DC -- U.S. Capitol Visitor Center (Emancipation Hall):
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CAPVC_130218_11.JPG: Slave Labor Commemorative Marker
The Basics
Materials: Sandstone
Year: 2012
Location: Emancipation Hall, Capitol Visitor Center
On Tuesday, February 28, 2012, Congress unveiled a marker to commemorate the important role played by laborers, including enslaved African Americans, in building the United States Capitol. Their contributions were essential for the constructing what would later become known as the Temple of Liberty.
When construction of the U.S. Capitol Building began in 1793, Washington, D.C., was little more than a rural landscape with dirt roads and few accommodations beyond a small number of boarding houses. Skilled labor was hard to find or attract to the fledgling city. Enslaved laborers, who were rented from their owners, were involved in almost every stage of construction. The federal government relied heavily on enslaved labor to ensure the new capital city would be ready to receive Congress when it moved to Washington from Philadelphia in 1800.
A Mark of Remembrance
To commemorate the role that slave labor played in the construction of the Capitol Building, House Concurrent Resolution 135 was passed by Congress directing the Architect of the Capitol to design, procure and install a slave labor marker in a prominent location in Emancipation Hall. The design and location incorporated the recommendations developed by the Congressional Slave Labor Task Force Working Group.
The marker features a single block of Aquia Creek sandstone, which was originally part of the Capitol’s East Front Portico, presented on a platform clad in Cedar Tavernalle marble. The original chisel marks on the sandstone are in view so visitors can see the physical effort required to hew the stone. A hole in the top of the stone was cut to receive a lifting ring used to raise the stone out of the quarry. A bronze plaque is centered on the presentation wall, with an inscription approved by Congress, acknowledging the efforts of all who worked on the Capitol Building. The inscription reads:
THIS SANDSTONE WAS ORIGINALLY PART OF THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL'S EAST FRONT, CONSTRUCTED IN 18-24-1826. IT WAS QUARRIED BY LABORERS, INCLUDING ENSLAVED AFRICAN AMERICANS, AND COMMEMORATES THEIR IMPORTANT ROLE IN BUILDING THE CAPITOL.
A Historic Contribution
Although the entire contribution of enslaved African Americans in the construction of the Capitol Building cannot be determined due the scarcity of documentation, there is enough information to know that the role they played had a significant impact on the project.
The site of the new capital city was located in an area that had few carpenters, bricklayers, stone cutters and other tradesmen necessary to construct such a project. Engineers and architects were brought in from other areas, but the majority of the work fell upon the laborers in the area, who were comprised mostly of African American slaves. These slaves, as well as other the laborers, quarried the stone used for the floors, walls and columns of the Capitol, sawed both wood and stone, and became skilled in brick making and laying. Carpentry was also one of the more significant contributions slaves made to the construction of the Capitol as they framed the roof and installed its shingle covering.
One of the most significant contributions by an African American slave was made by Philip Reid, who deciphered the puzzle of how to separate the five-piece plaster model of the Statue of Freedom. Today, he and countless others are recognized for the role they played in building this monumental and historic symbol of democracy.
The marker is located towards the western end of the northern wall of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) where it is bathed in sunlight for a portion of each day and will not interfere with visitor flow. The intensity of the daylight will enhance the visibility of tool marks on the presentation stone.
The marker is open to all visitors to the CVC, where visitors can learn more about the Capitol Building and its history.
The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/slave-labor-commemorative-marker
CAPVC_130218_18.JPG: This sandstone was originally part of the United States Capitol's East Front, constructed in 1824-1826. It was quarried by laborers, including enslaved African Americans, and commemorates their important role in building the Capitol.
CAPVC_130218_33.JPG: Raoul Wallenberg
Swedish Humanitarian
Raoul Wallenberg's mission of mercy on behalf of the United States during World War II was unprecedented in the history of mankind. He was responsible for saving tens of thousands of lives during the Holocaust. A shining light in the dark and depraved world, he proved that one person with the courage to care can make a difference.
Dedicated on November 2, 1995,
Fifty years after his disappearance
CAPVC_130218_39.JPG: Sojourner Truth Bust
This bust is the first sculpture to honor an African American woman in the United States Capitol.
The Basics
Artist: Artis Lane
Materials: Bronze
Year: 2009
Location: Emancipation Hall, Capitol Visitor Center
The woman whom history remembers as Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree in 1797. Her parents, James and Elizabeth Baumfree, were slaves on an estate in Ulster County, New York, north of New York City. She was one of 13 children and grew up speaking Dutch. She was first sold at auction around the age of 9. In 1815 she bore her first child, a daughter, to a slave named from a neighboring farm whose owner forbade them to marry. Two years later Isabella's owner compelled her to marry one of his own slaves, with whom she had a son and three daughters.
Before she was 30 Isabella had had five owners. In 1826, a year before the state of New York completed its gradual emancipation of slaves, her owner, Dumont, reneged on a promise to free her as a reward for hard work. Infuriated, she worked until she believed that she had satisfied her obligation to him and then walked away with her infant daughter. A couple named Van Wenger took them in and paid her owner $20 as compensation for her services until emancipation took effect in 1827.
