Frances Willard Statue

Ceremony Celebrating the 100th Anniversary
of the Placement in Statuary Hall of the
Frances E. Willard Statue

17 February 2005, 11:00 am
Statuary Hall
US Capitol, Washington, D. C.

The World and National
Woman's Christian Temperance Union

The Illinois State Society
of Washington, D. C.

FRANCES E. WILLARD
28 September 1839 - 17 February 1898

Frances Willard, daughter of New York and adopted daughter of Illinois, was the second president of both the National (1879-1898) and the World (1891-1898) Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the first president of the National Council of Women, and at her death was identified by the press as the most famous woman in the world after Queen Victoria.

Frances Willard was an incomparable organizer, leader, temperance advocate, suffragist, agitator for the rights of women and children, protector of the home, friend of labor, author, editor, lecturer, educator, and distinguished worker for peace and human welfare. She trained women to think on their feet, speak in public, and run an organization.

Frances Willard devoted her life to the cause of humanity and today stands as a symbol among the splendid women of her day who had to fight to prove that both the responsibility for and the guidance of human affairs belong to women as well as men.

In 1899 the Illinois Legislature selected Frances Willard as their second person to be honored in Statuary Hall. On February 17, 1905 the statue was presented with this Dedication statement. ``Illinois, therefore, presents this statue, not only as a tribute to her whom it represents - one of the foremost women of America - but as a tribute to woman and her mighty influence upon our national life; to woman in her home; to woman in all the occupations and professions of life; to woman in all her charity and philanthrophy, wherever she is toiling for the good of humanity; to woman everywhere, who ever stood for `God for home, for native land'."

Frances Willard was the first woman to be honored in Statuary Hall and the only one for 54 years.

Helen Farnsworth Mears of New York City was chosen to sculpture the statue out of Carrara marble. The statue is a little more than life size in a pose familiar to the thousands who heard her speak.

PROGRAM
17 February, 2005

Welcome - Sarah F. Ward, World and National WCTU President
Invocation - Rev. Daniel P. Coughlin, Chaplain of U. S. House of
   Representatives
Remarks - Mark Q. Rhoads - Illinois State Society
Comments - Bunny Galladora, Maryland WCTU President and Media
   Consultant for National WCTU; Nina Donahue, Ohio WCTU President; Rita
   Kaye Wert, Pennsylvania WCTU President; and Kathleen Johnson, West
   Virgina WCTU President
Remarks - Sarah F. Ward
Wreath Laying - for Illinois State Society, US Representative Jan
   Schakowsky and US Representative John Shimkus from Illinois,
   and Mark Q. Rhoads
   Merry Lee Powell, former National WCTU Vice President and Beverly
   Robinson,
UN Representative in New York for World WCTU
Benediction - William Watkins, former Maryland Youth Temperance Council
   President

Virginia L. Beatty, Frances E. Willard Memorial Library, Coordinator, Willard Statue Centennial Celebration