I don’t pay much attention to DC architecture, and was pretty much unaware that something called Statuary Hall existed in the Capitol Building. But I’m watching President Ford’s funeral, and as they were talking about taking his coffin to the Rotunda, they kept talking about Statuary Hall (apparently, his kids used to play there, when they were younger).

Barbara Walters said that among the 100 statues in Statuary Hall (2 from each state), only one was of a female. The male commentator said “Frances Willard,” and she was surprised he knew who it was. He said he went to Willard Elementary school, in Illinois.

So my curiosity was piqued, and I jumped online to learn about Frances Willard, to see who she was and what she had done. Then I got curious about Statuary Hall, and wondered who my home state had enshrined there.

As I was browsing the list, I found the name “Mother Joseph.” Now, I’ve been dense in my time, but it just seems to me that someone named “Mother” is most likely female. So I clicked on the name to learn more about that subject, and she was, indeed female. So that’s two women in Statuary Hall, not just one.

I continued perusing the list, noting with interest that Mississippi enshrined Jefferson Davis there, and Louisiana erected a statue of Huey Long, and then saw the name “Esther Hobart Morris” from Wyoming. Hmmm…. Three women in Statuary Hall.

Oh, my… only a few names further down the list is Montana’s Jeanette Rankin, the first woman elected to the House of Representatives (1916). Four women, now.

And only five or so names further down I find Florence R. Sabin, of Colorado, the first woman to graduate from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She’s number five on the list of women in Statuary Hall.

Directly below her is Sakakawea, a name I’m used to seeing spelled Sacajawea. Number six.

Sakakawea is immediately followed by Maria L. Sanford of Minnesota. Number seven.

Continuing down the list, I eventually find Frances Willard, of Illinois. Number eight.

And two names below her, Sarah Winnemucca, a Paiute woman from Nevada, whose autobiography Life among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims, was the first book written by a Native American woman. She’s the ninth woman in the list of statues.

Maybe I mis-heard Barbara Walters, or whomever the commentator was, but I’m confident that I heard her correctly, because she made a big deal of her male counterpart knowing the name of the only woman in Statuary Hall. So I thought maybe it was that only Frances is actually *in* Statuary Hall, and the others are scattered throughout the building, and I re-sorted the list, by location.

Some statues are in the crypt, some in the Hall of Columns, others in the Connecting corridors, but there are three statues of women in the actual National Statuary Hall, if one counts the vestibule as part of the hall. So that’s not it.

When I clicked on Frances Willard’s name, I found where my confusion arose. Frances was the FIRST woman to be placed in Statuary Hall, not the only one. I’ll grant you, “only” sounds better than “first,” but it’s just not accurate. And while two of the statues were placed fairly recently (Sakakawea in 2003, and Sarah Winnemucca in 2005), the others have been in place for decades.

Barbara Walters’ mis-statement bothers me. It probably doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but to whomever was listening to her tonight, the message she imparted was that fifty states placed a total of 100 statues in a national gallery, and only one of those statues was of a female. How symbolic of the male-dominated society some believe America to be. But the truth is, almost ten percent of the statues are of women. And two of the nine are of Native Americans.

This did not require a huge amount of research on my part. But how many of the folks watching the funeral will bother to do the research? After all, if Barbara Walters said it, it must be true. *sigh*