9 Memorials and Monuments in the United States

The unfinished Crazy Horse Memorial is being created on Thunderhead Mountain, a part of the Black Hills in South Dakota considered sacred by many Native Americans. A long winding road leads to the site, where suddenly there unfolds an extraordinary vista: a sculpture being carved from the side of a mountain.

In 1939 Chief Henry Standing Bear wrote to the Polish sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and asked if he would create a monument to honour the Native Americans. That request sparked what would become one of the largest and most controversial memorial projects. Ziolkowski’s vision, which his family has perpetuated, was for a sculpture of Crazy Horse, the Lakota warrior who led his people during the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876), where Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his men were massacred. Ziolkowski and members of the Lakota tribe chose the location of Thunderhead Mountain, but it is a controversial site, and many Lakota people are deeply offended at their sacred ground being destroyed. The sculpture, which on its completion will be the largest in the world, is being carved from the mountainside with a series of controlled explosions. The project also encompasses a visitor centre and a museum documenting Native American history. (Tamsin Pickeral)

The Liberty Bell is the most famous bell in the world and has become a recognized international symbol of freedom. Its name derives from the abolitionists who adopted the bell as their symbol during their lengthy bid to establish freedom from slavery, and it also appeared in their periodical Liberty in 1837. It had previously been called the State House Bell, after the building in which it hung (now called Independence Hall). The bell also became symbolic of the American Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783) and is most famously associated with the United States’ independence from the British Empire.

The bell was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly to hang in the State House. The original bell was made in the Whitechapel Foundry in London and was carefully shipped to Philadelphia in 1752. It was not rung until 1753 and, to everyone’s dismay, it was cracked. Subsequently it was sent to two Philadelphia Foundry workers, John Stow and John Pass, to be recast, which they did twice. Finally the Whitechapel Foundry was asked to produce a replacement bell, but this proved unpopular, and the bell was relegated to the cupola of the State House. The last Stow and Pass bell remained in the steeple of the State House and became what is known today as the Liberty Bell. The bell was rung on important historic occasions, perhaps most famously on July 8, 1776, to summon the citizens for the first reading of the Declaration of Independence.

The bell cracked on several occasions and was repaired repeatedly over the years. Finally, on George Washington’s birthday in February 1846, it cracked beyond repair and was permanently removed from the steeple in 1852. The bell can now be viewed in a pavilion and serves as a link to the historic events it tolled for during its 100 years of service. (Tamsin Pickeral)

In the middle of Washington, D.C., is a large park area, the National Mall, and dominating the west end of this stands the Lincoln Memorial. From the steps of the monument, a view stretches across the long reflection pond to the obelisk of the Washington Monument, to the National World War II Monument, and, away in the distance, to the U.S. Capitol.

The prolific architect Henry Bacon designed the Lincoln Memorial as his final project and chose as his model the ancient temples of Greece. The gleaming white structure that stands an imposing 190 feet (57 metres) long, 119 feet (36 metres) wide, and 100 feet (30 metres) high comprises a central cella, flanked by two smaller cellas, surrounded by 36 massive, fluted Doric columns (a further two columns stand at the entrance behind the colonnade). The magnificent columns correspond to the 36 states that formed the Union at that time, and above each column is carved the name of each state. The central cella houses the monumental statue of Lincoln, which was carved over a period of four years under the direction of Daniel Chester French. The sculpture gazes across the reflection pond to the Capitol and was carved from Georgian marble, whereas the building itself was constructed from Indiana limestone and Colorado Yule marble. The two smaller cellas contain the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s second inaugural address, both inscribed on the wall. Above them are the two large murals Reunion and Emancipation by the French artist Jules Guerin.

The Lincoln Memorial has been the scene of many public gatherings and protests, with one of the most famous addresses being Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech in 1963. The memorial is intensely moving and, as a statement of democracy and the first positive steps to freedom, is one of the United States’ most important monuments. (Tamsin Pickeral)

Mount Rushmore is dedicated to four of the greatest American presidents. The heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, carved into the granite hillside, now gaze across the beautiful South Dakota Black Hills.

A local historian, Doane Robinson, first had the idea for the monument primarily to boost tourism in the area. It was a plan that paid off, with millions of people annually traveling to see the historic monument. Congressional approval was granted and sculptor Gutzon Borglum began researching a suitable location. He settled on Mount Rushmore largely because of the impressive height of the mountain and the good quality of its granite. Work began in 1927, with around 400 sculptors, and continued until 1941, when Borglum unexpectedly died. By this time the four heads had been completed and the funds had all but dried up; the work was stopped, despite Borglum’s original idea to represent the four presidents from the waist up.

The choice of Mount Rushmore was a controversial one. The mountain, known as Six Grandfathers by the Lakota Indians, was a sacred place for them. The United States requisitioned the land, allegedly reneging on the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868, and many Native Americans saw this and the subsequent carving of the mountain into a monument to American presidents as outrageous. It is not by coincidence that the mammoth mountainside carving of the Crazy Horse Memorial is near Mount Rushmore and upon its completion will dwarf Borglum’s work. (Tamsin Pickeral)

The curving bay of Plymouth, with Cole Hill rising behind the shoreline, is one of the most historic sites in the United States. It was here, in 1620, that the Pilgrims, led by William Bradford, disembarked from their boat, the Mayflower, and set foot on the land of the New World, going on to establish Plymouth Colony. Today the area includes the legendary Plymouth Rock and the National Monument to the Forefathers. Although contemporary accounts of the Pilgrims’ landing do not make any reference to the rock, some hundred years later it was heralded as the first place their feet touched—their landing stage—and it has remained venerated as such.

