The unveiling of a statue that was previously placed at the U.S. Capitol will take place today(Thur) on the campus of Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant.
The statue of U.S. Senator James Harlan was replaced in Washington, D.C. earlier this year by a statue of Iowa-born crop scientist and Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug. Harlan became president of Iowa Wesleyan in 1853 before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1855. His statue had stood at the U.S. Capitol since 1910.
Nellie Walker created the eight-foot tall bronze statue of Harlan. An unveiling ceremony is scheduled today for 2 p.m. Harlan was appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Abraham Lincoln. Harlan’s daughter, Mary, married Robert Todd Lincoln, the 16th president’s son. The couple’s Mount Pleasant home sits on the Iowa Wesleyan campus, and now serves as a museum known as the Harlan-Lincoln House. James Harlan died in Mount Pleasant in 1899.
