Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Robert Fulton, who is credited with inventing the first commercially-viable steamboat, is shown holding a model of his creation as part of this statue which is located in Statuary Hall in the Capitol building in Washington D.C.

By JOSH COTTON

jcotton@timesobserver.com

Robert Fulton and John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg.

These are names that might be familiar to some but probably aren’t familiar to many.

The one thing they have in common? They are the two people represented by Pennsylvania in the National Statuary Hall collection at the Capitol in D.C.

Photo from the Architect of the Capitol website John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, along with Robert Fulton, are the two Pennsylvanians memorialized by the state in National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol.

“The concept of a National Statuary Hall area of the U.S. Capitol originated in the middle 19th century, even before the completion of the present House wing in 1857,” according to the Architect of the Capitol.”

An 1864 law ultimately gave the President permission to encourage the state to “furnish statues, in marble or bronze, not exceeding two in number for each state.”

Some of the statues are of people we would all recognize – Samuel Adams, Helen Keller and Will Rogers – while many are much more obscure on the national level.

Criteria included that the person had to be deceased and “illustrious for their historic renown….”

According to the article from the Architect of the Capitol, Representative Justin Morrill made the case: “To what end more useful or grand, and at the same time simple and inexpensive, can we devote it (the space0 than to ordain that it shall be set apart for the reception of such statuary as each State shall elect to be deserving of in this lasting commemoration?”

The statues were initially placed in what’s known today as Statuary Hall but the simple fact is that statues are heavy.

As the number of states and statues grew, there was a need to find other places for the statues so a plan was implemented to sprinkle them around the building.

That redesign and relocation was passed by resolution in 1933 and it was decided that one from each state would be in the Hall, though that proved to be untenable as just 38 statues are there today.

The first statue arrived at the Capitol in 1870 (Nathaniel Greene was first) and every state had at least one by 1971.

“Each statue is the gift of a state, not of an individual or group of citizens,” per the Architect of the Capitol.

“Proceedings for the donation of a statue usually begin in the state legislature with the enactment of a resolution that names the citizen to be commemorated and cites his or her qualifications, specifies a committee or commission to represent the state in selecting the sculptor, and provides for a method of obtaining the necessary funds to carry the resolution into effect.”

I found one of the two from Pennsylvania. I would have gone looking for the other but we were rushed out of the building as one of the strongest summer storms DC had ever seen was rolling in (no joke. It was the weather alert of all weather alerts. And we were camping in Greenbelt).

So who were Fulton and Muhlenberg?

Born in Montgomery County in 1746, Muhlenberg studied at the University of Pennsylvania for a time before traveling to Europe for educational opportunities, according to the University of Pennsylvania – University Archives & Research Center.

“As a boy and a young man, however, John Peter enjoyed fishing and hunting more than studying and aspired to join the military,” that article states. He was apprenticed to a merchant though his father wanted him to enter the ministry.

For his part, young Muhlenberg wasn’t interested in either – he ran away to enlist in the British Army. After that dalliance he did follow in his father’s footsteps and study theology, preaching to Lutheran congregations.

Muhlenberg was in Virginia during the early years of the Revolution, serving as a colonel in the Continental Army at infamous places including Brandywine, Yorktown and Valley Forge.

He would go on to serve in a role equivalent to what we now call the lieutenant governor.

“Muhlenberg, as an anti-Federalist, was elected a Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, serving from 1789 to 1795 and again from 1799 to 1801,” according to the Penn article. “He was considered a key figure in the Democrat-Republican party of Pennsylvania, managing Thomas McKean’s successful campaign for

governor and helping to elect Thomas Jefferson as U.S. president.

“In 1801 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, but before taking his seat, he resigned to accept the lucrative position of supervisor of U.S. customs in the Pennsylvania District. In 1803 he became collector of customs of the Port of Philadelphia. He remained active as a Lutheran layman until his death in 1807 at his suburban home at Gray’s Ferry on the Schuylkill River.”

The statue in the Capitol was given to the collection in 1889.

Fulton is credited with the development of the first commercially successful steamboat.

Born in 1765, Fulton’s education was limited “but he displayed considerable artistic talent and inventiveness,” according to an Architect of the Capitol article. ” At the age of 17 he moved to Philadelphia, where he established himself as a painter. Advised to go abroad because of ill health, he moved to London in 1786. His lifelong interest in scientific and engineering developments, especially in the application of steam engines, supplanted art as a career.”

While in London, he secured patents for “machines with a wide variety of functions” and was interested in the development of canal systems.

“In 1797, European conflicts led Fulton to begin work on weapons against piracy, including submarines, mines and torpedoes,” the article states. “In 1800 he built a successful ‘diving boat,’ which he named the Nautilus. Neither the French nor the English were sufficiently interested to induce Fulton to continue his submarine design.

“His interest in building a steamboat continued. In 1802 Fulton contracted with Robert Livingston to construct a steamboat for use on the Hudson River; over the next four years he built prototypes in Europe.”

Fulton returned to New York in 1806 and the next year, the Clermont, his first American steamboat, made the trip from New York to Albany.

It’s important to remember that the railroad was still decades in the future. The steamboat invention transformed how good and people moved for many communities, including, to some degree, Warren.

Fulton died in 1815.

His statue was also given to the collection in 1889.