During her time with the Van Wengers, Isabella successfully sued for the return of her son, Peter, whom Dumont had illegally sold to an owner in Alabama. After a profound religious experience, she became a devout Christian and began to preach. She and Peter moved in 1829 to New York City, where she worked for and with two Christian evangelists over more than a decade.
On June 1, 1843, Isabella changed her name to Sojourner Truth and set out to travel and preach about abolition and women's rights, telling her friends, "The Spirit calls me, and I must go." The next year she joined an abolitionist community in Massachusetts, but it dissolved in 1846, and Truth again supported herself as a housekeeper. The year 1850 was a momentous one for her: her memoirs, which she had dictated to a friend, were published as The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave; she purchased a home in Northampton; and she spoke at the first National Women's Rights Convention in Worcester.
In 1851, traveling with abolitionist speaker George Thompson, she attended the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, and delivered her famous speech "Ain't I a Woman?," in which she drew attention to the stark contrast between treatment of white and black women and supported the rising feminist movement:
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get it—and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne five children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
. . .
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it. The men better let them.
Her renown spread during the next decade, as she spoke before abolitionist and suffragist audiences in Ohio, New York (where she met Harriet Beecher Stowe, who later wrote about Truth as "the Libyan Sibyl"), and Michigan. In 1857 she bought a house in Harmonia, Michigan, west of Battle Creek, where she settled with her daughter Elizabeth and two grandsons.
During the Civil War, Truth helped recruit black troops for the Union Army, and her grandson James Caldwell enlisted. In 1864, while working for the National Freedman's Relief Association in Washington, D.C., to improve conditions for African-Americans, she met with President Abraham Lincoln. After the war she worked at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington, and she helped force the desegregation of local streetcars.
Beginning in 1868, she spoke all around the East Coast for several years on the subjects of abolition and women's rights; she also unsuccessfully sought federal land grants for former slaves. She returned to Battle Creek, where she had bought a home in 1867, and spent many of her remaining years preaching and lecturing. On November 26, 1883, she died at her home, and she was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek.
The Bust
The bronze bust of abolitionist and women's-rights advocate Sojourner Truth is the first sculpture to honor an African American woman in the United States Capitol. The over-life-size bust shows her in a cap and shawl similar to those in which she was often photographed. She is depicted with a smile suggesting confidence and determination. The texture of her hair and shawl contrast with the smooth surfaces of the face and underblouse.
Acceptance of a bust of Sojourner Truth was authorized by Public Law 109–427, signed by the president on December 6, 2006. The bust was donated by the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. Having Sojourner Truth represented in the Capitol was a long-time dream of the organization's co-founder and first president, the late C. Delores Tucker. Her decades-long efforts were fulfilled under the leadership of Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esquire, National Chair of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc.
The bust was unveiled on April 28, 2009, in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center, where it will be on permanent display as approved by the Joint Committee on the Library.
The Sculptor
Artis Lane is a California-based sculptor known for her bronze and painted portraits of famous Americans of political and cultural significance; she has also created expressive figurative sculpture representing timeless, generic men and women emerging from the ceramic mold. Lane has also created portraits of Rosa Parks and designed the Rosa Parks Congressional Medal of Honor. Born in Ontario, Canada, in 1927, she studied at the Art College in Toronto and at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and University of California in Los Angeles. She has been actively exhibiting her work and fulfilling commissions since the 1980s. In 2007, the California African American Museum mounted a retrospective exhibition of 60 years of her work.
The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/sojourner-truth-bust
CAPVC_130218_45.JPG: Sojourner Truth
Suffragist/Abolitionist
1797-1883
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Wikipedia Description: United States Capitol Visitor Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The United States Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) is an addition to the United States Capitol which serves as a gathering point for up to 4,000 tourists and an expansion space for the US Congress. It is located below the East Front of the Capitol, between the Capitol and 1st Street East. The complex contains 580,000 square feet (54,000 m2) of space below ground on three floors. The overall project's budget was $621 million.
The CVC has space for use by the Congress, including multiple new meeting and conference rooms. On the House side, there is a large room which will most likely be used by a committee. The new Congressional Auditorium, a 450-seat theater, will be available for use by members of Congress or for either House of Congress should their respective chamber be unavailable.
The CVC officially opened on December 2, 2008. This date was selected to coincide with the 145th anniversary of placing Thomas Crawford's Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol building in 1863, signifying the completion of construction of its dome.
Design:
The CVC contains three under-ground levels: a balcony level entrance, the Emancipation Hall (second) level and a third restricted level for new Congressional offices and meeting rooms. The construction of the CVC represents the largest-ever expansion of the United States Capitol and more than doubles the footprint of the US Capitol building complex.
Construction:
Construction of the CVC is supervised by the Architect of the Capitol. That post was held Alan Hantman, FAIA until his term expired on February 4, 2007; the Architect of the Capitol position is currently vacant, and Deputy Architect of the Capitol Stephen T. Ayers, FAIA, is currently serving as the acting Architect.
