Introduction Credits:
Randolph H. Lytton, Pim van den Assum

Introduction Date:
02/27/2007

Introduction Text:

The Lincoln Memorial, located in West Potomac Park at the west end of the Mall, was built between 1913 and 1922 by Henry Bacon. Daniel Chester French sculpted the statue of President Lincoln, and the murals were done by Jules Guerin. Restorations and upgrades were done in 1996, 2000 and 2006. By 1911, when Congress got around to erecting a memorial to our 16th president, there were many suggestions for its style. One concept was for a second obelisk to balance the Washington National Monument, and another was for a pyramid, but a Greek temple form was finally chosen.

The temple-like Lincoln Memorial suggests the Athenian Parthenon, without certain classical features. Its entrance is on the east long side and not at one of the short ends. Instead of classical pediments, there is a recessed attic surrounding the top. (Moeller, p. 84) Each of the exterior thirty-six Doric columns represents the states within the Union at the beginning of the Civil War. Inside the ‘sacred’ area is a stature of Abraham Lincoln seated on a “curule” chair with fasces, surrounded by four 60-foot Ionic columns. The Lincoln Memorial has a mixture of Greek and Roman motifs: swags on the attic, palmettes, oak and laurel wreaths, urns on tripods, a Roman-like entrance below with projecting blocks and a Greek-like three-stepped entrance into the ‘temple’ itself