Iowa Congressman's Big Impact on US Capitol History

Each year millions of Americans - and tens of thousands of Iowans - visit the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Some meet with their U.S. House or Senate members and even get a photograph taken with them.

Most take a tour of the US Capitol. When they do, they not only see the place where the hard work of democracy gets done - or on occasion, does “not” get done - but they also see a world class museum filled with historic artifacts and beautiful artwork that tell the on-going story of democracy in America as reflected in the work of the U.S. Congress.

Most of those tour takers - including the Iowans - have no idea that an eight term Iowa Republican Congressman who served in the U.S. House in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, had a vital role in preserving that history and sharing those stories with the American people.

Former Iowa Congressman Fred Schwengel (R 1st-IA) served in the US House from 1955-1973, with a two year break when he was swept out of office by the LBJ landslide in 1964. He was born in Sheffield, Iowa in 1906, and was once in the insurance business in Davenport.

Schwengel founded the U.S. Capitol Historical Society in 1962 and served as its first President until his death in 1993.

While the Architect of the Capitol also plays a major role in preserving the history of the Capitol - especially the building itself - the U.S Capitol Historical Society does much of what historians call the “interpretation” of that history for Americans. It collects and displays historical artifacts from the Capitol and preserves and tells the stories of the people who served there and the work they did.

There are, as you might guess, tons of stories from a building that got its start in 1792 when President George Washington laid its cornerstone.

Here is just a very brief / tip of the iceberg overview of just some of the places in the U.S. Capitol where many of those stories originated.

• the Crypt: originally built to hold the mortal remains of President, George Washington, but never did. It now houses the black shrouded catafalque on which coffins rest at state funerals, first used for the funeral of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865;

• the Old US Senate Chamber: where the nation fought the preliminary verbal skirmishes of the Civil War over slavery and its expansion, and where then Vice President Martin Van Buren presided over Senate debates with loaded revolvers in each hand.

• the Old U.S. House Chamber: where ex-U.S. President John Quincy Adams suffered a fatal stroke at his desk while serving in his eighth term as a member of the U.S. House after his presidency. The chamber is also famous for its unusual acoustics which allows someone to sit or stand very near where Adam’s desk was located and hear - perfectly - what people are saying in a whisper on the other side of the chamber;

• the Great Rotunda: where President John F. Kennedy’s coffin rested (on the same Lincoln catafalque mentioned above) as hundreds of thousands of Americans filed by to pay their respects and say farewell during an 18 hour period following his assassination in 1963.

• the Old Supreme Court Chambers: this room housed the highest court in the land from 1810 - 1860. This is the chamber where among other major cases, the infamous Dred Scott v Sanford case was argued and decided.

And those are just the rooms.

Some of the rooms. A small sampling of the rooms in which history happened in the U.S. Capitol.

The building is filled with history and subsequently, stories.

The U.S. Capitol Historical Society collects those stories and that history which is often in the process of fading away into oblivion, preserves it, and shares it with the American people daily.

In his early days in Congress, Schwengel noticed there wasn’t much effort being made to preserve the history of the Capitol or to share it with Americans. Rather than “curse the darkness” he decided to “light a candle,” and founded the U.S Capitol Historical Society, an organization that completely changed the experience of the average visitor to the Capitol.

Today, there are professionally curated historical exhibits on display in an awesome Congressional Visitors Center, professional guides giving informed and historically accurate tours, and a real effort to tell the stories about history that happened in the Capitol, to explain it, and put it in historical context.

Schwengel was passionate about preserving the Capitol’s history and about sharing it.

When I worked in Congress, I used to give Iowans who visited the congressional office in which I worked a tour of the Capitol when time permitted. My tour used to end in what was then the parking lot in front of the grand staircase at the center of the East Front of the Capitol. I would conclude my tour by proudly pointing out the approximate location where Abraham Lincoln stood at his inauguration and said, “With malice toward none, and charity for all……”

Where Franklin Roosevelt stood at his inauguration and said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!”

And where John F. Kennedy stood and said “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for you for your country!”

I would then observe that only in Washington, DC can you find more history standing in a parking lot than you can most any other place in the country.

My point is this: I knew where those presidents had been standing when they said their historic words because Fred Schwengel - no longer a Congressman then, but still President of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society - showed me where they were standing when he gave me a tour of the Capitol one day shortly after my arrival on Capitol Hill.

Fred Schwengel, indeed, had a passion for history and shared that passion with anyone who wanted to hear his fascinating stories. Through his work at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, he ensured that the stories from the history of the U.S. Capitol, the people who served there, and about the work they did there, were preserved and shared widely.

That preserving, sharing and telling continues to this day. The non-profit U.S. Capitol Historical Society tells those stories to millions of people each year, via social media, film productions, printed publications, tours, lectures, and webinars.

Above the north door of the Old U.S. House Chamber - now known as National Statuary Hall - is a nearly life size marble statue called the “Car of History.” It was completed and installed in 1819. The statue features Clio, the Greek Muse of History, standing on a winged chariot, taking notes on what is happening down below in what was then the U.S. House of Representatives.

I often think of Fred Schwengel as Clio’s indispensable partner across the ages, picking up her notes and completing their journey, turning those recorded facts and events into fascinating stories that illuminate our understanding and knowledge of our history - the triumphs and tragedies, wins and losses, successes and failures, and even the heroes and scoundrels that came before us.

Clio was a mythological muse from Greece. Fred Schwengel was a very real Congressman from Iowa.

They were from very different times. Obviously, they never met.

But I’ll say this for Clio. She never had a better friend than Fred Schwengel. He, more than anybody, made possible the completion of her work in the Capitol. He enriched us all by doing so.

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Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Wini Moranville, Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politic Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Macey Spensley: The Midwest Creative, Iowa

Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

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