May 30
SEATED LINCOLN DAY
Daniel Chester French created the famous sculpture of Abraham Lincoln, titled Seated Lincoln. Lincoln is in meditation, seated in a large armchair. Both French and the Piccirilli brothers completed the sculpture. On this day in 1922 the memorial in which the statue is permanently seated was dedicated, although the cornerstone was laid in 1915.
The Lincoln Memorial, with Doric columns on the exterior and Ionic columns on the interior, was designed by architect Henry Bacon. Marble was brought from Colorado and Tennessee, and limestone from Indiana to complete the stately memorial to one of the United States’ most revered presidents. Bronze ceiling beams picture murals and ornamentation created by Jules Guerin. An engraved stone tablet in the south chamber bears Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address; his second inaugural speech, also engraved on a stone tablet, is in the north chamber.
The Lincoln Memorial stands opposite the Washington Monument, in Washington, D.C.’s West Potomac Park on 109.63 acres of land. Today, it also stands prominently among new memorials, the World War II Memorial, and one to honor another president, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
We wonder if Lincoln would sit down in front of all the falderal going on in Washington today.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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