The Tennessee State Capitol, the seat of government of the U.S. state of Tennessee in Nashville, is extensively adorned with artwork, monuments, and memorials in the interior and on the grounds. The interior contains portraits and busts of prominent politicians, military leaders, and other influential people. Tennessee state symbols and state historical events are also symbolically portrayed with murals, frescoes, bas-reliefs, and decorative chandeliers. The grounds, which are extensively landscaped, are decorated with statues and monuments honoring prominent Tennesseans, including the three United States Presidents from Tennessee. 11th President James K. Polk and his wife, First Lady Sarah Childress Polk, are entombed on the grounds. William Strickland, the architect of the capitol, and Samuel Morgan, who led the commission that oversaw the capitol's construction, are both entombed in the building's walls. The grounds also have memorials to victims of slavery and the Holocaust, and monuments recognizing important events in both Tennessee and United States history. The Tennessee State Capitol has featured artwork since its construction from 1845 to 1859, and new monuments and memorials have been continuously added ever since. Several pieces of artwork have drawn significant controversy, leading to some removals and relocations.
Overview and governance Artwork, monuments, and memorials at the Tennessee State Capitol are overseen by the State Capitol Commission (SCC). This agency was created by the Tennessee General Assembly on April 9, 1986, to develop a master plan for preservation and improvements to the capitol, and is under the jurisdiction of the Office of the State Architect. The SCC sets criteria for interior and exterior monumental works, and collaborates with the Tennessee Historical Commission (THC), Tennessee Arts Commission, Tennessee Monuments and Memorials Commission, and other agencies to evaluate new artwork proposals and develop long-term plan for future artwork. New monuments must be approved by the SCC and the State Building Commission. Monuments and memorials at the capitol are generally prohibited from removal or renaming by the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, which was enacted in 2013. The most recent master plan for monuments at the capitol complex was completed in November 2014.
Capitol grounds monuments Presidents
Monuments on the capitol grounds include statues of two of the three Tennesseans who served as President of the United States. 7th president Andrew Jackson is represented by an equestrian statue, sculpted by Clark Mills. Located on the east plaza between the fountains, provisions for this statue were incorporated in New York civil engineer John Bogart's plans for the grounds in 1871. The statue was dedicated on May 20, 1880, as part of Nashville's centennial celebration. This is one of three identical statues produced by Mills, which were reportedly the first equestrian statues in the United States, and were proclaimed an "engineer's delight" because of their challenging design. The artist's proof, two of the others are in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., and at Jackson Square in New Orleans. Its temporary wooden base was replaced by a permanent marble pedestal in 1884. 17th president Andrew Johnson is represented with a statue by Knoxville sculptor Jim Gray, dedicated on October 18, 1995.
The second Tennessee president, 11th president James K. Polk, is buried in a tomb on the northeast grounds with his wife, Sarah Childress Polk. Their remains were reinterred here on September 19, 1893, from their Polk Place home in Nashville. In March 2017, the Tennessee Senate approved a resolution considered a "first step" toward relocating the Polks' remains to the family home in Columbia. Such a move would require approval by state lawmakers, the courts, and the Tennessee Historical Commission (THC). A year later, a renewed plan to reinter Polk was defeated by Tennessee lawmakers before being taken up again and approved, via the non-signature of Governor Bill Haslam. The Tennessee Capitol Commission heard arguments over the issue in November 2018, during which they reiterated their opposition to the tomb relocation, and a vote was delayed indefinitely.
Other memorials and monuments
William Strickland, the architect of the capitol who died in 1854 before its completion, is buried in a vault in the north wall of the building near the northeast corner at the ground level. Strickland designed this tomb the year before his death, and the legislature designated it as his burial place at his request five weeks before he died. The inscription incorrectly states that Strickland died at the age of 64, when he actually lived to be 65. Samuel Morgan, who served on the commission that oversaw the capitol's construction, is buried in a vault near the southeast corner at the ground level. The Tennessee State Capitol is the only state capitol building in the United States with graves in its structure or on its grounds.
In 1880, a triangular marker honoring the three Tennessee governors surnamed Brown from Giles County was placed on Capitol Hill. In October 1907, a tree and marker were placed on Capitol Hill by the Watauga Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution honoring early Tennessee settlers. A statue of Sam Davis called Boy Hero of the Confederacy is on the southwest grounds. It was sculpted by Bucharest-born artist George Julian Zolnay, who was known as the "sculptor of the Confederacy", and was dedicated on April 29, 1909. On July 27, 1927, a triangular time capsule was buried on the grounds by Nashville Council No. 1 of Royal and Select Masons to celebrate the chapter's centennial. It will be opened on July 27, 2027. The United States Geological Survey placed a survey marker on Capitol Hill in 1934. On October 3, 1939, the American Legion Post 5 and American War Mothers placed a marker honoring mothers of American soldiers killed in World War I.
