Nebraska State Capitol
Encyclopedia
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
, is the house of the Nebraska Legislature
Nebraska Legislature
The Nebraska Legislature is the supreme legislative body of the State of Nebraska, in the Great Plains region of the United States. The Legislature meets at the Nebraska State Capitol in the City of Lincoln, Lancaster County....
and houses other offices of the government of the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
.
At 15 stories and 400 feet (121 m) tall, it is the second-tallest U.S. statehouse, surpassed only by the 34-story Louisiana State Capitol
Louisiana State Capitol
The Louisiana State Capitol building is the capitol building of the state of Louisiana, located in Baton Rouge. The capitol houses the Louisiana State Legislature, the governor's office, and parts of the executive branch...
. It is the tallest building in Lincoln, and the third-tallest in the state. It is the heaviest building in Lincoln, as well as the heaviest capitol building of any sort in North America. There is an observation deck at 250 feet (76 m).
The building was designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue
Bertram Goodhue
Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was a American architect celebrated for his work in neo-gothic design. He also designed notable typefaces, including Cheltenham and Merrymount for the Merrymount Press.-Early career:...
, who drew upon Classical
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...
and Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
architectural traditions. It was constructed between 1922 and 1932, of Indiana limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
.
History
The building succeeds two capitols of the Nebraska TerritoryNebraska Territory
The Territory of Nebraska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Nebraska. The Nebraska Territory was created by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854...
in Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, both built in the 1850s, before Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
was admitted to the Union in 1867; and two state capitols, completed in 1868 and 1889, that had structural problems. The 1889 building was a classical design by the architect William H. Willcox
William H. Willcox
William H. Willcox was an American architect and surveyor who practised in Brooklyn and New York , Chicago, Illinois , Nebraska , St...
.
The legislature authorized the Capitol Commission to be responsible for the construction of the building. The commission included the governor, the state engineer, and three commissioners appointed by the governor. The appointed commissioners were W. E. Hardy of Lincoln, W. H. Thompson of Grand Island, and Walter W. Head
Walter W. Head
Walter William Head was an American banker and insurance executive. He was president and founder of the General American Life Insurance Company, now a part of MetLife, and president of the American Bankers Association...
of Omaha. Samuel R. McKelvie, Charles W. Bryan, Adam McMullen and Arthur J. Weaver each chaired the commission as governor.
The architectural competition program was written by Omaha architect Thomas R. Kimball
Thomas Rogers Kimball
Thomas Rogers Kimball was an American architect in Omaha, Nebraska. An architect-in-chief of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha in 1898, he served as national President of the American Institute of Architects from 1918–1920 and from 1919-1932 served on the Nebraska State Capitol...
, then president of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
. The competition guidelines were innovative because they did not define plan, style, or material for the building. The program did specify, however, that they wanted an architect who would assemble a team (including sculpture, painter, and landscapist) to create a unified appearance. The Commission chose well-known architects to enter the competition anonymously for a three-judge panel. Firms competing included McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White...
, H. Van Buren Magonigle, John Russell Pope
John Russell Pope
John Russell Pope was an architect most known for his designs of the National Archives and Records Administration building , the Jefferson Memorial and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.-Biography:Pope was born in New York in 1874, the son of a successful...
, Paul Cret and Zantzinger, Borie and Medary
Zantzinger, Borie and Medary
Zantzinger, Borie and Medary was an early to mid-twentieth-century American architecture firm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania specializing in institutional and civic projects, and active under that name from 1910 through 1929, and continuing until 1950. The partners were Clarence C. Zantzinger,...
, and Bertram G. Goodhue, who was not considered originally for the competition. After he was allowed to enter the competition, however, Goodhue was selected as the winner. His design exemplified the Classical principles of austerity, abstract geometrical form, and hierarchical arrangements of parts, but did not use columns, pediment, or dome.
The capitol is often considered the first major expression of what has been termed Goodhue's "freely interpreted classical style". The cross-axial plan is similar to a traditional Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
church or cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
. The building's four wings radiate from a central domed rotunda
Rotunda (architecture)
A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...
, architecturally separating the parts of government. The unarticulated windows and flat surfaces anticipate modern skyscrapers. It is also the first U.S. state capitol with usable tower space.
On April 15, 1922, Governor
Governor of Nebraska
The Governor of Nebraska holds the "supreme executive power" of the State of Nebraska as provided by the fourth article of the Nebraska Constitution. The current Governor is Dave Heineman, a Republican, who assumed office on January 20, 2005 upon the resignation of Mike Johanns . He won a full...
Samuel R. McKelvie
Samuel R. McKelvie
Samuel Roy McKelvie was a Nebraska Republican politician best known for being the 19th Governor of Nebraska. He was also the Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska from 1913 to 1915 and a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1936 and 1944. In On April 15, 1922 he helped break ground for...
broke ground and construction began. The $9,800,449.07 construction costs were secured by a special capitol levy tax. The building was completed in 10 years under the supervision of William Lefevre Younkin.
The structure's common nickname is The Tower of the Plains but is also informally referred to as the "Penis of the Plains."
Integrated Art Program
The sculptural elements of the building were designed by sculptor Lee LawrieLee Lawrie
Lee Oscar Lawrie was one of the United States' foremost architectural sculptors and a key figure in the American art scene preceding World War II...
