National Museum of American History
The Nation We Build Together, the exhibitions on this floor tell the story of America’s founding and future as a country to fulfil the principles and ideals of freedom and opportunity.
The origins of the statue date back to 1832, when the U.S. Congress authorized Horatio Greenough (1805-1852), the first professionally trained American sculptor to be awarded a federal commission, to create a monument to George Washington for the centennial of the first president’s birthday the rotunda of the United States Capitol. The result of an eight year project was a grand statue of Washington honoring America’s great example of liberty.
(Courtesy Smithsonian's National Museum of American History)