The ceremonial ground breaking for the CVC took place on June 20, 2000. Although originally planned to be completed by January 2004, the final completion date (not including the Senate and House expansion space) was extended to December 2, 2008. The proposed cost was originally $71 million, but it has risen to $621 million. The CVC has caused controversy for being over budget and behind schedule. Much of this is blamed on the rising cost of fuel, post-9/11 security measures, and inclement weather. At a hearing on the CVC cost-overruns Representative Jack Kingston called it "a monument to government inefficiency, ineptitutde and excessiveness."
The first major construction contract, worth nearly $100 million, was awarded to Balfour Beatty (formerly Centex Construction), in the spring of 2002. This contract involved site demolition, slurry wall construction, excavation, construction of columns, installation of site utilities, construction of the concrete and structural steel, waterproofing, and construction of a new service tunnel. By July 2005, Balfour Beatty Construction completed all excavation and structural activities, and the roof deck covered the entire CVC structure.
Visitor Center:
The space is mainly designed for use as a holding zone for visitors waiting to take tours of the Capitol. The number of annual visitors to the Capitol has tripled from 1,000,000 in 1970 to nearly 3,000,000 as of recent times, and it has become difficult to deal with the congestion caused by such crowds. In the past, visitors were required to line up on the Capitol's east stairs, sometimes stretching all the way to 1st Street East. This wait could last hours and no protection was offered against inclement weather. Tickets were not timed and were on a first come, first served basis.
With the addition of the CVC, visitors now have a secure, handicap-accessible, and educational place to wait before their Capitol tours commence. Visitors are free to explore the CVC, which houses an exhibition hall, two gift shops, and a 530-seat food court. Visiting the CVC and the Capitol are free. Tickets for Capitol tours are also free and are available online for order ahead of time for the first time ever.
Emancipation Hall:
Emancipation Hall is the main hall of the CVC and measures in at 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2). It was originally designated the Great Hall, but this was changed to Emancipation Hall when a bill cosponsored by Congressmen Zach Wamp and Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. was passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush in January 2008. Some signage in the CVC still reads Great Hall rather than Emancipation Hall, due to the last-minute change in nomenclature. Emancipation Hall contains two large skylights, which each measure 30 feet (9.1 m) by 70 feet (21 m) and allow for a view of the Capitol dome never before seen. The skylights allow a significant amount of natural light into the hall and are surrounded by pools of water and seating on the roof deck.
The Hall displays the original plaster cast of the Statue of Freedom, the bronze statue that stands atop the Capitol dome. Since January 1993, the plaster cast has been on display in the basement rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building, across Constitution Avenue from the Capitol.
CVC skylight looking up at the Capitol dome. Dust is present due to ongoing construction. Taken 2008-05-02.
The Hall is also a display space for 24 statues in the National Statuary Hall Collection. The complete collection is made up of two statues from each state. The statues are donated by their respective state to honor notable residents. In the past years, all 100 statues have been housed in the Capitol, many in Statuary Hall. This has led to overcrowding of statues and relocating some of them to Emancipation Hall has allowed for some space in the Capitol to be reclaimed. According to the Acting Architect of the Capitol Steven T. Ayers, more-recently added statues to the Capitol have been given preference for a move to Emancipation Hall.
Exhibition Hall:
The Exhibition Hall includes an 11-foot high tactile polyurethane model of the Capitol dome. The hall is dominated by a pair of curving 93-foot marble walls lined with artifacts and interactive touch-screen displays. Six scale models of the complete Capitol illustrate how the building expanded over time. Two alcoves off the main Exhibition Hall hold large flat screen televisions to allow viewers to watch live telecasts of the House and Senate floor proceedings. A third alcove located behind the tactile dome model on the main axis of the Capitol holds the Lincoln catafalque, which used to be displayed in the basement beheath the Rotunda.
Other Facilities:
Two theaters located above the Exhibition Hall continuously show a 13-minute video on the history of Congress and the Capitol Complex. Visitors enter the theaters at the Emancipation Hall (lower) level and exit at the Capitol Crypt (upper) level. The theaters will show the same film, but on a staggered schedule to allow a smooth flow of tourists into the Capitol.
Off of Emancipation Hall are two gift shops, one at the north end of the Hall and on at the south end. These replace the single gift shop previously located in the Capitol Crypt.
The CVC includes a 530-seat food court, which is expected to alleviate overcrowding in the cafeterias in the Congressional office buildings.
Congressional Space:
About 170,000 square feet (16,000 m2) has been reserved for use by Congress. Much of the space is for a new Congressional Auditorium. Most of the rest of the space will be made into committee meeting rooms.
Service Space:
A number of tunnels were constructed as part of the CVC project. The first is a 1,000 feet (300 m) long truck service tunnel, whose entrance is located north of Constitution Avenue near the underground Senate parking garage. Its goal is to alleviate traffic on the plaza and to enhance security by checking delivery and service trucks at a safe distance from the Capitol itself. A second tunnel was constructed to connect the CVC to the Library of Congress. Part of East Capitol Street was closed during construction and the tunnel was completed in the winter of 2005
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