She may be the best-known, most widely recognized sculpture in the State of Vermont, and she stood at her post, high atop Vermont鈥檚 most important building, for some 80 years. But this week she was taken down, and she鈥檚 going to be replaced. I鈥檓 referring, of course to the larger-than-life female statue that until this week stood on top of the Vermont State House. She鈥檚 known as 鈥淐eres,鈥� or 鈥淎griculture,鈥� and she has a fascinating history. Her two inter-related names are part of that history 鈥� which continues today, because of her planned replacement.
But to begin at the beginning, we need to go back to 1857, when the famed Vermont sculptor Larkin Mead produced the first female statue for the brand-new State House. He named her simply, 鈥淎griculture,鈥� but she became popularly known as 鈥淐eres,鈥� the Roman goddess of agriculture. That鈥檚 most likely her proper name, but it was probably unacceptable in the righteous Christian world of mid-Nineteenth Century Vermont.
Eighty years later, Mead鈥檚 statue was replaced because it was rotting. It was made of wood, and any wooden item that endures 80 Vermont winters has a tendency to decay.
Her condition was discovered in 1938, during the Great Depression, and so the Sergeant-at-Arms then, Dwight Dwinell, proposed to carve the replacement himself 鈥� thus saving the state some money.
Dwinell鈥檚 replacement 鈥� a serviceable but somewhat rough copy of Larkin Mead鈥檚 original 鈥� is made of Ponderosa Pine. And it, too, stood atop the State House for 80 years, until, like its predecessor, it was found to be decaying inside.
And so it鈥檚 slated to be replaced, as part of a re-gilding and general repair of the State House dome.
State Curator David Sch眉tz says that the plan is to find a Vermont wood carver to replace the current statue, and that it鈥檚 very likely that the re-placement will copy Larkin Mead鈥檚 original 鈥淎griculture,鈥� not the Dwinell version. That statue, a work of folk art, is likely to find a permanent home at the Vermont Historical Society museum in the nearby Pavilion Building.
And so there will be two representations of the Goddess of Agriculture in Montpelier 鈥� one atop the State House dome, with the other nearby 鈥� to remind us that farming is still, in this Twenty-first Century, a vital part of our life, our economy, and our Vermont identity.
