Progress of Civilization Pediment

The Progress of Civilization is a marble pediment above the entrance to the Senate wing of the United States Capitol building designed by the sculptor Thomas Crawford. An allegorical personification of America stands at the center of the pediment. To her right, a white woodsman clears the wilderness inhabited by a Native American boy, father, mother, and child. The left side of the pediment depicts a soldier, a merchant, two schoolchildren, a teacher with her pupil, and a mechanic.[1]

Progress of Civilization Pediment
Artist	Thomas Crawford
Year	1863
Medium	Marble
Dimensions	366 cm × 1829 cm (144 in × 720 in)
Location	Washington D.C.

The art historian Vivien Green Fryd argues that the pediment sends the message that "Native Americans must be removed and extirpated, if necessary, for the continued progress of the United States."[2] Other sculptures with similar implications, such as Horatio Greenough's The Rescue, were removed from the U.S. Capitol in the twentieth century because of their inaccurate and self-justifying depiction of the white displacement of indigenous Americans. Crawford's pediment has not been subject to the same calls for removal.[2]

References

1. "Progress of Civilization Pediment". Architect of the Capitol. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
2. Fryd, Vivien Green (2001). Art and Empire: The Politics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815-1860. Ohio University Press. p. 124.