Tour Itinerary. Tour Begins at 9:00 A.M. Tour Ends 12:00 P.M.

Transcription

1 Washington D.C. Teacher Institute Tour Tour Itinerary Tour Begins at 9:00 A.M. Tour Ends 12:00 P.M. First Location: Emancipation Monument Lincoln Park, East Capitol and 11 th St. NW Second Location: Grant Memorial East End of National Mall Third Location: National Building Museum Civil War Frieze 4 th 5 th F & G St. NW Fourth Location: Winfield Scott Hancock Monument Pennsylvania Ave & 7 th St., NW Fifth Location: African American Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Vermont Ave. 10 th and U St. NW Sixth Location: Thomas Monument Thomas Circle, Mass. Ave. & 14 th St. NW Seventh Location: Nuns of the Battlefield Monument Rhode Island & M St. NW Eighth Location: Sheridan Monument, Sheridan Circle, Mass Ave. & 23 rd St., NW Ninth Location: DuPont Fountain DuPont Circle Mass. Ave. & Conn. Ave. NW Tenth Location: Lincoln Memorial West End of National Mall Eleventh Location: Alexandria Civil War Monument and Marshall House Prince and S. Washington St. Alexandria Civil War Trust th Street NW Suite 900 Washington DC, Phone: Fax:

2 2 By: George Leslie Katz

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4 4 Katz Monument Essay Questions Name US History OLEO GUIDED READING ACTIVITY The American Monument by George Leslie Katz Directions: Please answer the following questions based on your reading the assigned essay. Where in the United States are monuments located? Why do you think Katz says, Their meaning is not limited by their worth as works of art? Why do you think Katz refers to the American Monument(s) as a prayer to civil History? Why do you think that Katz thinks that monuments are important? What is the main idea(s) of this essay? Why do you think studying monuments might be something good or important to examine in a history class?

5 5 Monuments and Memorials Found in the United States Portrait (right)- This is simply a portrait sculpture of an individual standing or seated alone. General Logan Statue (Wikimedia Commons) Allegorical (left) These are sculpture that use ideal or representational figures to convey a story. Shiloh Confederate Monument (NPS) Portrait-Allegorical These are sculptures that incorporate a portrait of a particular person with ideal or representational figures that combined tell a story. Shaw Memorial (Wikimedia Commons) You will determine which monuments along the tour are Portrait, Allegorical or Portrait Allegorical.

6 6 Emancipation Monument By: Thomas Bell (1876) This is the first significant public monument erected in the United States to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. It was paid for by African American veterans of the Civil War and numerous freedmen. However, they had no say in the design, as their money was placed in the trust of white leaders of the Western Sanitary Commission who selected the sculptor and settled on his design. Ball s monument led to the initial phase of Lincoln historiography that placed him in the category of the Great Emancipator. Lincoln would be remembered this way until 1887, when there was a shift towards Lincoln as the Great Statesman with the unveiling of the Standing Lincoln in Chicago by the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Frederick Douglass was the keynote speaker at the dedication on April 14, 1876, eleven years to the day of Lincoln s assassination. His dedicatory address is considered one of his most memorable public speeches. In his remarks he extols praise as well as criticism on Lincoln, keeping his comments within context of Lincoln as a human being. The day of dedication proved to be a celebratory event for African Americans as thousands of African Americans descended upon Washington to witness the unveiling. Reportedly Douglass was happy with the event, but distressed by the composition of the sculpture claiming that the African American freedman was a bit unmanly. The figure of the freedman was based on the features of the last man returned to slavery under the Fugitive Slave Act, Archer Alexander. By 1900 the sculpture had become anachronistic to African American leaders with W.E.B. DuBois referring to it as the shoe shine statue. A duplicate cast was made for Boston where it resides in Copley Square.

