Statues:The People They Salute

Overview about my Blog series

Have you ever wandered through a park and come upon a statue and wondered who or what inspired it? Maybe it towers above you. Maybe it can meet your gaze ‒ eyeball to eyeball. Sometimes it is shining gold. Other times it is a dark aged metal. Perhaps it was chiseled from marble or some other stone.

No matter its size or texture, it usually commands my attention. On closer inspection a plaque is usually present. Raised gold lettering on black, or carved recessed lettering often tells about the individual or event that the statue is honoring. These words may cause buried knowledge about the subject to rise, but often the honoree is being met for the first time.

Parks are not the only location for encounters with statues. Town squares, museums and our nation’s capital, Washington D.C. are home to many statues. National Statuary Hall in the Capitol has two statues representing each state. Most of the people these statues honor I know little or nothing about. When I first learned about these statues, I was curious. I wanted to know more about who inspired the statues. Why should we remember these individuals and their accomplishments? I decided to start a series of posts to share what I discover. (Started that 5 years ago now! I’ve written up 70 of the 100 statues in the National Statuary Hall Collection so far…Click the image of National Statuary Hall to link to the Table of Contents for my series.

Click the name to read the post, at the end of the post click Table of Contents to return to the list & read another 😉) I hope I have sparked some curiosity and you will check out what I find.

Diana Erbio is a freelance writer and author of “Coming to America: A Girl Struggles to Find her Way in a New World”. Read more in her series Statues: The People They Salute, at www.dianaerbio.wordpress.com/blog and visit the Facebook Page.