Relegated to the Crypt of the Capitol building for 76 years, the Portrait Monument has stood in the Rotunda since 1997. Often referred to as the Suffrage Statue, it memorializes pioneering feminists Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and is the sole sculptural representation of women in the Rotunda. From its conception by sculptor Adelaide Johnson as three separate busts to its laborious execution and celebrated placement in the Rotunda, the seven-ton sculpture has provoked frustration, jubilation and hullabaloo. Drawing on diaries, letters, newspapers and historic photographs, this first-ever history of the monument explores the controversy, myths and artistry behind this neoclassical yet unconventional work of art.
