What is the design of lincoln memorial

Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial, on the extended axis of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is a United States Presidential Memorial built for President Abraham Lincoln.

The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple, housing a large seated sculpture of Lincoln in marble and inscriptions of two of Lincoln’s famous speeches. The memorial has been the site of many other well-known speeches, including Martin Luther King’s «I Have a Dream» speech, delivered on August 28, 1963, during the rally at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Like the other monuments on the National Mall, including the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and National World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial is administered by the National Park Service under its National Mall and Memorial Parks group. The National Memorial was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. It is open to the public from 8 a.m. until midnight all year, except December 25.

Contents

Design and construction

The Lincoln Monument Association was incorporated by the United States Congress in March 1867 to build a memorial to Lincoln. Little progress was made until the site was chosen in 1901, in an area that was swampland. Congress formally authorized the memorial on February 9, 1911, and the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial was not put into place until Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 1914. The monument was dedicated by Warren G. Harding on May 30, 1922, attended by the former President’s only surviving child, Robert Todd Lincoln. It won for its architect, the prominent Beaux-Arts designer Henry Bacon, the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, his profession’s highest honor, presented at the Monument in 1923. The stone for the building is Indiana limestone and Colorado Yule marble, quarried at the town of Marble, Colorado. The sculpture itself is made of Georgian marble. Originally under the care of the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks, it was transferred to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933.

Standing apart from the somewhat triumphal and Roman manner of most of Washington, the memorial takes the severe form of a Greek Doric temple. It is ‘peripteral,’ with 36 massive columns, each 33 feet high, entirely surrounding the cella of the building itself, which rises above the porticos. Five adults holding hands cannot quite embrace the columns. Architect Henry Bacon spent several years studying in Europe and was very fond of the architecture found in ancient Greece. He therefore chose to model the memorial after the Parthenon in Greece. By a happy afterthought, the 36 columns required for the design were seen to represent the 36 states of the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death, and their names were inscribed in the entablature above each column. The names of the 48 states of the Union when the Memorial was completed are carved on the exterior attic walls, and a later plaque commemorates the admission of Alaska and Hawaii.

Interior

The interior features a three-chamber design, with the central chamber containing a statue of the president and two flanking chambers housing the speeches Lincoln during his presidency. The focus of the memorial is Daniel Chester French’s sculpture of Lincoln, seated. French studied many of Mathew Brady’s photographs of Lincoln to determine his personality, and found that Lincoln’s most unique qualities were his strength and compassion. He depicted the president as worn and pensive, gazing eastwards down the Reflecting Pool at the capital’s starkest emblem of the Union, the Washington Monument. One hand is clenched, the other open. The clenched hand is meant to represent his strength and determination to see the war ended successfully, while the open hand is supposed to represent his warm and compassionate nature. It is said that French, who had a hearing-impaired daughter, carved Lincoln’s hands to sign the letters «A» and «L» in American Sign Language. Beneath his hands, the Roman fasces, symbols of the authority of the Republic, are sculpted in relief on the seat. The statue stands 19 feet tall and 19 feet wide, and was carved by the Piccirilli Brothers of New York City in a studio in the Bronx from 28 blocks of white Georgia marble. The central cella is flanked by two others. In one, the Gettysburg Address is inscribed on its south wall, and in the other, Lincoln’s second inaugural address is inscribed on its north wall. Above the text of these speeches are a series of murals by Jules Guerin showing an angel, representing truth, freeing a slave (on the south wall, above the Gettysburg Address), and the unity of the American North and South (above the Second Inaugural Address). On the wall behind the statue, visible over the statue’s head, is this dedication:

IN THIS TEMPLE

AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE

FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION

THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

IS ENSHRINED FOREVER

Events

In 1939, the singer Marian Anderson was refused permission to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington because of her skin color. At the suggestion of Walter White, the executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Harold L. Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior, arranged for Anderson to perform from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, to a live audience of 70,000, and a nationwide radio audience.

