Step aside Statue of Liberty! Texas has a statue of liberty of its own. The Goddess of Liberty atop the State Capitol in Austin is just as noteworthy a landmark for Texans!
As already eloquently described by the State Preservation Board: (
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"Probably inspired by the statue of Freedom placed on the dome of the National Capitol in 1863, Texas State Capitol Architect E. E. Myers of Detroit designed the Goddess of Liberty statue as the crowning element of the Texas Capitol. John C. McFarland of Chicago, the subcontractor of the galvanized iron and zinc work on the Texas Capitol, probably furnished the Goddess of Liberty statue as a part of that same contract. Catalogs from the firm from the 1890s show a line drawing of a Goddess ornament very much like the Goddess of Liberty, but with softer features; the illustration is captioned “Furnished for the Texas State Capitol Building.” Two of McFarland’s foremen, Albert Friedley and Herman F. Voshardt, seem to have guided the actual fabrication of the statue utilizing plaster molds supplied by an unidentified sculptor. The molds arrived in mid-January of 1888 by railroad, possibly from Chicago, and Friedley and Voshardt reputedly set up a foundry in the southeast basement corner of the unfinished Capitol. During late January and early February 1888, the two men oversaw the casting of the zinc statue in 80 separate pieces that were welded together to form four major sections: the torso, the two arms, and the head.
The Goddess probably received three coats of white paint and sand to simulate stone, but the original lone star she held supposedly was gilded afterward. Workmen hoisted the four sections to the top of the Capitol dome and assembled the statue with large iron screws during the last week in February of 1888. Standing nearly 16 feet tall and weighing approximately 2,000 pounds, the statue probably represents Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, justice, and arts and crafts. Athena, later called “Minerva” in Roman mythology, served as the protectress of the democratic city-state of Athens in ancient times."
However, what some may not know is that the Goddess currently holding her star over Austin is not the original. She proudly watched over Texas until 1985, when the State Preservation Board ordered a duplicate statue to be made due to visible deterioration on the original.
In November of that year, nearly 100 years after the original Goddess was installed, a helicopter from the Texas National Guard at Camp Mabry lifted her from the dome and put the statue on the south lawn for a temporary, close viewing.
An attempt to put the replica on top of the dome in May 1986 failed because pilots were unable to maneuver the helicopter using visual references. Thus, the Mississippi Army National Guard provided a rare Skycrane helicopter which permitted a direct view to the pilot and put the new Goddess in place on June 14, 1986. She stands there gallantly to this day.
The original Goddess of Liberty is now on display at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, less than 1/2 mile away from the Capitol. You can get an "up close & personal" look of her nowadays, if you so dare: no woman ever stepped forward to claim posing for her, and once observed from up close one can see why: her "strong" features were intentionally exaggerated to make her appear "normal" when viewed from far & below; she's quite "startling" when viewed up close.
- Re-edited passages from a local newspaper article on May 19, 2014: (
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