Juneau organizers are preparing for the anticipated installation of a new statue of William H. Seward, President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State who negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia.
Two Ketchikan artists have nearly completed the clay version of the bronze sculpture according to Wayne Jensen, with the Seward Statue Project. Jensen says this month it will be sent out of state to a foundry and cast in bronze sometime this coming spring.
Jensen: “It’s very interesting when they’re casting the bronze statue they actually make it in pieces, you can’t cast the entire statue in one casting, so they cut the mold apart in pieces and cast it in pieces and cast it in pieces and then weld it all back together again so there’ll be a dozen different pieces of the statue that will be welded back together before it’s shipped to Alaska.”
The Seward Statue Project hopes to have the bronze statue installed by next summer in front of the Capitol Building during the 150th anniversary of the Alaska purchase.
Jensen: “It’ll be set on a large chunk on Tokeen Marble which is the same marble which is used in the iconic columns in front of the Capitol in the portico. So we were fortunate to have a big block of that because the Tokeen Mine has been shut down for many years, since the 1920’s or 30’s.”
The Loussac Library in Anchorage already houses a life-size statue of Seward. There are also Seward statues in Seattle, Seward’s hometown of Auburn, New York, and in New York City’s Madison Square Park.