April 4th…we’ve never known the sun to shine regularly on Thaddeus Stevens’ birthday.

Despite April showers, several hundred friends turned out to honor the Great Commoner on the anniversary of his 219th birthday. And what a present to the community. The Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, after several years of planning, fundraising and site preparation, unveiled its “Tribute in Bronze,” which depicts a greater-than-life-sized Stevens seated in a congressional chair typical of his era and flanked by a young boy symbolic of his work to promote free public education. Local sculptor George Mummert, of the Keystone Art & Culture Center, has created a fine rendering, centered within the campus’s newly built Cobblestone Court—itself a tribute to some of the skills so aptly taught and applied at the college.

This statue seems to be the only image of Thaddeus Stevens in that medium. In Stevens’ own lifetime, his bust had been commissioned and awarded to young female sculptor Vinnie Ream. Unfortunately, after some nation-wide searching, we have determined that no one seems to know its whereabouts today. So it remains fitting that this new tribute has been unveiled to honor this larger-than-life man.

Congratulations to everyone at the college and in the community who had a hand in making the Stevens “Tribute in Bronze” possible. If art is life, the Great Commoner is alive and well here in Lancaster.