SALT LAKE CITY — Artist Ben Hammond’s design for a statute of Martha Hughes Cannon for the U.S. Capitol was unveiled last week during a celebration of Utah’s 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
A leader in the Utah Women’s Suffrage Association, Cannon was a featured speaker at national suffrage conventions and was the first woman in the country to serve as a state senator.
Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature passed a resolution to remove the statue of TV inventor Philo T. Farnsworth in the National Statuary Hall in favor of a statue of Cannon. Each state is allowed two statues in the hall.
When the bronze statue is completed, it will tour the state before being installed in the U.S. Capitol in August 2020.