MCI Project Summaries 2008 - Smithsonian Institution

MCI 6237 Statues: Pioneer and Indian by William Rinehart Surrounding a Clock
Made for the US House of Representatives of the US Capitol
MCI Staff: Carol A. Grissom, R. Jeff Speakman
William Rinehart (1825-74) modeled statues of a Pioneer and Indian to be placed on
either side of a clock for the U.S. House of Representatives. The statues were said to have been
cast in bronze by the Philadelphia firm of Cornelius and Baker in 1857. Other copies of
Rinehart’s statues are known in zinc, however, and Cornelius and Baker specialized in making
brass and zinc gasoliers. The company is not otherwise known to have cast statues in bronze, and
correspondence about the statues between the Capitol and Cornelius and Baker refers to
“bronzing,” which normally signifies bronze paint. Hence, the question arose as to whether the
clock statues were indeed cast in bronze or might instead have been cast in zinc and painted to
imitate bronze, as was more typical for the company.
Non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analyses showed definitively that the statues were
indeed cast in bronze, although with a mixture containing more zinc and less tin than the
“Antique Bronze” specified by Captain Montgomery Meigs for the clock statues. The company’s
capacity to cast relatively large bronze statues in 1857 is noteworthy.
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