Tag Archives: sculpture

District of Columbia

World War I Memorial

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World War I Memorial

District of Columbia

Managed by National Park Service

Established 2021

1.76 acres

Website: https://www.nps.gov/nama/planyourvisit/national-world-war-i-memorial.htm

Overview

In 1931, the District of Columbia War Memorial was erected on the National Mall where the white rotunda still stands near the Washington Monument (see photos below).  The World War I Memorial near the White House was first approved by Congress in 1957 to honor John J. Pershing, General of the Armies during World War I (a rank only George Washington shares).  A scant 24 years later, Pershing Park on Pennsylvania Avenue NW was finally dedicated and a statue was added after another two years.  On April 16, 2021, the World War I Memorial officially opened and three years later, the58-foot-long A Soldier’s Journey sculpture by Sabin Howard was installed.  In Kansas City, Missouri, the National World War I Museum and Memorial opened in 1926 as the Liberty Memorial, and Congress designated it as the country’s official war memorial in 2014.

Highlights

Reflecting pool, Pershing sculpture, A Soldier’s Journey sculpture, 5 p.m. “Taps”

Must-Do Activity

World War I Memorial is considered part of both Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site and the National Mall and Memorial Parks, as well as being listed as one of the 433 official National Park Service (NPS) sites.  It does not take long to read the plaques and see the sculptures, so try to aim to be there for the 5 p.m. daily playing of “Taps” by a soldier in a World War I-era uniform.  Nearby, the Old Post Office Tower on Pennsylvania Avenue NW was completed in 1899 and reaching the top requires two free elevator rides from NPS rangers.  It provides a great view from the third highest point in the city (and hopefully it reopens soon after the new hotel owners closed it to the public on October 1, 2025).  Further east down the road, the free U.S. Navy Memorial Visitor Center is also worth a visit.

Best Trail

There is no trail here, but there is always plenty of walking done when visiting the many memorials in Washington, D.C.

Photographic Opportunity

A Soldier’s Journey is the 25-ton bronze bas-relief that was officially unveiled during the “First Illumination” ceremony on September 13, 2024.

Peak Season

Spring and fall

Hours

Open 24 hours

Fees

None

Road Conditions

Traffic can be slow and parking expensive in Washington, D.C., so consider taking the Metro to Smithsonian Station on the National Mall or the Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter stop on Pennsylvania Avenue. 

Camping

There are National Park Service campgrounds in Maryland’s Greenbelt Park and Virginia’s Prince William Forest Park.

Related Sites

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park (Tennessee-Georgia)

World War II Memorial (District of Columbia)

Vietnam Veterans Memorial (District of Columbia)

Nearest National Park

Shenandoah

Old Post Office Tower
Old Post Office Tower
View from the Old Post Office Tower
U.S. Navy Memorial Visitor Center
District of Columbia War Memorial on the National Mall

Explore More – Why did I include Civil War-era Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park as a related site for the World War I Memorial?

Texas

Chamizal National Memorial

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Chamizal National Memorial

Texas

Managed by National Park Service

Established 1974

55 acres

Website: nps.gov/cham

Overview

The Rio Grande forms the international border between the U.S. and Mexico for 1,248 miles, but in El Paso the river changed course suddenly in 1864 creating Cordova Island and leading to a 630-acre land dispute that lasted a century.  An 1884 treaty agreed in principle that if the river changed course slowly by erosion, then the boundary moved with the deepest channel, but a commission investigating it a decade later found that Americans were settling land owned by Mexico.  The issue remained contentious, with a 1909 meeting between Presidents Taft and Diaz almost resulted in the assassination of them both.  Finally, a 1963 settlement involved displacing 5,600 Americans, as well as moving a railroad, school, bridge, and the river channel itself.  Chamizal National Memorial was authorized by Congress three years later to celebrate the goodwill inherent to this treaty with a history museum, as well as three art galleries and a 500-seat indoor theater. 

Highlights

Museum, film, Franklin G. Smith Gallery, Benito Juarez sculpture, Nuestra Herencia mural

Must-Do Activity

There is a film shown in the visitor center, in addition to the museum about the treaty and exhibits in the art galleries that change every few months.  Summer concerts take place in the outdoor amphitheater and the Chamizal Festival is held the first weekend in October featuring music, crafts, dance, and visual arts. The park annually holds a Siglo de Oro Drama Festival in the spring, when acting troupes performed plays from the golden age of Spanish theater, including those by Lope de Vega.  In September 2025, the first Chihuahuan Desert Festival was held throughout the city of El Paso.  Check the National Park Service website or Facebook page for events throughout the year. 

