Changing Memorials, Changing Meanings on the National Mall

From the "NAMA Notebook" of the education team at National Mall and Memorial Parks, written for teachers.

The National Mall is always changing as it continues to tell America's history, and that variety of stories is part of what keeps the park's education team there. Memorials give teachers a chance to explore history, art and symbolism with students.

A new memorial: Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. National Park Service.

In 2020 the park added a memorial to Dwight D. Eisenhower on Independence Avenue, across from the Air and Space Museum. It covers his life from boyhood through his years as general and president.

The boy from Abilene. Unusually for a presidential memorial, it includes the leader's childhood: a statue of the young Eisenhower reflecting on his hometown of Abilene, Kansas. It faces an excerpt from the speech he gave there on June 22, 1945, when he came home after victory in World War II:

"Because no man is really a man who has lost out of himself all of the boy, I want to speak first of the dreams of a barefoot boy. Frequently, they are to be of a street car conductor or he sees himself as the town policeman. Above all, he may reach to a position of locomotive engineer, but always in his dreams is that day when he finally comes home. Comes home to a welcome from his own home town. Because today that dream of mine of 45 years or more ago has been realized beyond the wildest stretches of my own imagination, I come here. First, to thank you, to say the proudest thing I can claim is that I am from Abilene."

The statue of Eisenhower as a boy faces an excerpt from his June 22, 1945, speech in Abilene. National Park Service.

The educators suggest having students read the excerpt and think about how a hometown shapes a future, and how young people cannot always foresee where life will lead; Eisenhower could never have imagined leading an army through a world war. Students might write down their hopes at the start of the school year and look back on them at the end.

General and president. Other statues show Eisenhower's work. Students can compare a photograph of him talking with troops before the D-Day invasion with the statue group that depicts the same scene, and listen to his D-Day message to feel the pressure of that moment.

Left: General Eisenhower speaks with paratroopers in England before they board their planes for the D-Day invasion. Right: the memorial's bronze statues of the scene. Library of Congress and National Park Service.

The memorial also contrasts Eisenhower the general with Eisenhower the president, who was elected after promising to end the war in Korea and is presented as a man working for peace. Its large metal tapestry shows Pointe du Hoc and the beaches of Normandy, scene of the 1944 D-Day invasion, but in peacetime, an irony students can think about.

The memorial's metal tapestry. National Park Service.

Classes studying the 1950s can look at the memorial's surroundings. The buildings around it reflect Eisenhower's administration: the Air and Space Museum recalls NASA's founding in the 1950s, the Department of Education stands right behind the tapestry because education mattered to Eisenhower, and the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Aviation Administration and Voice of America are nearby. Students can research how each connects to him.

Changing meanings: the Columbus Memorial

The Columbus Memorial Fountain in front of Union Station. National Park Service.

While new memorials go up, the meaning of old ones can change. The Columbus Memorial in front of Union Station was dedicated in 1912 to celebrate the contributions of Italian Americans. Today Columbus is less celebrated for his discovery, especially in light of how Indigenous people were treated, and that shift affects how the memorial is seen. Students can consider how a memorial's meaning reflects the time it was built, and how that meaning can change.

October, which brings Eisenhower's birthday, the Columbus Day holiday and the change of seasons, is a good time to look at how the Mall has changed, both through new memorials and through how old ones are reinterpreted and remembered.

Sources

• National Park Service, National Mall and Memorial Parks, "NAMA Notebook: Changing Seasons and Meanings." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/nama-notebook-changing-seasons.htm
• Eisenhower's D-Day message: https://dod.defense.gov/News/Special-Reports/D-Day-and-the-Invasion-of-Normandy/Gen-Dwight-D-Eisenhowers-D-Day-Message/