l.-r.: “Wisconsin” represents the spirit of state progress atop the dome (David Michael Miller). Jean Pond Miner made “Forward” for the Chicago World’s Fair (Wisconsin Historical Society). A replica of “Forward” now stands at the State Street corner of the Square (Carolyn Fath).
The woman on top of the Capitol dome is named Wisconsin, though she’s often misidentified as Miss Forward. Perhaps that’s because, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, she was “placed on the Capitol dome as a symbol of the state’s motto, ‘Forward’” and to represent “the spirit of Wisconsin progress.” She is the creation of Daniel Chester French, the sculptor perhaps best known for his massive Abraham Lincoln statue for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. She wears a helmet topped with the state animal — the mighty badger — and holds a globe with an eagle on it. Standing more than 15 feet and weighing more than three tons, the statue in 1914 cost $20,325.
The statue at the State Street corner of the Capitol Square is also often misidentified as Miss Forward. Forward would be more accurate, but most accurate is this: It’s a replica of the original Forward, which now resides in the Wisconsin Historical Society. The original was created by Wisconsin sculptor Jean Pond Miner, who made it for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Wisconsin weather got the best of it by the 1990s, so a replica was made and installed at the State Street entrance.
The statue in the Wisconsin Historical Society is the original Forward. Miner constructed it to be an “allegory of the devotion and progress she believed her state embodied.” Originally placed at the entrance of the Capitol in 1895, it was moved to North Hamilton Street in 1916.
