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[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"470","attributes":{"alt":"Joseph Ward statue in the National Statuary Hall collection","class":"media-image","style":"width: 120px; height: 273px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Joseph Ward statue in the National Statuary Hall collection","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]While doing research for the blog post on Joseph Ward two weeks ago, I discovered that he has a statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection housed at the Capitol Building in DC. This got me to wondering — how many other Congregationalists have been honored in such a way?

The list below is by no means comprehensive and there may in fact be others in the collection with Congregational ties that I neglected to uncover. However, a representation of 9 out of the 100 statues (9%!) is, I feel, rather impressive!

Note: Clicking on each person's name will take you to their biography over at the Office of the Architect of the Capital.

Ethan Allen — Vermont State founder and, like many of his contemporaries, member of a Puritan church.

Frances Willard — Congregationalist who later converted to Methodist. Willard also attended the Congregationalist Female College of Milwaukee.

John Winthrop — English Puritan whose beliefs eventually lead him to become Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Jonathan Trumbull — Intended to become a Puritan minister and spent a year at Harvard, but was recalled home by a death in the family.

Joseph Ward — Congregational minister and American Missionary Association missionary to the Dakota Territory.

Marcus Whitman — Congregational missionary in the western territories.

Roger Sherman — The only member of the Continental Congress to sign all four major documents produced by the group, and, like so many of his contemporaries, a Puritan.

Roger Williams — Church of England minister turned Puritan pastor whose ideas were too radical for the folks of Massachusetts Bay Colony to deal with.

Samuel Adams — The Boston Tea Party leader was baptized at Old South Church (now Old South Meetinghouse) – the same church as Benjamin Franklin!

Interested in learning more?

• The Office of the Architect of the Capital has indexed each statue by last name and provides quite detailed biographies, photos, and locations for each statue.
• The House of Representatives page on Art and History has indexed each statue by state with a less detailed biography.
• Finally, you can learn more about the history of the National Statuary Hall itself, also from the House of Representatives's Art and History page.

-- Sari