The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and was dedicated on May 30, 1922. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue (Abraham Lincoln, 1920) was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior murals was Jules Guerin. It is one of several monuments built to honor an American president.
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. Like other monuments on the National Mall - including the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and National World War II Memorial - the memorial is administered by the National Park Service under its National Mall and Memorial Parks group. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since October 15, 1966. It is open to the public 24 hours a day. In 2007, it was ranked seventh on the List of America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.
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
Today, over 3.6 million people visit the memorial annually, and many schools come on field trips to the 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. Like other monuments on the National Mall - including the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and National World War II Memorial - the memorial is administered by the National Park Service under its National Mall and Memorial Parks group. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since October 15, 1966. It is open to the public 24 hours a day. In 2007, it was ranked seventh on the List of America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.
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
Today, over 3.6 million people visit the memorial annually, and many schools come on field trips to the memorial.
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