Best Trail

There are walking trails around the 55-acre property that pass some of the historic boundary markers along East Paisano Drive. 

Photographic Opportunity

Nuestra Herencia is a very colorful mural painted on the outside of the visitor center.

Peak Season

Spring and fall

Hours

https://nps.gov/cham/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

None

Road Conditions

Access roads are paved, but be careful how you get there because it is very close to a border crossing station and you do not want to accidentally wind up in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Camping

There are private campgrounds in El Paso, or visit Franklin Mountains State Park for camping, hiking, mountain biking, and rock climbing opportunities.  Encompassing 24,248 acres, this is one of the largest urban parks in the country lying completely within city limits.

Related Sites

Amistad National Recreation Area (Texas)

Big Bend National Park (Texas)

Fort Davis National Historic Site (Texas)

Guadalupe Mountains National Park (Texas)

Nearest National Park

White Sands

Raven about the park

Explore More – What does “chamizal” mean in Spanish?

District of Columbia

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial

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Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial

District of Columbia

Managed by National Park Service

Established 2020

4 acres

Website: nps.gov/ddem

Overview

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II and the 34th U.S. President (1953 to 1961).  His presidential library is located in his hometown of Abilene, Kansas and his post-presidency home on a Pennsylvania farm is run by the National Park Service adjacent to Gettysburg National Military Park.  The U.S. Congress created a Memorial Commission in 1999, but the groundbreaking did not occur until 18 years later.  The dedication ceremony was scheduled for the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, but postponed to September 17 because of the pandemic. 

Highlights

Sculptures, steel tapestry, audio tour, gift shop

Must-Do Activity

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial is located one block off the National Mall in a plaza on Independence Avenue SW across from the National Air and Space Museum.  It was designed by architect Frank Gehry and went through several iterations before settling on three bronze sculptures by Sergey Eylanbekov representing “Ike” as a boy, general, and president.  The site is always open with a downloadable audio tour and a small gift shop open daily where you can pick up a “unigrid” pamphlet.

Best Trail

There is no trail here, but you can spend all day walking in D.C. through the National Mall and the nearby National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of the American Indian, and United States Botanic Garden.

Photographic Opportunity

The artist Tomas Osinski created a stainless-steel tapestry (447 feet long by 60 feet tall) out of 600 panels depicting a line drawing of the Pointe du Hoc promontory on France’s Normandy coastline, a site significant to the D-Day landings during World War II.

Peak Season

Spring and fall

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/ddem/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

None

Road Conditions

The memorial is located on Independence Ave SW across from the National Air and Space Museum, which has parking garages nearby, or you can take the Metro into the city.

Camping

Greenbelt Park Campground in Maryland is the closest run by the National Park Service, which also manages campgrounds at Virginia’s Prince William Forest Park and Shenandoah National Park, as well as several in Maryland’s Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.  Smallwood State Park and Cherry Hill Park in Maryland both offer RV sites and tent sites.

Related Sites

World War II Memorial (District of Columbia)

Eisenhower National Historic Site (Pennsylvania)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial (District of Columbia)

Nearest National Park

Shenandoah

Kids being kids

Explore More – What landscape was originally going to be depicted on the steel tapestry?

Illinois

Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument

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Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument

Illinois

Managed by National Park Service

Established 2024

1.57 acres

Website: nps.gov/spra

Overview

In 1908, African Americans made up only 5.5% of Springfield’s population of 47,000.  However, racial tensions ran high across the nation, and, on August 14, a mob formed outside the jail where two African-American men were accused of separate incidents of sexual assault and murder.  When the crowd found out the prisoners had been secretly moved 60 miles away, a full riot broke out.  They destroyed buildings, looted, and lynched two prominent members of the African-American community—a barber named Scott Burton and the wealthy William Donnegan.  By the time the National Guard arrived to restore order, seven people were dead and the mob had already burned the African-American neighborhood known as the “Badlands” to the ground.  Eventually, the trials of the 80 riot suspects at the Old Court House led to only one conviction for petty larceny.  While the rape suspect, George Richardson, was released when his accuser admitted fabricating the story, Joe James was convicted of murder and executed on October 23, 1908 despite being legally exempt from the death penalty as a minor.  These events catalyzed the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) a few months later in New York City.

