06.18.09
Go to National Parks for free this weekend!
And on July 18-19 and August 15-16, too.
Details here: http://www.gadling.com/2009/06/17/take-dad-to-a-national-park-this-weekend-for-free/
Not a big post, I admit, but an important last-minute notification!
05.29.09
Rededication of the Lincoln Memorial
On Saturday, May 30, at 2:25 PM, the Lincoln Memorial is going to be rededicated as part of the Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration. The news release from the NPS website with speakers and such follows:
Lincoln Memorial Rededication Retrospective
Saturday, May 30, 2009Washington D.C.–National Mall and Memorial Parks in collaboration with the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, and the Military District of Washington will present a Lincoln Memorial Rededication Retrospective on May 30, 2009. As part of the yearlong Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial celebration, the memorial built in honor of Abraham Lincoln will be rededicated.
The program, which begins at 2:25 p.m. at the Lincoln Memorial, will feature special guest speakers that will deliver remarks about how Abraham Lincoln and the Lincoln Memorial remained entwined as beacons of freedom. The program also will feature performances by the United States Marine Band and by William Farley, winner of Poetry Out Loud, who will be reading a poem by well-known Abraham Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg.
No tickets are required for the event and visitors are welcomed to bring portable folding chairs.
Event organizers strongly encourage visitors to avoid attempting to drive or park near the National Mall on May 30, 2009. Please consider the use of Metro; options include Foggy Bottom station located 3/4 of a mile north of the Lincoln Memorial at 23rd and I (Eye) Streets, NW, or Smithsonian station one mile to the east on the Mall.
Confirmed Speakers as of May 25, 2009
Gordon R. Bury has been working in the banking industry for over 35 years and has served in leadership positions for many organizations and hereditary societies. He is president of the OH-PA Landowners Association, and was the 54th Commander-in-Chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and the 100th Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. His wife, Lynne, was the National President of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic and is President of the Ohio Dames of the Loyal Legion. The Burys live in Marshallville, Ohio.
William Farley is a senior at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia. Last month he received the title of National Champion at the 2009 Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest, an arts education program and poetry competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. He advanced from a competitive field of nearly 300,000 students who participated across the country. In the fall he will attend Bucknell University.
Reverend Dr. Roger J. Gench is the senior pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. He has served Presbyterian parishes in Baltimore, MD, and Camp Hill, PA. He is also an elected member of the national General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church.
Harold Holzer is one of the country’s leading authorities on Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. Among his 34 books, he is best known for Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech that Made Abraham Lincoln President (2004), which won a 2005 Lincoln Prize. His most recent works are Lincoln President-Elect, The Lincoln Anthology, and In Lincoln’s Hand. He is the senior vice president for external affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Co-Chairman of the U. S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
Peggy O’Dell was selected on October 22, 2008 as the Regional Director for the National Capital Region, to manage over 87,000 acres of federal parkland in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. Prior to serving as Regional Director, O’Dell served as the Superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, D.C. where she led a large park staff and partner organizations who serve over twenty-five million visitors a year. Areas within this park provide visitors with ample opportunities to commemorate presidential legacies, honor the courage and sacrifice of war veterans, and celebrate the United States commitment to freedom and equality.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin Payton has served as the fifth president of Tuskegee University since 1981. Payton is a nationally recognized higher education leader/speaker, scholar/ethicist, and public intellectual. He received the B.A. from South Carolina State University; the B.D. from Harvard University; the M.A. from Columbia University; and the Ph.D. from Yale University. During his tenure he expanded and transformed Tuskegee from Institute to University status, and launched Tuskegee University’s first Ph.D. programs. He also established the University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, initiated the C. Alfred “Chief” Anderson Department of Aviation Science in cooperation with the U. S. Air Force, gave strong support to aerospace science in cooperation with NASA, and was the principal catalyst in sponsoring the development of the Tuskegee Airmen national Historic Site in Tuskegee.
Ernest “Ernie” Quintana, the Acting Deputy Director of the National Park Service, was born in Arizona and raised in California. He served in the U.S. Army from 1969-71 and was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with a “V” device for valor for his service in the Vietnam conflict. He graduated from Northern Arizona University with a B.S. degree. He is the recipient of the 1997 Stephen Tyng Mather Award for Conservation; the 1999 Director’s Wilderness Management and Stewardship Award; and the 2005 Office of Civil Rights Manuel Lujan, Jr., Champion’s Award.
