Capitol Sculpture, South Wing: Ella Grasso

Ella Grasso (1919- 1981) was Connecticut’s eighty- third governor (1974- 1980) and the first elected female governor in both Connecticut and the United States. The statue is the first female statue on the State Capitol.

Frank Chalfant Gaylord II, a Vermont sculptor who was called upon in 1990 to create the 19 bronze figures that make up the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington D.C., was commissioned to make this most recent addition to the Connecticut State Capitol sculptures in 1987.