On August 28, 1963, the monument grounds were the site of one of the greatest political rallies in American history, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom which proved to be a high point of the American Civil Rights Movement. Numerous speeches have been given in front of the building, including Martin Luther King’s greatest, «I Have a Dream.» It is estimated that approximately 250,000 people came to witness this speech and that the crowd stretched back to the entrance of the present World War II Memorial. A marked tile on the memorial steps shows where Dr. King stood.

The site has had its share of unusual events including President Bush’s 2001 inauguration ceremony dance troupe The Rockettes kicking while marching down the monument’s steps.

On November 27, 2006, the Memorial was partially closed when a suspicious liquid was found in a bathroom. Also found was an «anthrax threat letter,» according to authorities at the Memorial.

Images of the memorial

The Lincoln Memorial is shown on the reverse of the United States penny. In his treatise Theory and Practise of Numismatic Design, Steve Crooks states that because the Lincoln Memorial is shown in sufficient detail to discern the statue of Lincoln on the reverse of the penny, Abraham Lincoln is the only person to be depicted on both the obverse and reverse of the same United States coin. This held true until 1999 when the New Jersey state quarter was released depicting George Washington crossing the Delaware River on its reverse. Another incident occurred in 2006 when South Dakota’s quarter was released, depicting Mount Rushmore.

The Lincoln Memorial is on the back of the United States five dollar bill, which bears Lincoln’s portrait on the front.

Other Lincoln memorials in Washington, D.C.

The Lincoln Memorial was preceded by three earlier remarkable memorials to Lincoln in the capital.

The first Lincoln statue in the United States, in front of what was the first City Hall was unveiled on April 15, 1868, the third anniversary of Lincoln’s death, by his successor, Andrew Johnson. It was paid for by the citizens of Washington, D.C. Lot Flannery, the Irish sculptor, who claimed he knew Lincoln and was present at the theater when Lincoln was assassinated. The memorial was meant not only to commemorate Lincoln but remind the public of his authorization of up to one million U.S.D. to pay loyal D.C. slaveholders for their human property. This initiative reflected Lincoln’s need to balance the drive towards the end of slavery with his dependency on the loyalty of the citizens of D.C. to the Union. The statue was taken down in 1919, but was restored to its original location after considerable controversy in 1923.

A Lincoln statue was dedicated inside the Rotunda of the United States Capitol on January 25, 1871, in the presence of Ulysses S. Grant. While still a teenager, sculptress Vinnie Ream began preliminary sketches of Lincoln during the last five months of his life. She became the first woman to receive a commission from Congress to create a statue for the Rotunda. To accurately render the statue’s garments, she borrowed the clothes Lincoln wore the night of his assassination.

The Emancipation Memorial (also known as «Freedom’s Memorial») (1876) in Lincoln Park on Capitol Hill portrays a kneeling man representing the last man captured under the Fugitive Slave Law, who snaps slavery’s chains as Lincoln proffers the Emancipation Proclamation. Freed black slaves raised all the funds to erect it. The initiative came from Charlotte Scott, of Virginia, who donated the first five dollars she earned as a free American. Archer Alexander, himself a former slave, posed as the model for the slave in the statue.

References

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Lincoln Memorial Design and Symbolism

When visitors approach the memorial dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, many are taken aback by its majestic temple-like appearance.

The individual responsible for this design was architect Henry Bacon who modeled the memorial after the Greek temple known as the Parthenon. Bacon felt that a memorial to a man who defended democracy should be based on a structure found in the birthplace of democracy. The final design featured 36 exterior columns to symbolize the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death. The names of these states appear in the frieze above the columns.

The interior of the Lincoln Memorial is divided into three chambers. The central chamber contains the statue of the president, while the two flanking chambers commemorate the two Lincoln speeches that reflected Lincoln’s character as well as celebrate his accomplishments during his presidency. The two speeches selected were the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Address.

The Speeches

Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 during the dedication ceremony for the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. This address was selected for its familiarity to many, but also because it displayed the president’s strength and determination to see a successful conclusion to the American Civil War. That successful conclusion meant not just reuniting the nation, but finishing what our founders had started. This nation must be one in which all were “created equal» was the rule of law and of practice.

