allegorical monuments will be going in, in Cheyenne.
The Capitol prior to reconstruction commencing.
They will not, however, be topless. Not even partially.
The statutes, representing hope, courage, justice and truth, will be created by Delissalde Designs of Denver, after a competition on the same. They will all be female figures.
The announcement that they won was made last week. Reports have it that they female Truth shall have a peace pipe, female Courage will have a snake wrapped around her leg, female Justice will have copies of the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions. I don't know what Hope will have.
Other than clothes. There was apparently some concern that the figures were a little scantily dressed. Senator Eli Bebout, for example, made a specific inquiry about this.
This is oddly reminiscent, FWIW, in regards to the selection of the State seal over a century ago. A legislative committee worked on that only to have a sitting Governor substitute a competing design that had a central female figure appear on the seal he liked better who was topless. Not that this was uncommon at the time. Nearly every allegorical character used in art has been female and, probably as they were created by male artists looking, at least subconsciously for an excuse, they were very frequently topless. Even a century ago, however, that made some uneasy, including male legislators, and the original Wyoming seal that was chosen featured a fully clothed figure, only to have a Governor sub it out. When that was discovered, that was pulled, and treasury notes issued commemorating Wyoming for a time had a figure that had been chosen by the U.S. Mints (yes, that is plural and it was referred to that way at the time) rather than something we'd chosen ourselves. We subsequently got around to the current design.
It's odd to think that we'd repeat that event over a century later, but perhaps its even odder, in the context of the times, to consider that allegorical figures remain principally women and that the artists submitting designs would, by default, figure that allegorical female figures might bear a closer resemblance, both in form and degree of clothing, to Kate Upton than Ruth Bader Ginsberg, but some things simply don't change much, it would seem.
Well, Hope, Justice, Courage and Truth will be on the cupola of the new Capitol rotunda, gazing down at the public. The public, gazing back up, will have no excuse for exercising prurient interests.
