BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Capitol Hill -- Lincoln Park

DC -- Capitol Hill -- Lincoln Park:

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[1] LINCPK_090208_02.JPG	[2] LINCPK_090208_04.JPG	[3] LINCPK_090208_06.JPG
[4] LINCPK_090208_07.JPG	[5] LINCPK_090208_11.JPG	[6] LINCPK_090208_13.JPG
[7] LINCPK_090208_15.JPG	[8] LINCPK_090208_16.JPG	[9] LINCPK_090208_18.JPG
[10] LINCPK_090208_19.JPG	[11] LINCPK_090208_21.JPG	[12] LINCPK_090208_24.JPG
[13] LINCPK_090208_29.JPG	[14] LINCPK_090208_40.JPG	[15] LINCPK_090208_41.JPG
[16] LINCPK_090208_48.JPG	[17] LINCPK_090208_52.JPG	[18] LINCPK_090208_58.JPG
[19] LINCPK_090208_59.JPG	[20] LINCPK_090208_66.JPG	[21] LINCPK_090208_70.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. LINCPK_090208_06.JPG: Freedom's Memorial In grateful memory of Abraham Lincoln this monument was erected by the Western Sanitary Commission of Saint Louis MO: with funds contributed solely by emancipated citizens of the United States declared free by his proclamation January 1st AD 1863. The first contribution of five dollars was made by Charlotte Scott, a freed woman of Virginia being her first earnings in freedom and consecrated by her suggestion and request on the day she heard of President Lincoln's death to build a monument to his memory.
2. LINCPK_090208_15.JPG: And upon this Act sincerely received by an act of justice warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity I invoke the considerable judgement of mankind and the gracious favor of almighty god . A. Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation Jany 1, 1863 Western Sanitary Commission James E. Yeatman, President C.S. Creeley, Treas. Ceo. Partridge, Dr. J.B. Johnson, Wm C. Eliot
3. LINCPK_090208_24.JPG: Mary McLeod Bethune
Wikipedia Description: Lincoln Park (Washington, D.C.)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lincoln Park is the largest urban park located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was known historically as Lincoln Square. From 1862 to 1865, it was the site of the largest hospital in Washington, DC: Lincoln Hospital.

Location

Situated one mile directly east of the United States Capitol, Lincoln Park is maintained by the National Park Service. The park is bounded by 11th Street NE and SE on the west, 13th Street NE and SE on the east, East Capitol Street NE on the North, and East Capitol Street SE on the south. It is four blocks northeast of Eastern Market, Washington, D.C.

The eastern end of the park includes two separate, enclosed play areas for young children. The grassy perimeter and central turf area are popular with neighborhood dogs and their owners.

History

Pierre Charles L'Enfant included the park in his original 1791 plan for the District of Columbia, intending it for public use (see: L'Enfant Plan). Though it was originally planned as the point from which all distances in North America would be measured, it was not ultimately utilized for this purpose. Instead, the park was used as a dumping ground.

During the Civil War, it became the site where Lincoln Hospital was built to take care of the wounded Union Army soldiers. While there were many others around the city, it was the largest in the area built by the Army. It included 20 pavilions arranged in a V formation. 25 tent wards provided beds for 2,575 wounded. Covered pathways connected the kitchen and dining rooms.

The other buildings on site were:

* the headquarters (marked by the flag)
* the officers quarters
* the quarters for the Sisters providing the nursing care
* the barracks
* a guard house
* separate quarters for contraband
* service facilities: a water tank, laundry, barber shop, carpenter shop, stables and a morgue ("Dead House").

Like many of the other hospitals in the area, Lincoln Hospital was visited by family members as well as well wishers. One such visitor was Vinnie Ream, a talented mezzo-soprano (who later gained fame as Lincoln's sculptor). She performed at the hospital in April 1864.

It was also visited by Walt Whitman, who was visiting injured soldiers in the local hospitals. He mentions it in his writings:

Aug., Sep., and Oct., '63. ... Then there is Carver hospital, larger still, a wall'd and military city regularly laid out, and guarded by squads of sentries. Again, off east, Lincoln hospital, a still larger one; and half a mile further Emory hospital.
— Walt Whiteman, "Hospitals Ensemble", Complete Prose Works (1892)

2,012 beds were occupied as of December 17, 1864.