7 7 Ulysses S Grant Memorial By: Henry Merwin Shrady (1922) When dedicated this memorial to Grant was the largest public sculpture in the United States. The sculptor labored twenty years on the work and died several weeks before it was dedicated. Here we see Grant astride his horse Cincinnati overlooking the battlefield. On the southern end of the memorial is an allegorical group representing the artillery and on the northern end is an allegorical group representing the cavalry. To complete these allegorical compositions Shrady traveled to West Point to study cavalry and artillery in action making painstaking notes on how men, animals and equipment move. Thus these allegorical sculptures provide a sense of realism to the work. The infantry is represented by a bas-relief on the pedestal with Grant. The lions represent Grant s courage and guard the flags of the United States and the United States Army. Some art historians and scholars of public memory like to tie the special link between Arlington House on Arlington Height, down across the Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial and then continuing eastward until the Grant Memorial thereby linking the three most significant figures of the Civil war.

8 8 United States Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil War By: Pension Building Frieze Casper Buberl (1882) A buff terra-cotta relief frieze, 3 feet high and 1,200 feet long runs continuously around the building between the first and second stories. It realistically depicts naval, infantry, cavalry, quartermaster, and medical units on active duty. Other decorative elements include cannons, bombs bursting, crossed swords, stars, and cannon balls. Inside the various spandrels, the niches above and to the side of each entrance are figures of Justice, Truth, Peace, Mars and Minerva. The represented military branches in the sculpture are above entry portals designated for each branch. It was from this building that pensions were distributed to Union Civil War veterans. The building was designed by General Montgomery C. Meigs, a West Point trained engineer. Under the direction of Meigs the dome of the US Capitol was raised. Today the Pension Building is the home of the National Building Museum.

9 9 Major General Winfield Scott Hancock By: Henry Jackson Ellicott (1896) This sculpture of Winfield Scott Hancock was dedicated in 1896 with great fanfare and was attended by many important dignitaries including President Grover Cleveland, Vice- President Adlai E. Stevenson, the Supreme Court Chief Justice, and members of the diplomatic corps. The heroic sculpture alone is 9 feet high and 7 feet wide. At the time of the dedication Hancock was considered the Union hero at Gettysburg. In his dedicatory remarks President Cleveland gave special notice to the aging Civil War veterans who were seated in the front row.

10 10 National Memorial to African American Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil War By: Ed Hamilton The Spirit of Freedom ( 1997) This is the most recent Civil War public sculpture dedicated in Washington, DC. Drawing inspiration from Augustus Saint-Gaudens Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Volunteer Infantry Memorial in Boston, Hamilton s design honors the more than 180,000 African American who served the US Military during the Civil War. The sculpture was placed in Washington, D.C. s historic black Shaw Neighborhood, named after Robert Gould Shaw. Included in the sculptural composition are women and children reflecting the sacrifices they made during the war. Above them hovers the Spirit of Freedom. In accepting Hamilton s design during a competitive selection process the Commission of Fine Arts notes that Hamilton s sculpture conveyed the sense that they were fighting for the protection of their families from the slave trade and for equal protection under the law. On the stone wall behind the sculpture are the names of all African Americans who served in Union forces during the Civil War as well as the 7,000 white officers who led the United States colored Troops during the war.

11 11 Major General George Henry Thomas By: John Quincy Adams Ward ( 1879) Considered by many to be the finest equestrian statue in Washington, DC Ward s composition, this sculpture was financed by the Society of the Army of the Cumberland. Ward had access to Thomas uniform, saddle, and other accoutrements which he used in the modeling process. Thomas sits on his alert steed, with its ears back and nostrils flared as he surveys the battlefield from the crest of a ridge depicted by the slight elevation at the front of the composition. As was fashionable with many Civil War sculptures dedicated in Washington, DC the entire federal government closed so that workers could attend the dedication. The 1879 dedication was the largest gathering of Union veterans in Washington, DC since the 1865 grand review. Thomas was a Virginian who remained loyal to the Union when Virginia seceded. With this action his family disowned him. However, his wife, a native New Yorker, loved what she saw when she inspected ward s model in his studio.

