A sculpture honoring University of Nebraska alumna Willa Cather will be unveiled next week in Washington, D.C.
On June 7 at 10 a.m., Cather’s 7-foot sculpture will be dedicated and unveiled in the National Statuary Hall in the United States Capital.
Live viewing parties of the dedication ceremony are planned at the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln and the National Willa Cather Center’s Opera House in Red Cloud. Both events are free and open to the public. The ceremony will also be available on C-Span and on the website of the Speaker of the House for a live broadcast.
Littleton Alston was selected from more than 70 artists to design Cather’s sculpture. Alston is an associate professor of sculpture at Creighton University in Omaha and is the first African American artist to have a sculpture in the National Statuary Hall Collection.
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“It was an immense honor to create the Willa Cather sculpture for Statuary Hall,†Alston said in a Nebraska Today article. “I’m thrilled that Nebraska will finally have a literary heroine representing our state in the U.S. Capitol.â€
Cather, a world-renowned author, will be the first Pulitzer Prize Winner and 12th woman represented in the collection. She began her time at the University of Nebraska in 1890, where her writing talents drove her into journalism and criticism. That included a stint at the Nebraska State Journal in Lincoln, where Cather served as an art critic from 1893-1896. She would later receive the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for her novel, “One of Ours.†Her sculpture will join the one of Ponca Chief Standing Bear, which was installed in 2019.
Andrew Jewell, co-director of University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center for Digital Research in the Humanities and advisory editor to the Cather Archive said in the Nebraska Today article that Cather is a key voice in our state’s storytelling.
“Willa Cather very explicitly represents Nebraska and Nebraskans in multiple works,†said Jewell. “To have her statue alongside that of Chief Standing Bear in the U.S. Capitol reflects the complex history of Nebraska. Their stories represent very different experiences and, as a Nebraskan, I’m thrilled that they will be there together.â€
Reach the writer at 402-473-7241 or ajohnson2@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ajohnson6170
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Alyssa Johnson
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