As with most hospitals in the area, with the end of the Civil War in 1865, it was taken down that year. In 1867, Congress authorized the grounds to be called Lincoln Square as a memorial to the former president; it was the first public site to bear his name.

Statues

The park features two important sculptures:

* Thomas Ball's 1876 Freedman's Memorial to Abraham Lincoln (Emancipation Monument), one of the first memorials in Washington honoring Abraham Lincoln. It was dedicated on April 14, 1876, with an oration by Frederick Douglass.
* Robert Berks's statue of Mary McLeod Bethune. It was unveiled on the anniversary of her 99th birthday, July 10, 1974, before a crowd of over 18,000 people.

---

Emancipation Memorial
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Freedman's Memorial or the Emancipation Group, and sometimes referred to as the "Lincoln Memorial" before the more prominent so-named memorial was dedicated in 1922, is a monument in Lincoln Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Designed and sculpted by Thomas Ball and erected in 1876, the monument depicts Abraham Lincoln holding a copy of his Emancipation Proclamation freeing a male African American slave modeled on Archer Alexander. The ex-slave is depicted on one knee, with one fist clenched, shirtless and broken shackles at the president's feet.

The Emancipation Memorial statue was paid entirely by the wages of freed slaves.

The statue originally faced west towards the U.S. Capitol until it was rotated east in 1974 in order to face the newly erected Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial.

The statue is a contributing monument to the Civil War Monuments in Washington, D.C., of the National Register of Historic Places.

Funding

The funding drive for the monument began, according to much-publicized newspaper accounts from the era, with $5 given by former slave Charlotte Scott of Virginia, then residing with the family of her former master in Marietta, Ohio, for the purpose of creating a memorial honoring Lincoln. The Western Sanitary Commission, a St. Louis-based volunteer war-relief agency, joined the effort and raised some $20,000 before announcing a new $50,000 goal.

According to the National Park Service, the monument was paid for solely by former slaves:

* The campaign for the Freedmen's Memorial Monument to Abraham Lincoln, as it was to be known, was not the only effort of the time to build a monument to Lincoln; however, as the only one soliciting contributions exclusively from those who had most directly benefited from Lincoln's act of emancipation it had a special appeal ... The funds were collected solely from freed slaves (primarily from African American Union veterans) ...

The turbulent politics of the reconstruction era affected the fundraising campaign on many levels. The Colored People's Educational Monument Association headed by Henry Highland Garnet wanted the monument to serve a didactic purpose as a school where freedmen could elevate themselves through learning. Frederick Douglass disagreed and thought the goal of education was incommensurate with that of remembering Lincoln.

Design and construction

Harriet Hosmer proposed a grander monument than that suggested by Thomas Ball. Her design, which was ultimately deemed too expensive, posed Lincoln atop a tall central pillar flanked by smaller pillars topped with black Civil War soldiers and other figures.

When Ball's design was finally chosen, the commission insisted on certain changes. Instead of wearing a liberty cap, the slave in the revised monument is depicted bare-headed with tightly curled hair. The face was re-sculpted to look like Archer Alexander, an ex-slave whose life story was popularized by a biography written by William Greenleaf Eliot.

* Compared to the original design, in which Lincoln's hand seems to awaken the slave to his new freedom and to the realization that his shackles are gone, the current memorial is more of an amalgamation of approaches. It is no longer allegorical but realistic. In fact, Lincoln never met Archer Alexander, so it is historically inaccurate. While the original design poses a question — will this slave become a man? — the revision erases that query and instead implies a relationship between two men who never actually knew each other.

In the final design, as in Ball's original design, Lincoln holds a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation in his right hand. The document rests on a plinth bearing patriotic symbols including George Washington's profile, the fasces of the U.S. republic, and a shield emblazoned with the stars and stripes. The plinth replaces the pile of books in Ball's original design. Behind the two figures is a whipping post draped with cloth. A vine grows around the pillory and around the ring where the chain was secured.