. Hartley Burr Alexander
Hartley Burr Alexander
Hartley Burr Alexander, Ph.D American philosopher, writer, educator, scholar, poet, and iconographer born Lincoln, Nebraska, on April 9, 1873.-Family and early years:...
, a Lincoln native and professor of philosophy, served as "thematic consultant." It was Alexander's influence that resulted in the strong American Indian symbology, despite the wishes of Goodhue, who was from the East Coast region. He felt that the incorporation of Indian designs into the Capitol would make the building look like a tipi and would therefore be "ruinous to the architectural design". However, in April 1924, two years after groundbreaking, Goodhue died. The sudden death of the architect allowed Alexander to exert greater influence over the artistic designs, and thereafter Indian images were incorporated.
The building has an elaborate iconographic program. The large square base is emblematic of the quarters of the Earth and the historic course of human experience. The vertical tower symbolizes the heavens and more abstract conceptions of life derived from historic experience. The massive balustrade flanking the main stairway is ornamented with bison inscribed with American Indian poems translated artistically by Alexander. Over the entrance is a gilded frieze showing the "Spirit of the Pioneers." Other exterior sculptural ornaments include a series of friezes depicting the history of law from the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
to a celebration of Nebraska's statehood. Ten great lawgivers, Minos
Minos
In Greek mythology, Minos was a king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every year he made King Aegeus pick seven men and seven women to go to Daedalus' creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by The Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Hades. The Minoan civilization of Crete...
, Hammurabi
Hammurabi
Hammurabi Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ʻAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer", from ʻAmmu, "paternal kinsman", and Rāpi, "healer"; (died c...
, Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
, Akhnaton
Akhenaten
Akhenaten also spelled Echnaton,Ikhnaton,and Khuenaten;meaning "living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
, Solon
Solon
Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens...
, Solomon, Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
, Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
, and Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
are depicted emerging from pylon
Pylon (architecture)
Pylon is the Greek term for a monumental gateway of an Egyptian temple It consists of two tapering towers, each surmounted by a cornice, joined by a less elevated section which enclosed the entrance between them. The entrance was generally about half the height of the towers...
ic masses. The eight ideals of culture represented by Pentaour (dawn of history), Ezekial
Ezekiel
Ezekiel , "God will strengthen" , is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Ezekiel is acknowledged as a Hebrew prophet...
(cosmic tradition), Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
(birth of reason), Marcus Aurelius (reign of law), St. John the Apostle
John the Apostle
John the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...
(glorification of faith), Louis IX
Louis IX of France
Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...
(age of chivalry), Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
(discovery of nature), and Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
(liberation of peoples) are also represented.
The tower is crowned by a golden dome with a 5.94 m (19.5 ft) sculpture of "The Sower", by Lawrie, which faces northwest (most of Nebraska is north and west of Lincoln). The dome is symbolic of the sun, and its reflective surface changes color with the weather. The frieze around the drum depicts thunderbirds, an American Indian symbol of thunder. Altogether, the golden dome, Sower, and drum represent weather and agriculture. More symbolically, they are an homage to the civilizations of yesteryear, such as the American Indians, Egyptians (The Sower is modeled after an Egyptian), and European settlers who created productive farmlands and propagated life around the world.
Hildreth Meiere
Hildreth Meiere , American artist, architectural artist, muralist and mosaicist.- Biography :After studying at New York's Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, Meiere studied in Florence. Being exposed to the Renaissance Masters, she is quoted as saying, "After that I could not be satisfied...
, a New York-based tile and mosaic designer, working with Alexander, was responsible for much of the original interior design. She collaborated closely with the Guastavino Company of New York to create the elaborate tile vaulting, which is both structural and decorative. Buffaloes
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
, corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, sunflower
Sunflower
Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...
s, and wild native animals motifs are repeated throughout the building’s ornament. The theme of Meiere's work is nature and the cultivation of the prairie.
For the decoration of the east chamber (the original senate chamber) Alexander sent Meiere numerous samples of Plains Indian art. Specifically, Alexander sent Meiere photographs of the work of Amos Bad Heart Bull
Amos Bad Heart Bull
Amos Bad Heart Bull was a noted Oglala Lakota artist in a style which adapted traditional Native American pictography to a new European style medium known as Ledger Art for the accountants ledger books they were originally done in...
, known to Alexander as Amos Bad Heart Buffalo. Alexander was in possession of these works until they were interred with the artist's sister at her death, but he had the Bull's ledger book drawings photographed and published. Meiere used these images as inspiration for her designs, especially with the large tapestry that graces the east Chamber.
The doors to the East Chamber, designed by Lee Lawrie and executed by Keats Lorenz of Lincoln, are a product of master craftsmanship. The doors weigh more than 340 kg (750 lb.) each, and took Lorenz more than six months to carve. They commemorate the cultural contributions of Plains Indians. Augustus Tack completed the building's earliest fresco-style murals. Ernst Herminghaus was responsible for the landscape architecture.
The majority of the models for the sculpture program were created by Lee Lawrie, and executed by Edward Ardolino's stone carvers in situ in Lincoln. Alesandro Beretta, employed by Ardolino's firm, was the actual craftsman that carved all of the 18 History of Law panels, using as many as 70 different tools. He would often take as long as ten weeks per panel. The carving was completed in November 1934. The Nebraska Capitol job was Lawrie's largest commission in his nearly seventy year-long career as an architectural sculptor.
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(The doors of the East Chamber were carved by Keats Lorenz, but actually designed by Lee Lawrie.)