Monuments and Memory: The Dedication of the Lincoln Memorial | BRIdge from the Past

0:00 Welcome back to another episode of Bridge from the Past. Art across US history. I’m your host, Mary, and this series is all about using images as a way to explore America’s past. Today, we’re starting a three part series on monuments and memory. And to do this, we’re looking at one of the most famous monuments in the United States the Lincoln Memorial.

0:22 In May of 2022, the Lincoln Memorial celebrated its 100th anniversary of being dedicated to the American people. What was the meaning of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922? And has this meaning changed over time? Let’s jump in and see.

0:42 Once again, we’re thinking about the meaning of the Lincoln Memorial when it was dedicated in 1922. So here’s our starting point. This is a modern image of the Lincoln Memorial, an aerial photograph. So just by looking at this, I can’t tell nothing is immediately apparent about what this might have meant people in 1922. But I can make some observations about what sticks out to me.

1:05 And I can see this is a really large building. I know that. It’s in Washington, DC. I happen to live not too far away from this memorial. I’ve been to it myself. I can see it’s sort of up on a hill. You can see how small the people look. They’re climbing stairs to go inside. So I know there is an inside. I can see an opening. There’s a lot of columns.

1:27 It looks like there’s some sort of engraving up here, but I don’t know what it means or what it could have meant at the time. Let’s look at another picture and see if we can get some more information. So this is the inside of the Lincoln Memorial, and it looks just as it did in 1922. So I have a few more clues here.

1:47 There’s an enormous statue of Abraham Lincoln. Hard to miss him. So he’s front and center. So I’m assuming it really wanted to, you know, emphasize Abraham Lincoln. And there is an inscription or an epitaph above the statue. In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.

2:09 So there’s some interesting words here. A temple. The memory of Lincoln is enshrined. So temple, shrine. These are almost these religious terms. And there’s this huge statue of the President right front and center. And it’s also saying he saved the Union. Is this a shrine to Abraham Lincoln?

2:30 A temple. What do we need to remember about him? What makes him worthy of this shrine? So, as always with an image, it’s helpful to have some context before we can really jump into our analysis. So what do we need to know? Well, first of all, just some basics. So the Lincoln Memorial was built from 1914 to 1922, and the intent was to honor

2:51 Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. It cost $3 million to build, and the construction. The planning was overseen by a committee. It was built in the middle of something called the City Beautiful Movement. So this is a movement in the early 20th century that really emphasized, as the name would suggest,

3:11 making cities beautiful, making them a nice place to be. So beautiful architecture, marble, looking back to ancient Greece and to ancient Rome. So the Lincoln Memorial looks a lot like the Parthenon from ancient Greece, which was a temple to the goddess Athena. So that was intentional. That was the style at the time. The columns, the memorial represent

3:33 the states in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death in 1865. And the focal point is this enormous statue of Lincoln in the central hall. He’s 60ft tall, and the sculptor was Daniel Chester. French was dedicated. It’s memorial finished in 1922, and it’s dedicated on May 30 of 1922.

3:55 And at that ceremony, you had a really large crowd. 50,000 people attend, and it was broadcast on two radio frequencies. So 1922, no TVs yet, but we do have radios, so some people were able to listen in. And what we’re listening to speakers. There were three honored speakers of the day. So let’s take a look at some pictures from 1922.

4:17 So here’s an image of the crowd. So you can see there’s a lot of people that have come to see this dedication. And the Lincoln Memorial would be here in front of these people. This is the Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC. You can see the Washington Monument right here. And further, you can’t really see it clearly in the picture. But the US

4:37 Capitol would be further down in Washington, DC. So you have the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial all in a line, all in an axis. So all of these things are very symbolically important to the United States. You have a huge crowd in attendance to hear three speakers. The first speaker was this gentleman here on the left.

4:59 This is William Howard Taft. So he was the Chief Justice at the time. He’s also a former President, and he was in charge of the commission that was behind building the Lincoln Memorial. And he speaks and he hands over the memorial as a gift to the American people, to this man right here.

5:19 The second speaker was the President, Warren G. Harding. So both of these men are talking about this idea of unity and Lincoln’s importance in saving the Union and why that’s so significant. Now, this guy right here is not actually the third speaker, but I can imagine why you would think that. This is actually Robert Todd Lincoln, who was Abraham Lincoln’s only surviving son.

5:43 So he didn’t speak, but he wanted to be there at the dedication ceremony. The third speaker was this man right here. So he’s kind of far away, but you can see he’s on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial making a speech. And this is Dr. Robert Moton. And he was the president of the Tuskegee Institute, which was a college for African Americans in Alabama.

6:06 So I can see he’s an African American man and he’s addressing the crowd. He’s the third speaker at this event. He was actually asked to provide his speech to the committee led by Chief Justice Taft ahead of the actual ceremony. They wanted to review his speech and see what he had to say. And Taft actually asks Dr.

6:27 Moton to cut down his speech and to emphasize unity rather than anything else in his remarks. So what might he have been talking about in his remarks? Well, despite being an honored speaker that day, Robert Moton is addressing a segregated audience. This is 1922 and segregation and Jim Crow are common.

6:51 So African Americans who came to the dedication ceremony of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922 were actually asked removed by Marines to a section further off in the crowd. They wouldn’t have had good seats. So this sort of segregation and discrimination was common. And Moton talked about this in his speech. And he’s alluding to the fact that Lincoln did save the Union.

7:14 He was a great president, but he was also instrumental in the emancipation of enslaved men and women. And not only is that emancipation worth remembering, because again, unity was being emphasized at the ceremony, but the work is unfinished. So his speech almost had an appeal element to it, as in the work is not quite done yet.

7:35 I started by asking what the Lincoln Memorial meant when it was dedicated in 1922, and if this meaning has changed over time. We learned that at the time, in 1922, the memorial meant different things to different people. And Moton and some people in the African American newspapers called for a second dedication ceremony that included all Americans.

7:58 But I want to toss it out to you. What does the Lincoln Memorial mean to you? What do you want to know more about? What’s the next question in our discussion? Let me know in the comments below if you learned something, please like this video, subscribe to our channel. I’ll be back with another chapter in our story on monuments and memory and what the Lincoln Memorial has meant different over time.

8:21 Until then, everybody keep your eyes open. Keep asking questions, wear sunscreen. It’s summertime. And see you soon. Take care.