The Lincoln Memorial’s History

The Lincoln Memorial was built in honor of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. The architectural style of the memorial is Greek Revival. The memorial in the form of a Greek Dori temple. The memorial and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln. The statue is 60 feet wide, 74 feet deep and 60 feet high. There are inscriptions from two of Lincoln’s well-known speeches, The Gettysburg Address and from his second inaugural address.

The memorial is surrounded by 36 fluted doric columns. Each column represents the 36 states that were in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death. The name of each state and the date they entered the Union are inscribe and a separated by a double wreath medallion. Inscribed along the in the broad horizontal band along just below the ceiling of the memorial (this area is call the Attic Frieze) are the name of the 48 states presented at the time of the memorial’s dedication.

Construction of the memorial started in 1914 and was completed in 1922. The Chief Justice of the United States William H. Taft dedicated the memorial on May 30 1922, to President Warren G. Harding. President Harding accepted it on behalf of the American people. President Lincoln’s only surviving son Robert Todd Lincoln was in attendance he was 78 years old.

The designer of the memorial was Henry Bacon. The designer of the seated Lincoln statue was Daniel Chester French. The renowned Piccirilli Brothers where the carvers of the statue. Jules Guerin was the painter of the interior murals. Ernest C. Bairstow did all the ornamentation on the frizzes and cornices on the memorial.

The memorial has been the site of many famous events in regards to civil rights. Marian Anderson an African American opera singer was prevented from performing at Constitution Hall to an integrated audience by the Daughters of the American Revolution. With the help of Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady of the United states and Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior they arranged for Ms. Anderson to perform on the steps of the memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9 1939 to a live audience of 75,000 and a nationwide radio audience. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous “I have a dream” speech at the memorial on August 28, 1963.