Presidential Images, History, and Homage: Memorializing Theodore Roosevelt, 1919-1967
1978; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 30; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2712298
ISSN1080-6490
Autores Tópico(s)Latin American and Latino Studies
ResumoBasin area in the nation's capital were approaching the finished form envisioned in the plans of Pierre L'Enfant in the 1790s and the Senate Park Commission in 1902. Since 1885 the completed Washington Monument had stood near the intersection of the Capitol and White House axes that L'Enfant had incorporated into his original plan for the federal city. Three of the four terminal points of the huge cross formed by the axes were occupied by 1922: to the east of the Washington Monument the Capitol; to the north the White House; and to the west the recently completed Lincoln Memorial. Although the Mall area was assuming its present appearance, it remained unbalanced and incomplete, for south of the towering obelisk memorializing George Washington, in the Tidal Basin area, lay an unoccupied but significant site (see Figure 1). The final axis terminal became the focus of an unintended controversy during the 1920s. Confident of their hero's right to be memorialized with Washington and Lincoln, the devoted friends of the recently deceased Theodore Roosevelt saw an initial hold on the valued location slip from their grasp before the stronger historical claims of Thomas Jefferson. In a fascinating contest of historical images and the conflicting responsibilities of national homage, Jefferson eventually gained a position with Washington and Lincoln in the nation's most significant garden of honor. By the time another president bearing his name had come to reside in the nearby executive mansion, Theodore Roosevelt had been memorialized by the dedication of an island in the Potomac River-within sight of, but excluded from, the charmed triangle of greats.
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