Christian woman, captured during 
the Greek War of Independence, awaiting her sale in the slave market, 
became a symbol of the savagery of slavery in the United States. 
Scholars note that it was the most widely viewed statue of its time 
thanks to its tour of Eastern and Midwestern States.
  Hiram Powers died in 1873, leaving behind the richest legacy of art 
of, perhaps, any American sculptor. I close today by thanking the Hiram 
Powers Celebration Committee. I wish them success during this weekend's 
events to remember Hiram Powers, his contributions to American art, and 
his Vermont heritage.

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