Her send off, celebrated Wednesday evening at the Utah Capitol, comes more than six years after the Utah Legislature voted to send the statue to the National Statuary Hall Collection at the nation’s capital.
Every state is represented by two historical figures in the collection, and Utah’s two statues are currently Brigham Young, the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who led the Mormon Pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley and served as the state’s first governor, and Philo T. Farnsworth, an inventor whose discoveries were integral to the development of the television.
Martha’s ticket to Washington
In 2018, the Utah Legislature passed SCR1, a resolution requesting the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress approve replacement of Utah’s Farnsworth statue with one of Cannon.
The statue of Farnsworth, an inventor and television pioneer who was born in Beaver, has been on display in D.C. since 1990. It will now be moved to Utah Valley University. Utah’s resolution described Cannon as a “renowned woman of Utah” and a “national champion for women’s rights,” noting that her election to the Utah Senate 1896 came 24 years before all women in the U.S. were granted the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
Cannon — who was also a doctor and a public health advocate — ran as a Democrat and defeated her own husband and other candidates to win her Senate seat. After she retired from the Legislature in 1901, “she continued to fight for public health improvements, women’s rights, and other important policy improvements until she passed away in 1932,” SCR1 states.
The resolution, which called for “no public funds to be used for any cost related to the creation and replacement of the statue,” set a deadline for the statue to be unveiled in D.C. in August of 2020 to commemorate the month of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
The COVID-19 pandemic, however, would delay the statue’s journey to Washington. It’s been waiting at the Utah Capitol, where it’s been on display since 2021.
In 2019, the Martha Hughes Cannon Oversight Committee and the Legislature announced artist Ben Hammon was selected to sculpt the statue, and that it would be funded through private donations and in-kind support.
In September 2020, her bronze statue was unveiled, but her arrival to the U.S. Capitol was at the time postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic.
Now, the wait is over.
Last month, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson announced the statue’s long-awaited departure to its new home. In a prepared statement, Henderson harkened back to her time as a Utah state senator, and she said “no legislation brought as much excitement and public engagement” as the resolution to send Cannon’s statue to D.C.
“After six long years, I am thrilled to finally see this trailblazing pioneer of women’s equality assume her rightful place in the halls of our nation’s Capitol building.” Henderson said. “The impact Utah women had on the national women’s suffrage movement has for too long been overlooked.”
“Martha’s statue is more than a reminder of her individual accomplishments,” Henderson continued. “She symbolizes the contributions of all the Utah women whose persistent and righteous efforts not only secured their own equal rights, but also ensured ours.”
You can find the full story at Utah News Dispatch.
