BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Landmark Object: George Washington Statue, 1841

DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Landmark Object: George Washington Statue, 1841:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Slide Show: Want to see the pictures as a slide show? [Slideshow]

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] SIAHGW_120212_02.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[2] SIAHGW_120212_08.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[3] SIAHGW_120212_13.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[4] SIAHGW_120212_19.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[5] SIAHGW_120212_26.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[6] SIAHGW_120212_29.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[7] SIAHGW_120212_32.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[8] SIAHGW_120212_36.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIAHGW_120212_32.JPG: George Washington Statue, 1841 -- The nation's first Washington monument: In 1832, the US Congress commissioned American sculptor Horatio Greenough to create a monument to George Washington for the Capitol rotunda. Gleenough envisioned the work as a symbolic representation of Washington as a great exemplar of liberty. When he unveiled this twelve-ton marble statue atop a towering pedestal in 1841, many viewers appreciated the artist's attempt to create a timeless masterpiece. Others saw only an inappropriately dressed Washington. A friend of the artist noted: "This magnificent production of genius does not seem to be appreciated at its full value in this metropolis."
Multi Column: Number of columns of thumbnails to appear per page (normally defaults to 3): [1 col] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Description of Subject Matter: Landmark Object: George Washington Statue, 1841
When the Museum reopens November 21, 2008, each wing of its three exhibition floors will be anchored by a Landmark object—large, compelling artifacts that will highlight the theme of that wing. The exhibitions in the west wing of the second floor are focused on American lives and include “Within These Walls…” and “Communities in a Changing Nation: The Promise of 19th-Century America.” The George Washington statue is the signature artifact for this section of the museum.
In 1832 the U.S. Congress commissioned sculptor Horatio Greenough to create a statue of George Washington on the occasion of the centennial of the first president’s birthday. Installed in the Capitol Rotunda after its completion, Greenough envisioned the statue to be a symbolic representation of Washington as a great exemplar of liberty.
The completed 12-ton marble statue atop a granite pedestal and base depicted the first president wearing a chest-baring toga. While many viewers appreciated the artist’s attempt to create a timeless masterpiece, others saw only an inappropriately dressed Washington. A friend of the artist noted: “This magnificent production of genius does not seem to be appreciated at its full value in this metropolis.”
Greenough’s sculpture is enriched with symbols: Washington’s figure is modeled on the classic statuary of ancient Greece, seat of the world’s first democracy. Carvings on the sides depict the Greek god Apollo and an infant Hercules. Small flanking figures of an American Indian and Christopher Columbus represent the New and Old Worlds. The most important symbol, however, is the sword in Washington’s outstretched hand: this celebrates the fact that after he led the country to victory in the American Revolution, he selflessly relinquished his power to the people.
The statue was on display in the Capitol Rotunda from 1841 to 1843 when it was relocated to the east lawn. In 1908 Congress transferred the statue to the Smit ...More...
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Landmark Object: George Washington Statue, 1841) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2022_DC_SIAH_GWStatue: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Landmark Object: George Washington Statue, 1841 (22 photos from 2022)
- 2017_DC_SIAH_GWStatue: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Landmark Object: George Washington Statue, 1841 (11 photos from 2017)
- 2009_DC_SIAH_GWStatue: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Landmark Object: George Washington Statue, 1841 (3 photos from 2009)
- 2008_DC_SIAH_GWStatue: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Landmark Object: George Washington Statue, 1841 (9 photos from 2008)
- 2006_DC_SIAH_GWStatue: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Landmark Object: George Washington Statue, 1841 (10 photos from 2006)
- 2002_DC_SIAH_GWStatue: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Landmark Object: George Washington Statue, 1841 (3 photos from 2002)
- 1997_DC_SIAH_GWStatue: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Landmark Object: George Washington Statue, 1841 (5 photos from 1997)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(Smithsonian) American History Museum (Everything)] [(Smithsonian) American History Museum (Non-Events)] [Museums (History)]
2012 photos: Trips this year: three Civil War Trust conferences (Shepherdstown, WV, Richmond, VA, and Williamsburg, VA), a week-long family reunion cruise of the Caribbean, another week-long family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with lots of in-transit time in Ohio and Indiana), and my 7th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including side trips to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, etc). Ego strokes: I had a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. I had a photograph of the George Segal San Francisco Holocaust memorial used as the cover of Quebec Francais (issue 165). Not being able to read French, I'm not entirely sure what the article is about but, hey! And I guess what could be considered to be a positive thing, my site is now established enough that spammers have noticed it and I had to block 17,000 file description postings for Viagra and whatever else.. Equipment this year: My mainstays were the Fuji S100fs, Nikon D7000, and the new Fuji X-S1. I also used an underwater Fuji XP50 and a Nikon D600. The first three cameras all broke this year and had to be repaired. Number of photos taken this year: just below 410,000.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Limiting Text: You can turn off all of this text by clicking this link: [Thumbnails Only]
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].