Statues:The People They Salute

The Car of History in National Statuary Hall

DID YOU KNOW...This marble sculpture is among the oldest works of art in the U.S. Capitol. PLUS John Quincy Adams wrote a poem about her!

“The Car of History” was created in 1819, by an Italian sculptor, Carlo Franzoni, after the British burned the U.S. Capitol on August 24, 1814. The clock stands in National Statuary Hall which used to be the Hall of the House of Representatives before it was moved in 1857. In 1864 the room was designated for the display of statues donated by the states.

Today the clock faces an entrance to the House chamber. The “Car of History” is more of a winged chariot than what we think of as a car, and it is traveling through time with a clock for its wheel. The vehicle is carrying Clio, the muse of history through the ages at a velocity measured in minutes.

Clio is holding a book in which she records events as they occur. The car, passes over a globe, where three signs of the zodiac are carved. This too is a representation of the passage of time.

John Quincy Adams who was elected nine times to serve in Congress after he had been President of the United States even wrote a sonnet about this chariot riding through time transporting the recorder of history.

Historic muse! Who from thy winged car

Pursuest thy rapid and unwearied flight;

Recording all that passes in thy sight,

And all thou hearest of the wordy war,

The wit, the wisdom, the conflicting jar

Of ranting, raving parties, day and night

Beneath the sunbeams or the taper light

The frantic reason of this wandering star.

Oh! Muse historic – in thy march sublime

Still urging onward on the wheels of time,

Canst thou not whisper to the chosen band,

But for one day to calm their senseless rage,

And let thy volume bear one blessed page

Of deeds devoted to their native land.