Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial

404 Pages·2009·10.95 MB·English

by  Kirk Savage

Monument Wars
THE PUBLISHER GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE GENEROUS
SUPPORT OF THE RICHARD AND HARRIETT GOLD ENDOWMENT FUND IN ARTS AND
HUMANITIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS FOUNDATION.
Monument Wars
WASHINGTON, D.C. , THE NATIONAL MALL, AND THE
TRANSFORMATION OF THE MEMORIAL LANDSCAPE
KIRK SAVAGE
U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A P R E S S
B E R K E L E Y L O S A N G E L E S L O N D O N
PUBLICATION OF THIS BOOK HAS BEEN AIDED BY A
WYETH FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN ART PUBLICATION GRANT
OF THE COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION.
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United
States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social
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www.ucpress.edu.
“Statues in the Park,” from the trouble with poetry and other poems, by Billy Collins,
copyright © 2005 by Billy Collins. Used by permission of Random House, Inc.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2009 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Savage, Kirk, 1958–
Monument wars : Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the transformation of the
memorial landscape / Kirk Savage.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-25654-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Mall, The (Washington, D.C.) 2. Monuments—Washington (D.C.) 3. Memorials—
Washington (D.C.) 4. Memorialization—United States 5. Washington (D.C.)—Buildings,
structures, etc. I. Title.
F203.5.M2S38 2009
725'.9409753—dc22 2008048364
Manufactured in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–
1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
To my whole family, including my daughter Eliza,
who wasn’t here for the first book, and Bill Thomas, who left
us before I finished this one
And to all the people of this earth who may never have
a monument to call their own
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 A Monument to a Deceased Project 25
2 Covering Ground 63
3 The Mechanic Monster 107
4 Inventing Public Space 147
5 The Monument Transformed 195
6 The Conscience of the Nation 251
7 An End to War, an End to Monuments? 297
Notes 315
Selected Bibliography 357
List of Illustrations 375
Index 379
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Acknowledgments
This project has been a collective effort in many respects. Although it has required
a great deal of new research, it is also a synthesis incorporating the work of many
scholars who have come before me. Without their painstaking research on the his-
tory of Washington, D.C., this book would not have been possible. Even though my
own interpretations have sometimes diverged from theirs, I have relied heavily on
the scholarship of Kenneth Bowling, Wilhelmus Bryan, Howard Gillette, James
Goode, Constance Green, C. M. Harris, Alan Lesoff, John Reps, and Pamela Scott,
to name only a few.
My research has also benefited from the hard work of many crack research assis-
tants at the University of Pittsburgh over the past five years. They include Brianne
Cohen, Maria D’Annibale, April Eisman, Scott Hendrix, James Jewitt, Annie Kellogg-
Krieg, Travis Nygard, Cindy Persinger, Miguel Rojas, and Don Simpson.
Several people have given their time generously, talking through thorny problems
in my argument and reading the manuscript at various stages in the writing process:
Terry Smith, Elizabeth Thomas, and the late Caroline Newman, who went out of her
way to champion the project. I have also had the good fortune to enjoy the assistance
and conversation of numerous other friends and colleagues, who lent a hand or made
a point that stuck in my mind. These include Drew Armstrong, Lucy Barber, Wendy
Bellion, Julian Bonder, Kathleen Christian, Josh Ellenbogen, Fred Evans, Veronica
Gazdik, James Goode, Kai Gutschow, Patrick Hagopian, Bernie Herman, Kathy Lin-
duff, Barbara McCloskey, Ikem Okoye, Peter Penczer, Susan Raposa, Stephen Sav-
age, Dan Sherman, David Stone, Sara Thomas, Frank Toker, and Krzysztof Wodiczko.
None of them, of course, bear any responsibility for my conclusions or for the errors
I have undoubtedly made.
I am grateful for the extraordinarily strong support of the University of Pittsburgh’s
i x