A statue of the president from Missouri now graces the U.S. Capitol. Clifton Truman Daniel, grandson of Harry Truman, unveiled the statue recently.
“My grandfather was a modest man,” he said. “And frankly, slightly embarrassed by statues.”
The statue of Truman, known for making some of the most crucial decisions in American history, both abroad and domestically, will reside in the heart of the Capitol, part of the National Statuary Hall Collection of 100 statues. Each state gets two, and Truman will represent his home state of Missouri. The front inscription of his statue is carved with Truman’s well-known motto: “The Buck Stops Here.”
Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt said he often thinks of the difficult decisions Truman had to make as president, such as ending World War II, facilitating the ratification of the United Nations charter and transitioning the country from a time of war to peace.
“It’s great for us today to see him now in the building he loved, in a democracy that he cherished, in a world that he made so much to design and create and make it what it is today,” Blunt said.
The 7-foot, 1,000-pound bronze statue resides on a three-foot pedestal in the rotunda, which is a large, circular room in the center of the Capitol. The statue is nestled between historical paintings of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the surrender of Gen. Burgoyne at Saratoga, N.Y.
The Truman statue joins those depicting nine other presidents in the rotunda. The others are Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ulysses Grant, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, Andrew Jackson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford. The Truman statue replaces one of founding father Alexander Hamilton, which staff relocated to the Hall of Columns.
