The Vice Presidential Bust Collection Brochure, S
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Henry Wilson Garfield. Although his early political success had design for the American buffalo nickel. More than (1812–1875) ⓲ been through the machine politics of New York, 25 years after sculpting the Roosevelt bust, Fraser Daniel Chester French, Arthur surprised critics by fighting political created the marble bust of Vice President John 1886 corruption. He supported the first civil service Nance Garner for the Senate collection. THE Henry Wilson reform, and his administration was marked by epitomized the honesty and efficiency. Because he refused to Charles G. Dawes American Dream. engage in partisan politics, party regulars did not (1865–1951) VICE PRESIDENTIAL Born to a destitute nominate him in 1884. Jo Davidson, 1930 family, at age 21 he Prior to World War I, BUST COLLECTION Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens originally walked to a nearby Charles Dawes was a declined to create Arthur’s official vice presidential town and began a lawyer, banker, and bust, citing his own schedule and the low business as a cobbler. Wilson soon embarked on politician in his native commission the Senate offered. Eventually he a career in politics, and worked his way from the Ohio. During the war, reconsidered, and delivered the finished work in Massachusetts legislature to the U.S. Senate. In a he became a brigadier politically turbulent era, he shifted political parties 1892. One of America’s best known sculptors, Saint-Gaudens also created the statue of Abraham general and afterwards several times, but maintained a consistent stand headed the Allied against slavery throughout his career. Wilson was Lincoln in Chicago’s Lincoln Park and the design reparations commission. He was awarded the elected to the vice presidency on the 1872 for the 1907 $20 gold piece, considered by many Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for the “Dawes Plan” Republican ticket with Ulysses S. Grant. He died collectors to be America’s most beautiful coin. to stabilize Germany’s finances after World War I. in the Vice President’s Room in the Capitol in Following his term as vice president under Calvin 1875. Ten years later, the Senate placed a bust of Theodore Roosevelt Coolidge from 1925 to 1929, Dawes served as Wilson in that room as a memorial to him. (1858–1919) James Earle Fraser, ambassador to Great Britain for Herbert Hoover. Daniel Chester French, long considered the “dean 1910 of American sculptors,” modeled the bust of American artist Jo Davidson carved the Senate’s Theodore Roosevelt Henry Wilson. One of the country’s most popular bust of Charles Dawes. A renowned sculptor, served as governor of and prolific artists, French is known for his public Davidson created likenesses of Gertrude Stein, New York prior to his monuments, private memorials, and portrait busts. Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, and other term as vice president. French’s most celebrated work is the monumental prominent American figures of the 20th century. He succeeded to the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln The Senate collection also contains the artist’s presidency following Memorial in Washington, D.C. bust of Vice President Henry Wallace. Davidson’s the assassination of statues of Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. of William McKinley in 1901. Roosevelt strongly Wisconsin and humorist Will Rogers are part of Chester Alan Arthur supported railroad regulation, construction of the the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection. (1830–1886) ⓴ Panama Canal, and conservation of natural Augustus Saint-Gaudens, resources, especially through national parks. In 1891 1906, Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending the Russo-Japanese war. In 1881, just months after assuming the vice Roosevelt’s interests in nature and the American presidency, Chester West made the choice of James Earle Fraser as Alan Arthur became Prepared under the direction of the U.S. Senate Commission sculptor of his bust particularly appropriate. on Art by the Office of Senate Curator president following the Fraser is perhaps best known for his mounted assassination of James Native American figure, End of the Trail, and the S. Pub. 114–9 History of the Collection Thomas Jefferson This theory helped tie the ideas of slavery, states’ THE (1743–1826) ❷ rights, and secession together in the ante-bellum The United States Senate’s Vice Presidential Bust Moses Ezekiel, 1888 South. When Calhoun resigned from the vice Collection honors the presidents of the Senate and presidency in 1833, South Carolina elected him to VICE PRESIDENTIAL forms the institution’s oldest continuing art Thomas Jefferson the Senate. There he became one of the Senate’s collection. The Senate commissioned the first bust may be best known for “Great Triumvirate” (with Daniel Webster and BUST COLLECTION in 1885 as a tribute to Vice President Henry his accomplishments Henry Clay), which led the Senate during the Wilson and placed