Selected for the north chamber of the memorial was Lincoln’s March 4, 1865 Second Inaugural Address. That speech, delivered just one month before the conclusion of the Civil War, creates the policy for reuniting the divided states. The reelected president firmly believed that the northern states should welcome their southern brothers and sisters back into the Union with open arms. But the feeling among many northerners at the end of the Civil War was anger toward the South for having left the Union. Lincoln’s willingness to show compassion to the southern people, «with malice towards none; charity for all;» helped quell the hostility among northerners.

The Murals

Jules Guerin had painted two large murals to be placed above each of the selected speeches. The mural placed above the Gettysburg Address depicts the «Angel of Truth» flanked on either side by recently freed slaves. The mural placed above the Second Inaugural Address carries the theme of reunification. Guerin once again utilizes the «Angel of Truth,» flanked on either side by representatives from north and south. Both Guerin and Henry Bacon celebrate in their work Lincoln’s two great accomplishments as president as well as many of his great character traits. But nowhere is Lincoln’s character better depicted than in the statue created by sculptor Daniel Chester French.

The Statue

Daniel Chester French devoted several years to researching Abraham Lincoln and studying photographs of him. French decided that the special qualities found in the sixteenth president were his strength combined with his compassionate nature. In what ways did French portray these characteristics in his statue to? French depicted the president as a worn but strong individual who had endured many hardships. He positioned Lincoln’s hands in a manner that displayed his two leading qualities. One of the president’s hands is clenched, representing his strength and determination to see the war through to a successful conclusion. The other hand is a more open, slightly more relaxed hand representing his compassionate, warm nature.

Lincoln Memorial

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Lincoln Memorial, stately monument in Washington, D.C., honouring Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, and “the virtues of tolerance, honesty, and constancy in the human spirit.” Designed by Henry Bacon on a plan similar to that of the Parthenon in Athens, the structure was constructed on reclaimed marshland along the banks of the Potomac River. The site selection caused controversy; the speaker of the House of Representatives, Joseph Cannon, favoured a more prominent spot across the Potomac, maintaining: “I’ll never let a memorial to Abraham Lincoln be erected in that g– damned swamp.” The cornerstone was set in 1915, and the completed memorial was dedicated before more than 50,000 people on May 30, 1922. Lincoln’s only surviving son, Robert Todd Lincoln, attended the ceremony. President Warren G. Harding and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William Howard Taft, a former president, delivered addresses. Ironically, despite Lincoln’s renown as the “Great Emancipator,” the dedication ceremonies were strictly segregated; even Robert Moton, president of Tuskegee Institute, who spoke in the ceremony, was not allowed to sit on the speaker’s platform and instead was required to sit in an area reserved for African Americans.

The Lincoln Memorial includes 36 columns of Colorado marble, one for each state in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death in 1865; each column stands 44 feet (13.4 metres) high. The names of the 48 contiguous states are listed above the colonnade, and the dates of their admission to the Union are engraved in Roman numerals. Because Hawaii and Alaska attained statehood several decades after the Lincoln Memorial was finished, their names are inscribed on a plaque located on the front steps.

The interior features a 19-foot (5.8-metre) seated statue of Lincoln made of Georgia white marble. It was assembled on the premises from 28 pieces and rests on a pedestal of Tennessee marble. The statue was designed by Daniel Chester French and carved by the Piccirilli brothers of New York. Inscribed on the south wall of the monument is Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, on the north wall his Second Inaugural Address. On the ceiling are two paintings by Jules Guerin, Reunion and Progress and Emancipation of a Race. On a direct east-west axis with the Washington Monument and the United States Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial serves as the terminus to the western end of the Mall. It is situated on the Reflecting Pool near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial was an important symbol of the American civil rights movement. Marian Anderson, the famed African American contralto, with the support of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was granted permission by the Department of the Interior to perform at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after being denied the right to sing at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1963, on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in front of more than 200,000 people.

