Born in Seattle, Washington in 1904, Edward Lewis Bartlett moved to Alaska with his parents, Klondike pioneers. Alaska would not become a state until 1959, but shortly after the Bartletts moved to Alaska, Congress passed a bill which gave Alaska an elected delegate to Congress.
Edward Lewis Bartlett graduated from Fairbanks, High School in 1922. He then attended the University of Washington and later the University of Alaska, after which he became a staff reporter for the Fairbanks News-Miner.
Bartlett had grown with Alaska, and would continue to grow in the political world of the territory. He wrote about political issues, and as an Associate Editor, supported the candidacy of Anthony J. Dimond for Delegate to Congress. Dimond won, made Bartlett part of his staff in 1932, and brought him to Washington D.C..
Knowledgeable of the needs of Alaskans and Alaska, Bartlett supported The New Deal. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt recognized Bartlett’s understanding of Alaska and appointed him Secretary of Alaska. In 1944, when Delegate Dimond resigned, Edward Lewis Bartlett, known as Bob Bartlett was elected as his successor and continued to be elected until 1959, when Alaska had achieved the statehood, Bartlett was a strong proponent of. He then was elected as the first senator of Alaska, and served until 1967.
The Library of Congress estimates that he had more bills passed into law than any other member in congressional history. He died on December 11, 1968 following heart surgery.
Ted Stevens was appointed to replace him as senator of Alaska. When the statue of Edward Lewis Bartlett was unveiled in the U.S. Capitol as the first statue representing Alaska in the National Statuary Hall Collection, Senator Ted Stevens spoke about Senator Bob Bartlett’s humble genial nature, his many accomplishments for Alaska.
Bartlett’s favorite poem, Requiem, by Robert Louis Stevenson was read when he was buried…
“Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie. Glad did I live and gladly die, And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you ‘grave for me, Here he lies where he longs to be; Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter home from the hill.”
Diana Erbio is a freelance writer and author of “Coming to America: A Girl Struggles to Find her Way in a New World”. Read more in her series Statues: The People They Salute visit The Table of Contents and the Facebook Page. (I’ll be adding to the Substack Table of Contents as I transfer the Blog Posts. Please subscribe
Did not know anything about Mr. Bartlett until I read this article. Thank you