The Honorable Ken Salazar, a fifth-generation Coloradan, was confirmed as the 50th Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior on January 20, 2009, in a unanimous vote by the U.S. Senate. Prior to his confirmation, Salazar served as Colorado’s 35th United States senator, winning election in November, 2004. In that position, he served on the Finance Committee, which oversees the nation’s tax, trade, social security, and health care systems. He also served on the Agriculture, Energy and Natural Resources, Ethics, Veterans Affairs, and Aging Committees.
Also Featuring Performances by
United States Marine Band, also known as “The President’s Own,” was established by an Act of Congress in 1798, making it America’s oldest continuously active professional musical organization. Its primary mission is unique—to provide music for the President of the United States and the Commandment of the Marine Corps. In its third century, the Marine Band continues a tradition of excellence. Whether in White House performances, public concerts, or national tours, the music of the Marine Band is the music of America.
Living History Events
Living history volunteers will participate in the May 30, 2009 rededication of the Lincoln Memorial. At 9:00 A.M. and 9:30 A.M., living historians portraying Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln will be presenting programs inside the Lincoln Memorial chamber. At 12:00 P.M., 12:30 P.M., 1:00 P.M., and 1:30 P.M. the living history group, the “U.S. Volunteers,” will be presenting interpretive programs at the JFK hockey field (located along the south side of the Reflecting Pool near the Korean War Veterans Memorial). These programs will focus on Lincoln’s role in the formation of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) and how Union soldiers felt about President Lincoln.
05.24.09
Special Commemorative Stamp and Button
In addition to receiving the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens stamp yesterday, the Rangers also stamped my book with a stamp commemorating the Inauguration.
A Limited Edition stamp
They also gave me a button.
"Where History Happens": How'd they know history was going to happen there?
Considering that I did not attend, the stamp is merely a “Collector’s item” in my book. So, no reason to protest. It will not count towards my total this year.
It is Limited Edition stamp, supposed to have been available only from January 20 to February 20, 2009.
The rationale behind the stamp was that Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, given on park land, helped make possible the 44th President.
The woman who gave the Inaugural poem was a little girl in the crowd that day on the Mall, which is part of the reason why she was picked; the other reason being that she and Obama attended school together. I am sure that helps. That’s a relief to hear, because it definitely wasn’t because she was a good poet.
05.23.09
Snakehead Terror!
Went to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens today.
As I was headed back to my car, a Park Ranger pointed out a baby turtle sitting on a plank in one of the ponds. Two visitors approached and asked if they had just seen a snakehead in one of the ponds.
“Yes,” she replied. There were two in one of the ponds. I wandered along the edge of the pond in the direction that they had pointed, wondering what a snakehead looks like up close.
I thought it was an Anaconda at first! I almost crapped my pants when it swam away real fast.
Yikes! I was not expecting to see such a large fish, considering the size of the sunfish in this pond.
After seeing this fish, I can legitimately be terrified by Snakehead Terror (2004), starring Bruce Boxleitner (Who?) and Carol Alt.
Check your local Sci-Fi Channel listings for the next showing!
03.24.09
Returning Home
The unemployment bug bit me on March 18, 2009.
It won’t be long before I move back to DC to look for a job. The whole family is flying out here to help me move back. I’m truly blessed in that regard. As a ‘reward’ for helping me, will there be any opportunity for us to get Muffin Stamps on the way back?
Unfortunately, the opportunities are really poor!
Maybe the most reasonable diversions would be Fort Laramie, in Wyoming, and Scotts Bluff, in Nebraska.
or
Once we cross into Nebraska, head south and stop at Nicodemus? Then backtrack a little and then keep heading south until we get to I-70 East? When we get to Topeka, we could see the Brown v. Board of Education site and continue home along I-70.
Both diversions add about 3 hours on to our projected 30 hour trip, which doesn’t count time spent at the sites. On hour 27 of our road trip, would we still be happy that we stopped at those parks, if it still meant that we had 6 hours to go, instead of 3?
