Forward Out of Darkness: How Caroline Sparks initiated a journey of Adelaide Johnson's Suffragist Statue from the darkness of the Crypt and into the light of the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol
Description
In 1978, Caroline Sparks stumbled upon Adelaide Johnson's suffragist statue known as The Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. That chance encounter in the Crypt of the U.S. Capitol awakened a resolve in Sparks to move the Statue from the obscurity of the Crypt and into the light of the U.S. Rotunda, the original and more visible of Johnson's statue. Almost 20 years later after Sparks' initial "Crypt encounter," and 76 years after being lowered to the Crypt from the Rotunda, Johnson's statue finally returned to the Rotunda in 1997. Join us on this special show as Caroline Sparks describes her role in helping to raise Adelaide Johnson's statue from the Crypt to the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, thereby symbolizing the placement of women in the heart of the American political process. Also joining us is Sandra Weber, author of The Woman Suffrage Statue: A History of Adelaide Johnson's Portrait Monument at the United States Capitol.