Lincoln Memorial

The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln. The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King’s «I Have a Dream» speech, delivered on August 28, 1963 during the rally at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Contents

Design and construction [ ]

The Lincoln Monument Association was incorporated by the United States Congress in March 1867 to build a memorial to Lincoln. A site was not chosen until 1902, in an area that was at that time a swampland. Congress formally authorized the memorial on February 9, 1911, and the first stone was put into place on Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 1914. The monument was dedicated by former President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft on May 30, 1922, a ceremony attended by Lincoln’s only surviving child, Robert Todd Lincoln. The stone for the building is Indiana limestone and Yule marble, quarried at the town of Marble, Colorado. The Lincoln sculpture within is made of Murphy Marble, quarried near Tate, Georgia. In 1923, designer Henry Bacon received the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, his profession’s highest honor, for the design of the memorial. Originally under the care of the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks, it was transferred to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933.

Standing apart from the somewhat triumphal and Roman manner of most of Washington, the memorial takes the severe form of a Greek Doric temple. It is «peripteral,» with 36 massive columns, each 37 feet (10 m) high, surrounding the cella of the building itself, which rises above the porticos. As an afterthought, the 36 columns required for the design were interpreted as representing the 25 U.S. states at the time of Lincoln’s death, as well as the 11 seceded Confederate states, and their names were inscribed in the entablature above each column in the order that each state had joined the Union (along with the year of their joining in Roman numerals). The names of the remaining 22 states that had joined the Union when the memorial was completed are carved on the exterior attic walls in the same manner. A plaque in front of the monument commemorates the admission of Alaska and Hawaii in 1959.

The Lincoln Memorial departed from its general model, the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, in its wide proportions, the entrance being centered on a long side, and in having a flat roof to the cella. At its entrance two columns carry the entablature across the opening. The focus of the memorial is Daniel Chester French’s sculpture of Lincoln, seated on a throne. French studied many of Mathew Brady’s photographs of Lincoln and depicted the president as worn and pensive, gazing eastwards down the Reflecting Pool toward the capital’s starkest emblem of the Union, the Washington Monument. Beneath his hands, the Roman fasces, symbols of the authority of the Republic, are sculpted in relief on the seat. The statue stands 19 feet 9 inches (6 m) tall and 19 feet (6 m) wide, and was carved from 28 blocks of white Georgia marble by the Piccirilli Brothers studio of Bronx, New York.

In two flanking spaces, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is inscribed on the south wall, and on the facing wall Lincoln’s second inaugural address. Above the texts are canvas murals by Jules Guerin that depict an angel (representing truth), the freeing of a slave (on the south wall, above the Gettysburg Address) and the unity of the American North and South (above the Second Inaugural Address). On the wall behind the statue, and over Lincoln’s head is this dedication, composed by Royal Cortissoz:

IN THIS TEMPLE AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS ENSHRINED FOREVER

Events at the memorial [ ]

In 1937, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow the African-American contralto Marian Anderson to perform before an integrated audience at the organization’s Constitution Hall. At the suggestion of Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harold L. Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior, arranged for a performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday of that year, to a live audience of 70,000, and a nationwide radio audience.

Visitors [ ]

Today, over 3.6 million people visit the memorial annually, and many schools come on field trips to the memorial.

Depictions on U.S. currency [ ]

From 1959 to 2008, the Lincoln Memorial was shown on the reverse of the United States one cent coin, which bears Lincoln’s portrait bust on the front. The statue of Lincoln can be seen in the monument. This was done to mark the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.

Secret Symbol of the Lincoln Memorial

Many miss the true meaning of the memorial communicated by a symbol. The symbol is not some hidden detail, but instead is deceptively obvious, repeated again and again in plain sight.

What is the Symbol?

Recognized around the world as a symbol of the United States and one of its great presidents, the awe-inspiring Lincoln Memorial attracts millions of visitors every year. In the main chamber of the memorial, some of these visitors lean against the back wall, crane their necks and contort their faces looking for a face in the rear of Lincoln’s head. Some will attempt to decode Lincoln’s hands. Looking for some deeper meaning, convinced that it must be here in this exalted chamber, most of these visitors will end up shaking their heads, shrugging, and walking away unconvinced of what they have seen. The irony is that the deeper meaning surrounds them, and has probably gone overlooked.

