Adams Memorial
| Adams Memorial | |||
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| National Register of Historic Places | |||
 Adams Monument by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White |
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| location | Washington, DC | ||
| Coordinates | 38 ° 56 '50.6 " N , 77 ° 0' 37.1" W | ||
| Built | 1891 | ||
| architect | Augustus Saint-Gaudens | ||
| NRHP number | 72001420 | ||
| The NRHP added | March 16, 1972 | ||
The Adams Memorial is a headstone in Section E of Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC , whose distinctive feature is an allegorical bronze sculpture by the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens . The encased figure sits on a block of granite that represents one side of a hexagonal floor plan designed by architect Stanford White .
Erected in 1891, the monument was donated by the author and historian Henry Adams, who belonged to the family of politicians, as a souvenir of his wife Clover Hooper Adams .
Adams commissioned Saint-Gaudens to orientate himself on the iconic representations of Buddhist worship. One such figure, Guanyin , the Bodhisattva of Compassion, is often depicted as a seated figure wrapped in cloth. However, the figure is depicted as sexless, as Adams explains in a letter to Theodore Roosevelt on December 16, 1908 . Henry Adams died in 1918 and was buried next to his wife in the tomb. Saint-Gaudens was probably influenced by Parisian cemetery art during his stay in France .
Saint-Gaudens' name for the bronze statue is “The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding,” but the public called the sculpture “Grief,” a term that Henry Adams disliked. In a letter he wrote to Homer Saint-Gaudens on January 24, 1908, he instructed him:
“ Don't allow the world to name my statue! Every magazine writer wants to label them like an American panacea for use by everyone - sadness, despair, Pear's soap or Macy's custom-made men's suits. Her father wanted to ask a question, not give an answer; and the one who gives the answer will be damned forever, like the men who answered the Sphinx. "
At the time of Saint-Gaudens' death, the sculpture was considered an important work of American sculpture. His fame inspired at least one imitation , the Black Aggie , which was sold to General Felix Agnus for his tomb.
An in-depth study of the tomb and the relationship between Clover and Henry Adams is "Clover: The Tragic Love Story of Clover and Henry Adams and Their Brilliant Life in America's Gilded Age" by historian Otto Friedrich .
The Adams Memorial was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1972 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Duco van Oostrum: Male Authors, Female Subjects ( English , Google Books) Rodopi. Amsterdam - Atlanta .. p. 252. 1995. Retrieved June 8, 2008: " The figure is sexless "
- ^ Duco van Oostrum: Male Authors, Female Subjects ( English , Google Books) Rodopi. Amsterdam - Atlanta .. p. 251. 1995. Retrieved June 8, 2008: " " Do not allow the world to tag my figure with a name! Every magazine writer wants to label it as some American patent medicine for popular consumption — Grief, Despair, Pear's Soap, or Macy's Mens' Suits Made to Measure. Your father meant it to ask a question, not to give an answer; and the man who answers will be damned to eternity like the men who answered the Sphinx. " "
- ↑ Cynthia J. Mills: Casting Shadows: The Adams Memorial and Its Doubles . In: Smithsonian American Art Museum (ed.): American Art . 14, No. 2, Summer, 2000, pp. 2-25.
- ^ Adams Memorial in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 1, 2017.
Web links
- Cultural Tourism DC - The Adams Memorial ( Memento June 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive )