Discovery of America (statue)

The first proposal for the construction of two sculptures to flank the Capitol Building’s main staircase was submitted by Pennsylvania senator James Buchanan in April, 1836.[1] Discovery of America was commissioned on April 3, 1837, when President Martin Van Buren sanctioned the engineering of Luigi Persico’s design for the statue.[2] The statue was modeled in 1839, and carved between 1840–1843. Persico created the statue in his studio in Naples, Italy, using marble from a quarry between Pisa and Carrara, and it was transported to the U.S. upon completion.[3] It was exhibited at the east façade of the United States Capitol, from 1844 until 1958, when it was removed.[4]

Various Indian groups wrote letters to the Architect of the Capitol calling for Discovery of America and its partner statue, The Rescue [Rescue], to be removed permanently. Even beyond Native Americans, statements made by many Congress members insinuate their campaigns against the statue pair.[1] In a 1941 Congressional session, Montana representative James Francis O'Connor held that "this statuary group is an atrocious distortion of the facts of American history and a gratuitous insult to the great race ....".[5] After years of protest, in 1958, both Discovery of America and The Rescue by Horatio Greenough, were removed from the east façade in preparation for the building's extension. These two statues were placed in storage and — without public discussion — never restored to their original positions on the left and right side of the building's primary staircase.[2]

Both Discovery (left) and Rescue (right) are visible in this image of Abraham Lincoln's 1861 inauguration.

The statue depicts Christopher Columbus holding a globe aloft as a cowering Indian maiden nearby looks on. This depiction of Columbus’ triumph and the Indian’s recoil is a strong demonstration of white superiority over savage, naive Indians. There is a simultaneous movement of Columbus pressing on to conquer the New World he discovered with a powerful disposition, as the female Indian stands back, intimidated in response.[1] The relationship displayed between Columbus and the female Indian in Discovery of America extends to “represent the meeting of the two races,”[3] as Persico captures their first interaction, highlighting the “moral and intellectual inferiority” of Indians.[3] The portrayal of this encounter would later become popular iconography in American art and be used to justify political expansionism.[1] In fact, even the placement of Discovery of America at the Capitol's main entrance staircase was interpreted as contributing to its portrayal of Western civilization's triumph under white male leadership. Columbus stands boldly, displaying the success of white settlers in taking possession of the New World as the Indian acknowledges his superiority and draws back, wide-eyed.[1]

This depiction of Columbus is very different from the traditional portraits, rendering him as a bearded, hawk-faced and stern-eyed figure clad in traditional Conquistador armor. Usually, Columbus is shown in flowing Renaissance robes with an astrolabe or a spyglass in hand to represent his title of "Admiral of the Ocean". Persico’s Discovery of America thus introduces the understanding of Columbus in the context of the mid-1800s - the time period in which this statue was created - as a “bold adventurer… unequalled in grace, and unapproached in majesty, by anything which native or foreign talent affords”.[3] President James Buchanan described the statue as representing "the great discoverer when he first bounded with ecstasy upon the shore, ail his toils past, presenting a hemisphere to the astonished world, with the name America inscribed upon it. Whilst he is thus standing upon the shore, a female savage, with awe and wonder depicted in her countenance, is gazing upon him." [6]

Discovery of America, as well as other charged artworks commissioned to adorn the Capitol building, contributed to the iconography which informed westward expansion. Many works of art created for the Capitol building were even used by congressmen to support political movements west, due to their underlying symbolism related to Manifest Destiny - specifically the inherent Anglo-American supremacy over native Indians.[1] Columbus is clearly the dominant figure in the statue as the Indian woman gazes up at him with a combination of both awe and fear. In this way, the statue references the popular early to mid 19th century notion of Manifest Destiny through the allegory of Americans spreading civilization and more specifically, Christianity, to the natives who they considered to be savages. In fact, prior to the statue’s erection there was already an almost uniform viewpoint in antebellum America regarding Indian preservation, where environmental expansion was concerned. This sentiment is clearly expressed in an 1825 debate of the Committee on Indian Affairs as member John Elliott referred to Indian-white settler relations as a “contest… for the existence of our infant settlements, and for the attainment of that power by which a civilized and Christian people might safely occupy this promised land of civil and religious liberty”.[1]

Thus, this display of American fascination with explorations earlier in its history draws an interesting parallel with the westward expansion taking place during the time of Discovery of America’s erection.[2] Furthermore, there is evidence of concrete references made to Persico’s statue in arguments intended to prove America’s mission inherent in Manifest Destiny ideology and in doing so, justify the annexation of Indian land. In 1845, for example, Alabama representative James E. Belser defended the decision to seize Texas contending, “two figures which have so recently been erected on the eastern portico of this Capitol” display “an instructive lesson” regarding the manifestation of liberty and light which would continue to spread as America expanded westward.[1] As a result of this layered symbolism and Discovery of America’s emergence in political rhetoric, the statue seems to act as a justification of the legislative actions of Andrew Jackson to approve the Indian Removal Act, which resulted in severe consequences for native people - most notably, the Trail of Tears.[7]

During the process to move Discovery of America and Rescue to storage, a crane dropped Greenough’s Rescue. Ironically enough, the statue broke into the fragments in which it now subsists. Discovery of America is said to be in a similarly poor state of preservation. Both statues can now be found in a storage facility in Maryland, owned by the Smithsonian Institution.[2]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Discovery of America (Persico).

• Brown, Glenn (2007). "Chapter XX Sculpture". History of the United States Capitol (PDF). Government Printing Office. ISBN 978-0-16-063263-1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2012-02-13. (first edition 1903)
• "Statue of Columbus and an Indian girl". René & Peter van der Krogt. Retrieved February 14, 2012.