While distracted by myths about faces in hair and letter-signing hands, many visitors miss the true meaning of the memorial and the ubiquitous symbol that carries that meaning. Instead of being hidden somewhere inaccessible, the symbol is deceptively obvious, right there under Abraham Lincoln’s hands. This symbol is so overlooked that, even when pointed out, many observers will not recognize it. The symbol is that of fasces (FAS-eez), a bundle of rods bound by a leather thong. Repeated throughout the memorial, the fasces reveal the higher meaning of the Lincoln Memorial and the way the memorial’s designers meant to honor Abraham Lincoln.

What do fasces represent?

In ancient times, fasces were a Roman symbol of power and authority, a bundle of wooden rods and an axe bound together by leather thongs. Fasces represented that a man held imperium, or executive authority. Exercising imperium, a Roman leader could expect his orders to be obeyed, could dole out punishment, and could even execute those who disobeyed. The fasces he carried symbolized this power in two ways: the rods suggest punishment by beating, the axe suggests beheading. On its surface, the fasces imply power, strength, authority, and justice.

Fasces on the Lincoln Memorial Exterior

As one approaches the Lincoln Memorial from the plaza below, he or she passes by the first of these fasces at the base of the main stairs. The carving is easily missed even though it is more than ten feet tall, but to miss it is to miss the introduction to the theme of the memorial. On the end of the wall is a carving of rods with an axe bound by a leather thong, the classic Roman fasces. The fasces indicate the power and authority of the state over the citizens, commanding respect. But there is a twist. A bald eagle’s head sits atop the axe, an American touch on an ancient Roman symbol. Adding to the American-ness, there are thirteen rods shown in the fasces, suggesting the thirteen original states that achieved independence from Britain and formed the United States. Seen as symbols of the states — and the American motto «E Pluribus Unum,» or «Out of Many, One,» — the rods bound together suggest the union of the states and their bond by the Constitution. Each state is weaker individually, but together, they are stronger. This concept is so important that it is presented long before visitors reach the building itself and see the representation of the Savior of the Union.

The Fasces as a Symbol of Union

NPS / John Donoghue

The structure itself echoes and amplifies the idea of a strong union. By architect Henry Bacon’s design, the perimeter of the Lincoln Memorial boasts 36 Doric columns representing the 36 states in the union Lincoln fought to preserve. The names and admission year of these states are engraved above the marble columns, the years not coincidentally shown in Roman numerals. The Lincoln Memorial is physically held up by the columns, standing strong because all the columns are working together. Without each column, the building would fall, just as the nation would fall without all its states. This concept of the memorial was incorporated into an object you may have in your pocket right now. Pennies minted between 1959 and 2008 depict the Lincoln Memorial on the reverse with the words «E Pluribus Unum» above the memorial. The implication is that the entire structure is a representation of the fasces, a representation of strength through unity, a monument not only to Lincoln but to the Union itself.

Fasces in the Murals

Fasces in the Quotes

On the opposite wall, Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address reviews the devastating conflict and Lincoln’s desire to see an end to slavery, yet it famously closes with the idea of reunifying the nation «with malice toward none, with charity for all.» Jules Guerin’s mural depicts themes of reunion, charity, and fertility. Tucked in the margins of the address, axe-less fasces rise alongside the words, reinforcing Lincoln’s theme of reunion, for the nation is stronger when all the states are bound together.

Fasces in Abraham Lincoln’s Statue and Beyond

The centerpiece of the memorial is Daniel Chester French’s sculpture of Abraham Lincoln. Our eyes gravitate toward his, contemplating his mood and expression. We sense the tension and strain he is under, but also the command and presence he has. Because we are naturally drawn to the human component of the statue, we can easily overlook the flag draped behind him and the fasces beneath his hands symbolizing the Union he strained to preserve. To drive the point home, the inscription above the statue reads: «In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.»