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"The Kamehameha Statue stands prominently in front of Aliʻiolani Hale in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. The statue had its origins in 1878 when Walter M. Gibson, a member of the Hawaiian government at the time, wanted to commemorate the 100 year discovery of Hawaiʻi by Captain Cook. The legislature appropriated $10,000 for the project and made Gibson the director of the project, which originally included native Hawaiians but they soon were off the project and Gibson ran the project by himself. Gibson contacted Thomas R. Gould a Boston sculptor living abroad in Florence, Italy to create the statue. During this time David Kalākaua had become king and was completing Iolani Palace which was his tribute to King Kamehameha I and to be the destination of the statue. The statue was too late for the 100 year anniversary but in 1883 the statue was placed aboard a ship and headed for Hawaiʻi. In the proximity of Falkland Islands the ship wrecked and with it the statue, however the Hawaiians had insured the statue for $12,000 and Gould rushed to complete a second. Before the second statue could be sent the original had been recovered by some Falkland Islanders. They sold it to the Captain of the wrecked ship for $500 and the Captain then sold it to Gibson for $875. Now Hawai'i had two statues. The original stands at the legendary king's birthplace of Kapaʻau in Kohala, on the island of Hawaiʻi. The re-ordered one stands in front of Aliʻiolani Hale. A third statue was commissioned when Hawaiʻi attained statehood and was unveiled in 1969. It stood in the United States Capitol alongside the Father Damien Statue and was the heaviest statue in Statuary Hall, weighing 15,000 pounds. In 2008, shortly after Hawaii-born Barack Obama was nominated as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the presidency, the statue was moved from a dark, back row of Statuary Hall to a prominent position in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol's new visitor center." ~ Wikipedia

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2 comments

Newest First | Oldest First
    • photo of kathjones100
    • Great capture and interesting background information!

    • said kathjones100

    • 2010.01.10 at 20:57:33 PST
    • photo of mccoyray
    • Nice shtof this famous statue

    • said mccoyray

    • 2010.01.09 at 08:29:33 PST

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