Topping the Dome

A fast moving extensively researched historical novel based on actual events during the politically tense period leading up to the American Civil War. It tells the tragic story of the sculptor, Thomas Crawford, chosen to create this iconic image crowning the Capitol Dome, Statue of Freedom. His story merges with some of the most interesting personages of the era - the great abolitionist Senator from Massachusetts, Charles Sumner, Clark Mills, a self-taught sculptor and Washington insider, and Captain Montgomery C. Meigs, supervisor of the extension of the Capitol and its new Dome. The story moves back and forth between Crawford's studio in Rome, Italy and the new Capitol of America, Washington, DC. Includes 25 pictures.