12 12 Nuns of the Battlefield By: Jerome Conner (1924) This large 6 foot high and 9 foot wide bas-relief panel was erected by the Ladies Auxiliary of the ancient Order of the Hibernians, an Irish based organization of the Roman Catholic Church. The monument honors the nuns who took care of the wounded on many Civil War battlefields. The life-sized figures of the Nuns are garbed in their respective habits of twelve different religious orders. On one end sits a figure of Patriotism and on the other end is the Angel of Peace. Above the panel and under a cross surrounded by a wreath is the inscription: They comforted the dying, nursed the wounded, carried hope to the imprisoned, gave in His name a drink of water to the thirsty. Below the panel is inscribed: To the memory and honor of the various orders of sisters who gave their service as nurses on battlefields and in hospitals during the Civil War. This memorial is only one of two memorials in the District of Columbia that recognizes the role women played during the Civil War. The other memorial is the Arsenal Monument located in Congressional Cemetery marking the graves of the twenty-one women who died in the Arsenal fire in June The sculptor was also of Irish descent and had expertise in creating other works for the Catholic Church and other Iris related themes.

13 13 General Philip H. Sheridan By: Gutzon Borglum ( 1908) This realistic rendering of General Philip H. Sheridan depicts him as he and his horse, Rienzi, arrived on the battlefield at Winchester, Virginia as Sheridan rallies his men. He had ridden twenty hard miles to turn defeat into victory for Union forces. Sheridan then renamed his horse, Winchester. Shortly after Sheridan s death in 1888, the Society of the Army of the Cumberland determined that Washington, DC should have an appropriate tribute to Sheridan. The society was backed by Mrs. Sheridan who enthusiastically endorsed the project. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, of Mount Rushmore fame has infused the 11 foot high figure with dynamic action and energy and part of the pedestal is arranged like an exedra for visitors to sit upon. Borglum s approach in realism was unusual for the time. Borglum s monument at Gettysburg to North Carolina troops reflects the same level of energy and realism. The model for Sheridan was his son Second Lieutenant Philip H. Sheridan, Jr. This sculpture was not without controversy however as the original sculptor of choice, John Quincy Adams Ward had a falling out with Mrs. Sheridan over the depiction of her husband and had fallen woefully behind his contractual arrangements with the Society of the Army of the Cumberland.

14 14 Rear Admiral Samuel Francis DuPont Memorial Fountain By: Daniel Chester French ( 1921) One of the more unusual and unique Civil War monuments in Washington, DC is French s tribute to one of Lincoln s Admirals. It is actually the second memorial erected in Washington, DC to DuPont. His family disliked the first statue and had it removed to be replaced by French s fountain. DuPont had a dubious reputation at the close of the Civil War for his failure to capture Charleston, South Carolina by sea without support of the infantry. In the wake of the naval disaster DuPont was humiliated and died bitter in 1865 having been relieved of his command. In the wake of his death his family sought to rehabilitate his reputation, but the sculpture erected, in 1884, in his honor, was of little artistic merit and had the inverse effect of further eroding DuPont s standing. In 1916, the DuPont family purchased from the government the original sculpture and had it relocated to a park in Wilmington, Delaware. With Congressional support the family secured a contract with sculptor Daniel Chester French to erect a more fitting tribute for which the DuPont family paid. The fountain consists of a large lower basin and a smaller upper basin, joined by a pedestal composed of 8-foot high figures symbolizing the Sea, the Stars, and the wind. The figure of The Sea is a woman draped in wet clothes who cradles a ship in one hand and a sea gull in the other as dolphins frolic at her feet. The Stars, also depicted as a woman, holds a globe and gazes down upon it. The Wind is represented by a male figure draped by a ships swelling sail with a large conch-shell horn in one hand. French and his architect collaborator, Henry Bacon, strategically arranged that the water drains from the upper basin into the lower basin would serve as a frame for each of the individual figures. At the same time French was working on this project the seventy year-old sculptor was working on the Lincoln Memorial as well.