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments. It is now available for sale on Amazon.com.

Highlights

Walking tour, Acts of Intolerance sculpture, mural, Old Court House, Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Mechanicsburg Cemetery

Must-Do Activity

Before the National Monument was designated in 2024, the city of Springfield had already created a walking tour highlighting the events of the 1908 race riot marked by seven silver pillars.  After starting at the former site of the jail, the tour moves to where Loper’s Restaurant once stood; its white owner having assisted in moving the prisoners, his restaurant and his car were destroyed.  During the frenzy, a restaurant patron named Louis Johnson was shot and killed.  There are five other stops detailing the events chronologically, but they do not include the mural inside HSHS St. John’s Hospital Women & Children’s Clinic, which is next to the officially designated National Monument boundaries where the foundations of five homes burned in the “Badlands” remain fenced off.  Upon our visit less than three months after its creation, the National Park Service visitor center for Lincoln Home National Historic Site did not have any information on the new National Monument, but they already had a passport stamp.

Best Trail

When followed in chronological order, the walking tour bounces back and forth across the city, so you will get your steps in that day.  In the summer, guided tours are offered from the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau.  Alternatively, you can drive the route and read the descriptions in the publication available online and from the visitors bureau. 

Photographic Opportunity

After the burning of the “Badlands” neighborhood, two chimneys were about the only structures left standing.  The sculptor Preston Jackson utilized this imagery in his work Acts of Intolerance that depicts scenes of the race riot in bas relief.  Dedicated in 2009, it stands across the street from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Union Square Park. 

Peak Season

Summer

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/spra/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

None

Road Conditions

There is no free parking in downtown Springfield, so you can use a parking meter or the NPS pay lot at Lincoln Home National Historic Site. 

Camping

Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site is 20 miles northwest of Springfield and its campground has running water.  Further north, Starved Rock State Park is a beautiful spot for camping, and it also offers a historic lodge.

Related Sites

New Philadelphia National Historic Site (Illinois)

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument (Mississippi-Illinois)

Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument (Mississippi)

Beacon of Endurance installed 2023

Explore More – Damage from the race riot to black businesses was estimated at $100,000 in 1908, equivalent to how many millions today?

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments

New York

Castle Clinton National Monument

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Castle Clinton National Monument

New York

Managed by National Park Service

Established 1946

1 acre

Website: nps.gov/cacl

Overview

The U.S. military constructed South-west Battery off Manhattan Island’s southern tip by the beginning of the War of 1812, although it never fired a shot in battle.  It was renamed Castle Clinton in 1817 to honor former mayor (and future governor) DeWitt Clinton, then once again to Castle Garden only seven years later.  After a roof was added in the 1840s, it hosted concerts, including the American debut of Swedish opera diva Jenny Lind in 1850 (tickets cost $225 or equivalent to $8,240 in 2023).  The island was joined to the mainland with landfill in the early 1850s, creating Battery Park.  From 1855 to 1890, Castle Garden processed approximately eight-million immigrants before the establishment of Ellis Island offshore.  Six years after the closing of the immigration station, Castle Garden was converted into the New York City Aquarium, which closed in 1941.

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments. It is now available for sale on Amazon.com.

Highlights

Castle Clinton, Battery Park

Must-Do Activity

Much of Castle Garden was destroyed during a tunnel construction project in the 1940s, but Castle Clinton remained and was restored three decades later.  Today it serves as a National Park Service visitor center, gift shop, and ticket office for ferry trips to Statue of Liberty National Monument.  There are also exhibits along the perimeter of the D-shaped fort, including a display with cannon.  Ranger-guided tours of the site are offered daily.

Best Trail

There are sidewalks and a seaside promenade in ——-24-acre Battery Park.  Be sure to check out the bronze sculpture “The Immigrants” outside the fort.

Photographic Opportunity

There once were “28 guns” facing New York Harbor from within Castle Clinton, and one display cannon remains. 

Peak Season

Summer

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/cacl/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

None

Road Conditions

Roads are heavily trafficked and there is no designated parking for the National Park Service site, so we recommend you take the subway.

Camping

None

Related Sites

Statue of Liberty National Monument (New York-New Jersey)

Governors Island National Monument (New York)

Stonewall National Monument (New York)

Explore More – Today, what percentage of Americans can trace their roots to one of the nearly eight-million immigrants processed at Castle Garden from 1855 to 1890?

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments