MD -- Baltimore -- Maryland Historical Society -- Exhibit: Designing the Washington Monument:
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Description of Pictures: Designing the Washington Monument
This Independence Day weekend, Baltimore celebrates the rededication of its most recognizable landmark, the Washington Monument. The Mount Vernon Place Conservancy is hosting the Monumental Bicentennial Celebration on Saturday, July 4th, a festival to honor the reopening of the nation’s first memorial to George Washington. The monument has been closed to visitors since 2010, when it was deemed structurally unsound, and has been undergoing extensive restoration work to repair masonry and cosmetic issues since the fall of 2013.
A similar scene played out 200 years ago when the Washington Monument’s cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1815. Over 25,000 people attended the groundbreaking ceremony which had all of the pomp and circumstance befitting a celebration of the Revolutionary War general and inaugural president. The local Masons turned out in full regalia. Speeches were given in honor of Washington’s legacy. The crowd sang along to renditions of “Yankee Doodle.” A 39-gun salute was fired, a shot for each year of the newly independent country. The night ended with a display of fireworks that illuminated the monument in vibrant color. In his account of the day, John Horace Pratt described the atmosphere: “Divine providence seemed to smile upon the occasion; the air was delightfully cool and the firmament serene. The evening silence and tranquility that closed the joyful turbulence of the day, formed a striking contrast, and seemed to display that sobriety of pleasure which the solemnity of the occasion demanded.”(1)
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MDHSDE_150830_01.JPG: Designing Baltimore's Washington Monument:
In 1813, the Washington Monument's Board of Managers held a competition to find the best design for the nation's first monument to President George Washington. Distinguished architects from Europe and the United States submitted a variety of designs, including triumphal arches, obelisks, and even an Egyptian-style pyramid.
South Carolinian architect Robert Mills' pagoda-like design was chosen for its reverence of Washington's legacy. He had envisioned a columnar structure marked by text and graphical panels detailing the events of the American Revolution and Washington's presidency, which could be viewed from balconies at difference [sic] levels of the monument. A ground breaking ceremony was held on July 4, 1815, and construction continued for nearly 15 years.
Over the course of construction, Mills design was streamlined due to budget restrictions. The elaborate ornamentation and engravings were eliminated resulting in the grand column which stands today. This, however, may have more accurately reflected the Revolutionary War hero's stoic sensibilities.
MDHSDE_150830_08.JPG: Robert Mills' final entry which was chosen by the Board of Managers. Unhappy with his initial submission Mills petitioned the Board to extend the deadline of the competition, so he could present a more refined rendering.
MDHSDE_150830_16.JPG: Mills' notebook which includes the original drawings he submitted to the Board of Managers and an essay explaining his design goals. Mills had envisioned an octagonal structure marked by text and graphical panels detailing the events of the American Revolution and Washington's presidency.
MDHSDE_150830_23.JPG: Mills' refined design. Limited funding forced Mills and the board to dramatically scale back plans for the monument. In total, the monument would cost over $200,000 to erect, twice the original budget.
MDHSDE_150830_27.JPG: Letter to Robert Gilmor, Jr., president of the Board of Managers, from former president, John Quincy Adams, discussing proper wording for the bronze inscription which would be put on the monument's base. Gilmor and Adams corresponded extensively on the topic.
MDHSDE_150830_37.JPG: A proposed design for the Monumental Church in Richmond, Virginia. Benjamin Henry Latrobe, widely considered to be the father of American architecture, anonymously submitted a design similar to this to the Washington Monument competition. Latrobe was well-known in Baltimore at the time. He had designed the Baltimore Basilica, construction of which began in 1806, and served as Thomas Jefferson's Architect of the Capitol.
MDHSDE_150830_46.JPG: Latrobe's proposed Washington Monument. His entry may have been hastily considered, because the design he presented did not fit the parameters of the competition. His pyramid was much too big for the allotted site. Latrobe also submitted similar plans for the Washington, DC monument to Washington.
MDHSDE_150830_55.JPG: J. Maximilian Godefroy's submission to the Board of Managers. Godefroy was initially approached to design the shrine in 1810. He submitted five different designs, but the Board of Managers decided to seek alternative designs. In 1814, he resubmitted the triumphal arch design for consideration in the competition.
MDHSDE_150830_68.JPG: Washington Monument lottery tickets and newspaper advertisement. A lottery was created to raise funds for the monument. A series of six lotteries raised over $100,000 for the project, but final expenditures far exceeded the proposed budget.
MDHSDE_150830_78.JPG: Advertisement for lottery drawing winners. The public could purchase lottery tickets to support construction of the Washington monument and then be entered into a drawing to win various cash prizes.
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Description of Subject Matter: The collections include the original copy of Francis Scott Key's writing of the Star-Spangled Banner.
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