15 15 The Lincoln Memorial Sculptor: Daniel Chester French Architect: Henry Bacon (1922) Arguably the greatest public monument in the United States, the Lincoln Memorial is not just a tribute to the 16 th President, but is also a site of history as well, specifically the 1939 Marian Anderson Concert and the focal point of the 1963 March on Washington. It has also served as a movie set most notably for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and Forrest Gump (1994). Originally envisioned as a tribute for the centennial of Lincoln s birth the idea of the Lincoln Memorial evolved over time resulting in a project that began in 1915 and ended in The Memorial s site, the western terminus of the National Mall, was chosen as part of the 1901 McMillan Park Commission to reimagine the landscape of the National Mall. In 1915 the contract for the structure was made between the Lincoln Memorial Commission and architect Henry Bacon. Bacon selected his friend and long-time collaborator Daniel Chester French to create the figure of Lincoln for inside the memorial chamber. Bacon modeled his design on the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, but turned the structure on its axis so that the entrance to the Memorial would include a greater volume and be broader in approach. Surrounding the chamber are thirty-eight Doric columns. Above the columns is a two tiered frieze. On the top frieze are listed the names of the forty-eight states that were in the Union at the time of dedication. Alaska and Hawaii have tablets on the main plaza erected after their admission as states. On the lower frieze are the names of the thirty-six states that comprised the nation at the time of Lincolns death in Inside the chamber on the South Wall is inscribed the text of the Gettysburg Address and on the North Wall is inscribed the text of Lincoln s Second Inaugural. The Lincoln Memorial commission specifically restricted the memorial to avoid any connection of Lincoln to the emancipation of the slaves for fear of rubbing salt in old wounds. The Lincoln Memorial Commission envisioned the Lincoln Memorial to be part of the national reconciliation that was taking place between the North and the South. Union and Confederate veterans participated in the dedication program. The keynote speaker, Robert Moton, the President of Tuskegee Institute had his speech censored with sections about the dire state of race relations in 1922 deleted. The 19 foot seated figure of Lincoln, in the chair of state draped with an American flag consists of 28 separate two ton blocks of marble. The actual carving of the figure was done by Italian stone masons working in the Bronx Studio of the Piccirilli Bothers, who worked from French s seven foot working model. When completed French spoke of his creation this way, What I wanted to convey was the mental and physical strength of the great war President and his confidence in his ability to carry the thing through to a successful finish. If any of this gets over, I think it is probably due to the whole pose of the figure and particularly to the action of the hands and to the expression of the face. Lincoln s right hand is open reflecting Lincoln s compassion and flexibility, while his left hand is clenched in a fist to demonstrate his firmness in keeping the Union together. In 2003, the National Park Service marked the spot on the Memorial where Dr. King delivered his I have a dream speech.

16 16 The Alexandria Confederate (Appomattox) By: Casper Buberl; design of John Elder (1889) This figure of a quiet and reflective Confederate soldier faces south as it honors the memory of the men from Alexandria, Virginia who mustered into the service of Robert E. Lee s Army of Northern Virginia. Head bowed in sorrow he holds in his left hand a typical slouch hat worn by many southern soldiers. Buberl drew inspiration for the figure from a painting that hangs in the Virginia State Library in Richmond entitled Appomattox. On the pedestal s north face are inscribed words of Robert E. Lee, They died in the consciousness of duty faithfully performed. Dedicated in the age of horse and buggy the sculpture in the 20 th century became a traffic hazard given its location. Several times the sculpture has been hit by motor vehicles. Efforts to relocate the statue have fallen flat as the Virginia General Assembly passed an act in 1890 which states that the sculpture shall perpetually remain at the site and that the location shall not be repealed, revoked, altered, modified, or changed by any future Council of other municipal power.