Explore the National Statuary Hall of this artwork, Statue of Samuel Adams.
Congress asked each state to provide the nation's capitol with two statues of prominent individuals. Some thought that John Adams, Samuel's cousin and also a president, should have been chosen, but at the time Samuel Adams was the most popular figure in the state's history. Having written thousands of letters to political leaders and newspapers, he was called "the most persuasive political writers of all time" by George Sand.Whitney won a contest in 1873 to create a statue of Samuel Adams, one of the requirements being that the statue be carved in Italy from a plaster cast made in Boston.  She traveled to Italy in 1875 to acquire Carrara marble for the sculpture. It was sent to Washington, D.C. in 1876, the country's centennial. In a verse that mocked the judges who first selected her in a blind competition to create a statue for Charles Sumner, but deselected her when they found out that she was a woman, a verse was published in New York Evening Telegram that stated, "Yet under the dome of the Capitol / Stands Samuel Adams erect and tall, / As free as his namesake before the fall; / And though the image was carved by woman / Rarely is marble so grandly human."  The statue was unveiled in the Capitol on December 19, 1876.
John Adams George Sand Carrara marble Washington, D.C. National Statuary Hall Samuel Adams New York Evening Telegram Congress Adams, Samuel Charles Sumner