it in the Vice President’s Room, as author of second quarter of the 19th century. adjacent to the Senate Chamber. the Declara tion of Independence, Theodore Mills actively sought the commission president of the to sculpt the official bust of Calhoun, making a United States, and plaster model from a life mask that his father, founder of the University of Virginia, but during noted sculptor Clark Mills, had made years his years as vice president from 1797 to 1801 he earlier. The Senate Committee on the Library made an important contribution to the Senate. As The Office of Vice President awarded the commission to Mills based on the the Senate’s presiding officer, Jefferson drafted a plaster model. “The Vice President of the United States shall be manual of parliamentary practice that members President of the Senate but shall have no Vote, of Congress still consult today. unless they be equally divided.” John Tyler Virginian Moses Ezekiel completed the bust of Article I, Section 3, The Constitution (1790–1862) ❿ Jefferson in the late 1880s. A Confederate soldier William C. McCauslen, during the Civil War, Ezekiel later embarked on a Besides breaking a tie vote in the Senate, the 1898 prolific sculpture career. Among his other works Constitution assigns few responsibilities to the vice The vice president's Capitol office president. John Adams summed up his role when are the Confederate Memorial in Arlington John Tyler served as he observed, “I am Vice President, in this I am In 1886, the Senate passed a resolution establishing National Cemetery, and 11 sculptures that filled a representative and nothing, but may be everything.” Since then, the a collection of marble vice presidential portraits. the niches in the facade of the original Corcoran senator from his native functions of the office have been shaped by each After the first busts filled the 20 niches that Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Virginia. Tyler was the vice president’s relationship to the president, and by surround the Senate Chamber gallery, new first vice president to the events of the era. Vice presidents have served as additions were placed throughout the Senate succeed to the unofficial envoys to Congress, presidential wing of the Capitol. John C. Calhoun presidency following emissaries to official ceremonies, and have acceded (1782–1850) ❼ the death of a president. Rejecting the notion that to the presidency upon the death of the president. Traditionally, each vice president chooses an Theodore Mills, 1896 he was an “acting president,” Tyler established himself as president in his own right by holding artist, and the necessary sittings occur after the John C. Calhoun of As president of the Senate, many early vice vice president leaves office. Since 1947, the Senate South Carolina was firm to his political convictions. presidents took an active role in Chamber Committee on Rules and Administration has elected vice president proceedings—presiding over debates and monitored this progress, and has approved and in 1824 with John Washington, D.C. artist William C. McCauslen interpreting parliamentary questions. In response, accepted the final work on behalf of the Senate. Quincy Adams, and executed the bust of John Tyler for the Senate. the Senate developed rules and practices to affirm was reelected with Because the Senate commissioned the Tyler bust its independence from this representative of the The collection chronicles the individuals who have Andrew Jackson in after the subject’s death, McCauslen relied upon executive branch. Nevertheless, the vice president served as vice president and pays tribute to their 1828. While vice portraits painted during Tyler’s lifetime as models. has continued over the years to serve as a bridge role in the history of the Senate. It also provides a president, Calhoun developed his theory of The artist also created the busts of Vice Presidents between the administration and the Senate, and still unique survey of American sculpture from the nullification, which would have let a state William R. King and Andrew Johnson in the maintains an office in the Capitol for that reason. 19th century to the present. disregard, or nullify, federal laws it deemed harmful. Senate collection. History of the Collection Thomas Jefferson This theory helped tie the ideas of slavery, states’ THE (1743–1826) ❷ rights, and secession together in the ante-bellum The United States Senate’s Vice Presidential Bust Moses Ezekiel, 1888 South. When Calhoun resigned from the vice Collection honors the presidents of the Senate and presidency in 1833, South Carolina elected him to VICE PRESIDENTIAL forms the institution’s oldest continuing art Thomas Jefferson the Senate. There he became one of the Senate’s collection. The Senate commissioned the first bust may be best known for “Great Triumvirate” (with Daniel Webster and BUST COLLECTION in 1885 as a tribute to Vice President Henry his accomplishments Henry Clay), which led the Senate during the Wilson and placed it in the Vice President’s Room, as author of second quarter of the 19th century.