National World War I Memorial: First Look

One hundred four years after the United States Congress declared war on Germany and entered World War I, the first national World War I Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC. Known as The Great War or The War to End All Wars, what began as a Europe-centric conflict quickly spread to include sovereign and colonized nations worldwide in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas.

After resisting entering the war during his first term as President, Woodrow Wilson eventually asked Congress to declare war against Germany in April 1917, which they did. The war, which began July 1914, ended 19 months later, on November 11, 1918.

4,734,991 U.S. Americans served during World War I. With 116,516 total deaths, it remains one of the deadliest conflicts in United Stated history, leaving only World War II and the Civil War with more total deaths during a single conflict. The new memorial has been years in the making and is unique among war memorials in DC.

See the full 24 photo set on our Attucks Adams Patreon page. That’s also where you will find additional posts featuring interpretation, historical context, and my final observations about this newest addition to the memorial landscape of Washington, DC. A huge thanks to all Patrons for making this work possible!

Video: Two Minutes at "In America"

Two Minutes at "In America" from Attucks Adams | Tim Wright on Vimeo.

Capturing the quiet sounds and remarkable images of Suzanne Firstenberg's "In America.”

The installation honors the, to date, 225,000 Americans who have died from covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. Each of the individual flags represents an individual person who has passed away from covid-19. Some flags have been planted by relatives of those who passed. Others were placed by Suzanne herself, by a cast of volunteers, or visitors to the memorial.

This installation is planned to run from October 23 - November 6, 2020. It’s located near the DC Armory and RFK Stadium. The closest address is 1900 East Capitol Street NE, for the adjacent parking lot.

For more information on the artist and installation, visit suzannefirstenberg.com.

First Look: Eisenhower Memorial

President Dwight D. Eisenhower's memorial was dedicated under a light rain, in front of a small live audience on September 17. It's the latest memorial to a president in the District, and the first since 1997 when Franklin Roosevelt's memorial was dedicated next to the Tidal Basin.

Noted architect Frank Gehry designed the memorial park and a number of sculptors created the two main constituent pieces:

• Statuary: Three depiction of Eisenhower;  1) as a child, 2) as a civilian leader (President), and 3) as a military leader (General). Perhaps the most convoluted and controversial part of the memorial's development regarded how Eisenhower himself would be depicted. We ended up getting three depictions. 

• Tapestry: Looming over the park is a massive sculpture the memorial foundation describes as a tapestry. It's a metal screed over 400 feet long and 60 feet tall. The panels form an abstract depiction of France's Normandy coastline. Representative of nature's peaceful beauty after war time, it is intended to paint Eisenhower as a bringer of peace.

I'm looking forward to creating my own interpretation of this seeming straightforward and vast memorial. Location, layout, materials, historical context, and numerous other factors will all contribute to the narrative. This will be a great project to fold into new downtown tours debuting, well, whenever I'm able to comfortably tour in-person again. For now, enjoy the photos.

The full set of 15+ photos is available on our Patreon page!

Raymond Kaskey's American Storyboard

One of the most compelling elements of the National World War II Memorial is a series of bas-relief panels lining the north and south sides of the Memorial near 17th Street NW. DC-based sculptor Raymond Kaskey created the panels (and all other bronze sculptural elements in the memorial).

The 24 panels illustrate how World War II permeated every aspect of American life from the battlefields to living rooms, farms, and factories. They run in chronological order from east to west and are divided into the themes of Pacific front and Atlantic front, including scenes from life in the United States during the war.

Mr. Kaskey was inspired by the 1,200 foot wrap-around bas-relief frieze on the National Building Museum and used World War II era photographs housed at the National Archives to inform artwork on the panels . Here are a few close ups of these amazing depictions: