Lincoln Memorial

Bibliographic Essay

The National Park Service’s website for the Lincoln Memorial National Memorial,
www.nps.gov/linc, does not provide much information on the architecture and
history of the site. Midge Frazel’s Web Resources for Educators includes The
Lincoln Memorial Project (http://www.midgefrazel.net/lincoln.html). This site
houses links to various Lincoln oriented documents, resources, and references to
the memorial’s art and architecture, including a virtual tour of the Lincoln
Memorial. There are many websites for those interested in the Athenian
Parthenon including: Tuft University’s The Perseus Digital Library
(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu); Williamette University’s Parthenon Home Page
(http://willamette.edu/cl/wviews/parthenon/index.htm) with an image archive
index, bibliography, and links; and Reed College’s The Parthenon, by David
Silverman (http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/110Tech/Parthenon.html).


Additionally, the bibliographic citations provide the sources for developing this module.

Bibliographic Citations

Federal Writers’ Project, Washington: City and Capital (United States Government Printing Office: Washington, D. C.) 1937.
Good discussion of the building, the Lincoln statue, and the decorations.

Goode, James M., The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington D.C.: A Comprehensive Historical Guide (Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, D.C.) 1974.
Focuses on Daniel Chester French’s magnificent statue of Lincoln.

Moeller Jr., G. Martin AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D. C., Fourth Edition (The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore) 2006.
Discusses the controversies of the building and site selections.

Scott, Pamela and Lee, Antoinette J., Buildings of the District of Columbia (Oxford University Press: New York & Oxford) 1993.
Notes that with its various classical architectural aspects, the Lincoln Memorial was not derived from any specific ancient prototype. Good basic reference.

Thomas, Christopher A., The Lincoln Memorial & American Life (Princeton University Press: Princeton and Oxford) 2002.
An excellent study of the conception, building, and the meaning of the Lincoln Memorial. Discusses various classical options for the Lincoln Memorial: a colonnaded stoa, a columned classical enclosure around an altar, and the choice between a Greek rectangular temple-style (Parthenon) and a Roman circular-temple style (Pantheon).

Ziolkowski, John E., Classical Washington: A Guided Tour (National Endowment for the Humanities) 1987.
Good comparison with the Athenian Parthenon: the eastern orientation, the use of Doric columns on the outside and Ionic columns on the inside, and their respective employment of friezes, metopes, and patriotic themes.