Constitution Hall Mural here in Topeka

I had the opportunity to work on this project this week. I have been spending evenings going down to help finish this project. The lead artist Cally Krallman and notable Governor’s Muse, Don Lambert were great to work with and I believe we did justice to this historic event. I got to spend most of my time working on the Dragoons at the south end of the mural shown here.

Excerpts from the CJ online article concerning the piece:

“The painting began June 19. Krallman and Chris Meinhardt, who is an architect and leads the Friends of the Free State Capitol, did the sketches that volunteers are painting.

On the south end of the mural is the depiction of Col. Edwin Sumner, who led the troops sent by President Franklin Pierce to break up the efforts to write a free-state constitution.

J.P. Root, who was at the convention in Topeka on July 4, 1856, and later was Kansas' first lieutenant governor, recalled Sumner's words:

‘This is the most painful duty of my life, but the president of the United States has ordered it, and I must obey.’

Root went on: ‘At the same time the voice of the 'Old Bull of the Woods,' as he was called on the frontier, trembled with emotion, and the tears in streams ran down his sun-burnt cheeks as he gave the order dispersing the Free State Legislature of Kansas.’

The Friends of the Free State Capitol's goal is to have a site open year-round to publicize Topeka's role in the history of the state and the nation.

‘This is where Kansas got its start,’ Meinhardt said. ‘We should be proud of what our forebears have done.’

TO HELP

Friends of the Free State Capitol welcome donations at P.O. Box 2551, Topeka, 66601.

CELEBRATE

A ceremony for the 150th anniversary of the dispersal of the Free State Legislature and the dedication of the Constitution Hall mural will be at 11 a.m. Monday in the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library rotunda, 1515 S.W. 10th.

To see the whole story:
http://cjonline.com/stories/062806/loc_historicmural.shtml

A little more history from Wikipedia.

‘Constitution Hall’ was the name given to a two-story building at this site, 427- 429 S. Kansas Avenue, Topeka, Shawnee County. In 1855 Free State settlers wrote a territorial constitution (‘Topeka Constitution’) and elected a legislature that met in Topeka to demand the admission of Kansas to the Union as a free state and challenge the fraudulently elected proslavery legislature. The Free State constitution prohibited slavery in the territory. This building became known as the Free State capital. On July 4, 1856, federal dragoons dispersed the Free State legislature when it met in session.

‘Constitution Hall’ served as a center of community activities in Topeka during the Bleeding Kansas period. From 1864 to 1870, the capital of Kansas enclosed old Constitution Hall and extended at each end. The enlarged structure housed all the offices for the state government until a more prestigious capital building (still in use) was constructed.