ream, who had achieved some degree of fame as a teenager for her 1866 statue of lincoln that stands in the capitol, learned that the state of iowa had decided to commission a statue of kirkwood. despite the fact that kirkwood had been one of the congressmen who had voted against awarding the lincoln statue to ream, she set about getting and succeeded in garnering the opportunity to do it. ream had at that point been retired from sculpting for almost two decades but with the backing of kirkwood's widow jane kirkwood won the assignment. on april 5, 1906 the iowa general assembly voted to award the statue to ream, along with $5,000 for the casting in bronze of her model. because she was not up to the physical demands of the task, ream's husband richard, an engineer, devised a special “boatswain’s chair” that allowed her to raise and lower herself in a seated position while working on the statue.