Nebraska State Capitol
Bertram Goodhue’s tower, courtyards, mosaics, sculpture, inscriptions, and legislative rooms make the building a deliberately integrated work of civic art.
Artwork inspired by Hildreth Meière
Completed in stages from 1922 to 1932, Nebraska’s Capitol rejected the conventional dome for a tall office tower crowned by the Sower. Its decorative program attempts to narrate law, government, agriculture, Indigenous history, settlement, and ideals of citizenship through many artists and materials.
A guided tour is far more useful than a quick lobby visit because symbolism runs from floor mosaics to doorways and inscriptions. Read critically as well as appreciatively: the building reveals the ambitions and limitations of the era that commissioned it, including how Indigenous peoples were represented by state institutions.
- Architect
- Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue
- Completed
- 1922–1932
- Best experience
- Guided architectural and civic tour
Quick guide
- Route question
- Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue ↔ 1922–1932
- Final evidence
- Follow mosaics, sculpture, inscriptions, and doors from ground floor to tower.
Quick guide
- Tower
- Read Goodhue’s tower plan as a deliberate rejection of the standard capitol dome.
- Program
- Follow mosaics, sculpture, inscriptions, and doors from ground floor to tower.
- Critique
- Ask how the commissioned art represents Indigenous peoples, settlement, and citizenship.
- Tour
- Use a guided route when possible; much of the building’s meaning is easy to miss.
Good to know
Nebraska rejected the familiar statehouse dome for a tall office tower crowned by the Sower, while mosaics and sculpture embed a much larger—and debatable—civic narrative.
Notice these
- Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue
- 1922–1932
- Guided architectural and civic tour