The monument was cast in Munich in 1875 and shipped to Washington the following year. Congress accepted the statue as a gift from the "colored citizens of the United States" and appropriated $3,000 for a pedestal upon which it would rest. The statue was erected in Lincoln Park, where it still stands.

A plaque on the monument names it as "Freedom's Memorial in grateful memory of Abraham Lincoln" and reads:

* This monument was erected by the Western Sanitary Commission of Saint Louis Mo: With funds contributed solely by emancipated citizens of the United States declared free by his proclamation January 1 A.D. 1863. The first contribution of five dollars was made by Charlotte Scott. A freedwoman of Virginia being her first earnings in freedom and consecrated by her suggestion and request on the day she heard of President Lincoln's death to build a monument to his memory

Dedication

Frederick Douglass spoke as the keynote speaker at the dedication service on April 14, 1876, with President Ulysses S. Grant in attendance.

Other versions

This early small demonstration version by Ball was purchased by Edward Francis Searles; it is now located in the atrium of the Town Hall of Methuen, Massachusetts.

In 1879, Moses Kimball, for whom Ball had once worked at the Boston Museum, donated a copy of the statue to Boston. It is sited in Park Square.

Architect Edward Francis Searles purchased an early small demonstration version from Ball and brought it to Methuen, Massachusetts, where it rests in the Town Hall atrium.

The Chazen Museum of Art, located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was gifted a version of the statue in white marble by Dr. Warren E. Gilson in 1976.

Criticism

The monument has been criticized for its paternalistic character and for not doing justice to the role that African Americans played in their own liberation. While the funds for the monument were raised from former slaves, an all-white committee oversaw the design. An alternative design depicting Lincoln with uniformed black Union soldiers was rejected as too expensive. According to historian Kirk Savage, a witness to the memorial's dedication recorded Frederick Douglass as saying that the statue "showed the Negro on his knees when a more manly attitude would have been indicative of freedom." According to information from American University:

* If there is one slavery monument whose origins are highly political, the Freedman's memorial is it. The development process for this memorial started immediately after Abraham Lincoln's assassination and ended, appropriately enough, near the end of Reconstruction in 1876. In many ways, it exemplified and reflected the hopes, dreams, striving, and ultimate failures of reconstruction.

On June 23, 2020, DC delegate Eleanor Norton announced plans to introduce legislation to remove the memorial. That same day, protesters on site vowed to dismantle the statue on Thursday, June 25 at 7:00 p.m. local time. Subsequently, a barrier fence was installed around the memorial to protect it from vandalism.

---

Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial is a bronze statue honoring educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune, by Robert Berks.

The monument is the first statue erected on public land in Washington, D.C. to honor an African American and a woman. The statue features an elderly Mrs. Bethune handing a copy of her legacy to two young black children. Mrs. Bethune is supporting herself by a cane given to her by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The statue was unveiled on the anniversary of her 99th birthday, July 10, 1974, before a crowd of over 18,000 people. The funds for the monument were raised by the National Council of Negro Women, the organization Mrs. Bethune founded in 1935.

It is located in Lincoln Park, at East Capitol Street and 12th Street N.E. Washington, D.C.

The inscription reads:

(Front bottom of Bethune's dress:)
(copyright symbol)
73
Berks (Front of base:)
MARY McLEOD BETHUNE
1875 1955
(Front of base, in script:)
Let her works praise her
(Bronze plaque, front of base:)
ERECTED
JULY 10, 1974
BY THE
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NEGRO WOMEN, INC.
DOROTHY I. HEIGHT
PRESIDENT
(Bronze plaque running around sides of base:)
I LEAVE YOU LOVE. I LEAVE YOU HOPE. I LEAVE YOU THE CHALLENGE OF DEVELOPING CONFIDENCE IN ONE ANOTHER. I LEAVE YOU A THIRST FOR EDUCATION. I LEAVE YOU A RESPECT FOR THE USE OF POWER. I LEAVE YOU FAITH. I LEAVE YOU RACIAL DIGNITY. I LEAVE YOU A DESIRE TO LIVE HARMONIOUSLY WITH YOUR FELLOW MEN. I LEAVE YOU FINALLY, A RESPONSIBILITY TO OUR YOUNG PEOPLE.
Mary McLeod Bethune (in script)
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