page_title: Columbia (personification)
section_title: Personification
hierarchical_section_title: Columbia (personification) / Personification
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover of Puck magazine, 6 April 1901. "Columbia's Easter bonnet / Ehrhart after sketch by Dalrymple." Français&#160;: Couverture du magazine Puck du 6 avril 1901. «&#160;Le nouveau bonnet de Colombia pour pâques&#160;». Gravure d'Ehrhart d'après un dessin de Dalrymple. Sur le «&#160;bonnet&#160;» en forme de bateau de guerre, on peut lire «&#160;pouvoir mondial&#160;». Sur les canons «&#160;Armée&#160;» et «&#160;Marine&#160;».
context_page_description: Columbia is the female national personification of the United States. It was also a historical name applied to the Americas and to the New World. The association has given rise to the names of many American places, objects, institutions and companies; such as: Columbia University, the District of Columbia, "Hail, Columbia", as well as the ship Columbia Rediviva, which would give its name to the Columbia River. Images of the Statue of Liberty largely displaced personified Columbia as the female symbol of the United States by around 1920, although Lady Liberty was seen as an aspect of Columbia.
  Columbia is a New Latin toponym, in use since the 1730s with reference to the Thirteen Colonies which would go on to form the United States. It originated from the name of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and from the ending -ia, common in Latin names of countries.
context_section_description: As a quasi-mythical figure, Columbia first appears in the poetry of African-American Phillis Wheatley starting in 1776 during the revolutionary war.
  One century scarce perform'd its destined round,
  
  When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found;
  
  And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
  
  The land of freedom's heaven-defended race!
  
  Fix'd are the eyes of nations on the scales,
  
  For in their hopes Columbia's arm prevails.
  Especially in the 19th century, Columbia was visualized as a goddess-like female national personification of the United States and of liberty itself, comparable to the British Britannia, the Italian Italia Turrita and the French Marianne, often seen in political cartoons of the 19th and early 20th century.  This personification was sometimes called Lady Columbia or Miss Columbia. Such iconography usually personified America in the form of an Indian queen or Native American princess.
  The image of the personified Columbia was never fixed, but she was most often presented as a woman between youth and middle age, wearing classically-draped garments decorated with stars and stripes. A popular version gave her a red-and-white-striped dress and a blue blouse, shawl, or sash, spangled with white stars. Her headdress varied and sometimes it included feathers reminiscent of a Native American headdress while other times it was a laurel wreath, but most often it was a cap of liberty.
  Early in World War I (1914–1918) the image of Columbia standing over a kneeling "Doughboy" was issued in lieu of the Purple Heart Medal.  She gave "to her son the accolade of the new chivalry of humanity" for injuries sustained in "the" World War.
  In World War I, the name Liberty Bond for savings bonds was heavily publicized, often with images from the Statue of Liberty. The personification of Columbia fell out of use and she was largely replaced by the Statue of Liberty as a feminine symbol of the United States. When Columbia Pictures adopted Columbia as its logo in 1924, she appeared (and still appears) bearing a torch—similar to the Statue of Liberty and unlike 19th-century depictions of Columbia.
  Statues of the personified Columbia may be found among others in the following places.
  The 1863 Statue of Freedom atop the United States Capitol building, though not actually called Columbia, shares many of her iconic characteristics.
  Atop Philadelphia's Memorial Hall, built 1876
  The replica Statue of the Republic (Golden Lady) in Chicago's Jackson Park is often understood to be Columbia. It is one of the remaining icons of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
  In the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, dedicated 1949.
  In the Monument of Angola, Indiana.
caption: Columbia wearing a warship bearing the words "World Power" as her "Easter bonnet" (cover of Puck, April 6, 1901)
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