Washington, Jan. 25 (AP)-No state has ever been allowed to replace a statue in the Capitol's 139-year-old National Statuary Hall Collection. Kansas is about to become the first.
This year, a bronze likeness of Dwight D. Eisenhower will replace a marble statue of a former governor, George Washington Glick.
An 1864 law allowed each state to erect statues of two people in the Old Hall of the House of Representatives after lawmakers moved into a new, larger chamber. Kansas sent marble likenesses of Senator John James Ingalls in 1905 and of Governor Glick in 1914.
Most of us don't remember Glick and Ingalls or have any idea who they were, and Eisenhower was such a dominant figure in the last century; it's really going to help with Kansas' name recognition, said Jim Brothers, the Eisenhower statue's sculptor.
The Capitol statue is based on a photograph of Eisenhower addressing World War II troops just before the D-Day invasion. The general is speaking emphatically to troops from the 101st Airborne Division. Mr. Brothers said research showed he was actually telling a story about fly fishing.
He's got an invisible fly rod in his hand Mr. Brothers said. In that one day, he went from the most powerful to, to me, the most human that he probably ever was.
Born in Denison, Tex., and reared in Abilene, Kan., Eisenhower led the Allied invasion of Europe and went on to become the nation's 34th president.
Representative Todd Tiahrt, Republican of Kansas, noticed the relatively obscure Kansas statues after his 1995 swearing-in while touring the Capitol with his parents.
You walk right by the one from Oklahoma, Will Rogers, and everybody instantly recognizes it, Mr. Tiahrt said. I thought it would really be nice if we had a statue from Kansas that everybody recognized.
In addition to Rogers-visitors rub his bronze toes for luck-the collection includes golden-cloaked King Kamehameha the Great from Hawaii. Statuary Hall holds only 38 of the collection's 97 statues; the others are arranged throughout the Capitol.
After the statue of Eisenhower is installed, Governor Glick's statue will be sent to Topeka, where it will probably stand in the state house.