03.17.09
The Grant Memorial
The view from the Grant Memorial
In 2008, Sheryl & Eric, along with myself, got the muffin stamp for the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial. It is located on the west side of the U.S. Capitol and has a commanding view of the National Mall. I took the above picture at Christmastime in 2008.
While clearing out some clutter in my apartment, I came across this Insider’s Guide article, by Barbara Danzig, from the Sunday, March 18, 2001 edition of The Washington Post.
Who’s Remembered in the Grant Memorial?
Flanked on one side by the artillery, on the other by the cavalry, and supported by the infantry, the man sits astride his war horse. Behind these warriors is the Capitol, symbol of the Union for which they fought.
Who is the man on the horse? In a word–the only word etched in the marble–Grant.
The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial is hidden in plain sight on First Street at the east end of the Mall. That location would seem prominent enough, but most people I know (including many other Washington natives) are surprised to hear of its existence.
That’s too bad, because it is considered one of the most important sculptures in the city.
This wonderfully detailed memorial was first suggested in 1895 by the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, Grant’s old command. It took more than 20 years to complete, with dedication on April 27, 1922, on the 100th anniversary of Grant’s birth. Vice President Calvin Coolidge presided at the dedication, with General of the Armies John Pershing giving the keynote address.
On a recent holiday there were quite a few others braving the blustery wind–a busload of tourists. While dodging out of the way to avoid interfering with their efforts to be photographed in front of the artillery and cavalry groups, I did my best to clamber around the marble platform, which is 252 feet wide and 71 feet deep.
Grant himself is perched in the middle and sculpted in bronze, wearing the uniform he typically wore into battle, slouch hat and no sword, sitting astride his charger, Cincinnatus.
He seems quite relaxed, unlike Cincinnatus and the soldiers, whose tension suggests an ongoing battle.
Sitting atop a 22-foot marble pedestal, Grant and his horse are 17 feet high and weigh 10,700 pounds. They face the Mall, and from way up there, Grant can surely see the Lincoln Memorial.
(Daniel Chester French, the sculptor of Lincoln, was on the jury that selected the winning Grant Memorial design submitted by Henry Merwin Shrady. Another tidbit: Shrady was the son of the physician who attended Grant in his final illness.)
Shrady came to art late in life, after failing health forced him to leave his post as president of the Continental Match Co. While he recuperated, he began to sketch animals and taught himself to sculpt. Because he was relatively little known, his selection as the sculptor for the Grant Memorial was very controversial. But he gave it his all, dedicating the last 20 years of his life to the work. He died two weeks before it was dedicated.
Another controversy centered on the site. The memorial was originally intended for the Ellipse, but Theodore Roosevelt vetoed the idea because the statues would block his view of the Potomac. The decision to place it at the east end of the Mall ignited another controversy over the removal of three massive trees. The superintendent of the Botanical Gardens challenged the plans in court, and lost. The memorial was erected in sections beginning in 1909.
Shrady painstakingly addressed every detail to ensure an accurate depiction of Grant and his troops. With the help of the New York Police Department, he was able to make an in-depth study of horses, even to the point of dissecting them. The United States Military Academy conducted cavalry and artillery drills for his benefit, and the secretary of war loaned him Civil War uniforms. Shrady studied the former president’s life mask at the Smithsonian and learned about him from his eldest son, Maj. Gen. Frederick Dent Grant.
There is nothing stylized or allegorical about the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial. It stands like a ghost of the battles fought to save the Union. The combatants are forever in motion with the action, the agony and the excitement frozen for all time. The level of detail is fascinating and draws the viewer into the hearts of the participants–man and animal alike.
Strain and overwork contributed to Shrady’s death, and left the bas relief infantry panels for the sides of the Grant pedestal undone. Other sculptors completed them using Shrady’s sketches.
Like the tourists in her article, I just snapped pictures of the statue and moved on, so it’s nice to get a more in-depth description about the memorial and all aspects of its history.
The Johnsons and I found this stamp at the Washington Monument bookstore, which is at least a mile away. The memorial is administered and maintained by the National Mall and Memorial Parks (NAMA).