Today the rock is considerably smaller than it once was, having suffered damage from being moved and having had pieces chipped away by souvenir seekers. In 1774 an attempt was made to move the rock, but it split in half in the process, with the bottom half being left where it was. The top half was later transferred to the town square and then to Pilgrim Hall. In 1867 it was moved back to its original location and reunited with the bottom half. The architect built an ornate canopy to house the rock, but the structure proved too small, so in 1920 the rock was relocated to its present waterfront location, beneath a new canopy designed by the architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White.

The small battered granite chunk is far more than its physical reality. It is an icon of the United States’ foundation. The rock’s latent symbolism of the bravery and courage of the nation’s early settlers is inescapable, and it is no small irony that such an anonymous-looking object occupies such a very important place in U.S. history. (Tamsin Pickeral)

The Statue of Liberty, one of the most universally recognized symbols of freedom across the globe, is intrinsically bound to the fabric of the United States. The huge sculpture stands on an imposing pedestal on Liberty Island at the entrance to New York Harbor.

The copper structure was a gift from the French to mark the centennial in 1876 of the United States’ Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) and to extend the hand of friendship between the two countries. It was also a political move by France, keen to align itself with the republican associations of the United States and influence its own shaky political stance at the time. French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi was commissioned to design the statue. It was shipped from France to New York in 350 pieces and took four months to reassemble. The figure is copper on a steel frame, and her torch flame is gold leaf. Gustave Eiffel, who built the Eiffel Tower, and his assistant were drafted to help with the engineering. American Richard Morris Hunt designed her 10-story pedestal, which now houses a museum. The figure is richly symbolic: the broken shackles at her feet signify freedom from oppression, the torch symbolizes enlightenment, the tablet in her hand has the date of U.S. independence inscribed on it, and her seven-point crown represents the seven seas. Within the pedestal, the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus is inscribed on a bronze plaque. (Tamsin Pickeral)

In the heart of New York City, in Greenwich Village, sandwiched between long rows of tall buildings, is the unspectacular facade of the Stonewall Inn. The unstartling nature of the building masks the importance of its place within gay history, for it was here that the gay civil rights movement was born.

In the late 1960s this area of New York was far from salubrious and was home to drug dealers, drag queens, and run-down gay bars. Before the 1960s, police raids on gay bars were commonplace and brutal, but by the time of the Stonewall riots this practice had become less frequent, and, as a result, the number of gay bars and nightclubs had risen. However, on June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, with officers descending on the bar at 1:20 AM. It was an unusually late raid, most being executed in early evening, and excessive force was used. Rioting broke out within the inn and the surrounding area, and police at first retreated. Many people were injured, and 13 were arrested in the ensuing furor. Riots continued at the scene until July 3. They became a defining event for the gay rights movement, drawing together a community that had suffered prejudice and discrimination.

Today the restored and reopened Stonewall Inn is the site of many gay pride and LGBTQ celebrations, and the month of June and the name Stonewall have become synonymous with gay rights. (Tamsin Pickeral)

The simple stone memorial stands against a stark sky on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. It is an area of wild beauty, rugged and fierce. The monument marks the site of the massacre of as many as 300 Lakota Indians—men, women, and children—in an episode that marked the end of organized Native American resistance to the U.S. military.

In December 1890 more than 500 U.S. cavalrymen surrounded a Miniconjou Lakota camp with orders to confiscate the Indians’ arms and to move them to Omaha, Nebraska, to make way for more homesteaders moving on to their territories. Tensions were already running higher than usual, with the murder of Chief Sitting Bull a few days previously on the Standing Rock reservation, and it was his half-brother, Chief Big Foot, who was then surrounded by U.S. forces. A search was made for weapons, of which few were found, and in the course of the search a gun was fired.

That led to the subsequent slaughter of the Miniconjou, many of whom were women and children and who were greatly outnumbered by the U.S. cavalry, who were armed with Hotchkiss guns, a type of lightweight artillery. (Twenty-five U.S. soldiers also died in the battle, some of whom are believed to have been the victims of “friendly fire.”) General Nelson Miles later described the event as a “massacre,” and Colonel James Forsyth, who had led the troops, was relieved from duty, although he was later exonerated. (Tamsin Pickeral)

The town of Kill Devil Hills was established in 1953, but that was many years after the area had witnessed an event of unprecedented importance. Situated along the beautiful North Carolina coast, Kill Devil Hills—named after a fierce moonshine drunk by pirates—sits between the glistening waters of the Atlantic and a series of monumental rolling sand dunes. It was these dunes that attracted the attention of two pioneering young men—Orville and Wilbur Wright—in the early 1900s.

At this time the area was remote and isolated, and with its sand dunes—some of which are more than 100 feet (30.5 metres) high—it provided an ideal location for the brothers to experiment with their gliders, as the area’s steady winds greatly facilitated flight. Having designed, built, and flown gliders, the brothers built a powered airplane that became known as the Wright flyer, and on December 17, 1903, Orville took the plane on its first flight, creating aviation history. The Wrights realized that the secret to successful flight lay in mastering control of the aircraft rather than in power.

Both brothers made two short flights each that day, which were witnessed by five onlookers. After the final flight, a gust of wind took hold of the grounded plane and hurled it across the ground, causing great damage. The Wright flyer of 1903 never flew again, although it was restored and put on exhibition, but the brothers soon built a replacement, the Flyer II, in 1904.

A granite monument—the Wright Brothers National Memorial—was built in 1932 to commemorate the brothers’ achievements. The Wrights lived in a small wooden shed alongside another wooden structure that became one of the world’s first airplane hangars, and both of these have been reconstructed at the site, based on old photographs. In addition, the flight paths across the dunes are marked. (Tamsin Pickeral)