A replica of the Liberty Bell was presented to Tennessee in 1950 by the U.S. Treasury Department as part of their Independence Savings Bond Drive. It first began touring the state on May 22, 1950, and was placed in the east gardens in a ceremony on June 30. A statue of World War I Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Alvin C. York, who was from Pall Mall, Tennessee, sculpted by Austrian American sculptor Felix de Weldon, was unveiled on the southeast corner on December 13, 1968. On September 10, 1969, the United Daughters of the Confederacy placed a plaque in the east garden to commemorate the 75th anniversary of their founding in Nashville. The Colonial Dames of America placed a tree and marker in 1975, commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's acceptance of command of the Continental Army. In April 1976, the Freedom Tree was planted in the east garden to honor the 1,300 American service members missing in action in the Vietnam War. A time capsule was buried by Governor Ray Blanton in 1978, but its location is unknown. The Charles Warterfield Reliquary is a group of broken limestone columns and fragments removed and saved from the capitol during the 1950s restoration, located near the belvedere overlook on the north slope. They were installed in 1995 and designated in memory of Warterfield, an architect who led the capitol's restoration projects, on August 8, 1999, eight months after his death. Additional reliquary fragments are at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park.
On January 16, 1984, Governor Lamar Alexander planted a tulip poplar, Tennessee's state tree, in memory of Martin Luther King Jr. in a ceremony attended by other state and local officials. The Tennessee Holocaust Memorial is located on the southeast corner of the grounds, and was dedicated on May 5, 1986, during the annual Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust. It consists of a marble marker with a bronze plaque and six native Tennessee cedars that memorialize the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The Seeds of the Past and Present Tree was planted by Tennessee Civil War Trails on top of the northeast hill to commemorate Tennessee's bicentennial in 1996. On April 21, 1999, a tree was planted near the top of the north lawn by the Tennessee Nursery and Landscape Association in memory of State Senator Tommy Burks, who was assassinated the previous year. In July 1999, the state legislature's Black Caucus dedicated a memorial to Africans during the Middle Passage at the southwest corner that consists of a black granite block and a scarlet oak representing the "strength and resilience of people of African descent". A monument to unborn children, including those lost to abortion, was approved by the legislature in 2018. The "Monument to the Unborn" was dedicated on June 24, 2026, the fourth anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case that ended the nationwide right to abortion.
Interior artwork and monuments State Library room
The State Library room is widely regarded as the most beautifully decorated room in the Tennessee State Capitol. Completed after Strickland's death, the room incorporates Victorian architecture, in contrast to the Greek Revival architecture of the rest of the building. The ceiling is adorned with portraits of various prominent people. These are first state geologist Gerard Troost, historian William H. Prescott, jurist James Kent, geologist James Priestly, University of Tennessee president Charles Coffin, University of Nashville president Philip Lindsley, Confederate naval officer Matthew Fontaine Maury, and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. They were painted by German-born artists Theodore Knoch and John Schleicher, who had worked with Strickland on some of his previous projects, and completed in late 1857. The lacey wrought-iron spiral staircase and balconies in the library are extensively decorated, and were intended to be both artistic and practical. This ironwork was fabricated by Wood and Perot of Philadelphia, who also fabricated railings elsewhere in the capitol. The firm hired "a German artist of great ability as well as great reputation in Prussia, who is desirous of exhibiting his skill in this country". Installed between July and December 1859, this ironwork was part of the last element in the initial construction of the state capitol building to be completed.
Alternating designs of bronze domestic and wild boar heads are positioned below the handrails on the staircase. The undersides of the cantilevered balconies are patterned in squares outlined with flowerlike figures. The center of each square has a rosette supported by wrought iron brackets that extend into the wall, surrounded by a light cast-iron railing. These were reportedly designed by a French artisan chosen specifically for this work. The second balcony's balustrade is embellished by 23 medallions with gold bronze or black glazed backgrounds depicting important statesmen or literary figures; only five are Tennesseans. 18 of the medallion figures were already held in stock by Wood and Perot; they were incorporated into the railings' design by the building commission upon suggestion by the company during the planning and construction of the room. The five Tennesseans were chosen by the commissioners. On the northeast side, from left to right, the medallions depict William Shakespeare, Joseph Addison, Dante Alighieri, U.S. Senator Ephraim H. Foster, Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. The central balcony depicts Patrick Henry, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John Milton, James K. Polk, and Washington Irving. The south railing has William H. Prescott, U.S. attorney general and senator Felix Grundy, Tennessee governor William Carroll, senator Hugh Lawson White, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, senator John Bell, and John C. Calhoun.
Other interior frescoes and murals