Collect this amazing ornament celebrating the Jefferson Memorial. Sitting on the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., the memorial honors Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States. Read the enclosed brochure to discover more about the heritage of this incredible monument.
Details
Packaged: Beautiful gift box with included pamphlet
Origin: Made in America
Measures 4 inches H x 2.5 inches W
Materials: solid brass with Rhodium Silver finish
More about the memorial
The push for a monument to Thomas Jefferson gained real momentum in 1934, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt, an admirer of Jefferson, helped establish the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission. Architect John Russell Pope designed the memorial in the Neoclassical style, drawing on the Roman Pantheon as well as Jefferson's own architectural work: the University of Virginia Rotunda and his home at Monticello.
The project wasn't universally welcomed. Critics called the design anachronistic, and in November 1938 a group of about 150 women chained themselves to the cherry trees on the building site in what became known as the Cherry Tree Rebellion, trying to stop them from being cleared for construction. Construction went ahead that year regardless, and the memorial was dedicated on April 13, 1943, the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth.
Wartime metal shortages meant the 19-foot statue at the memorial's center, sculpted by Rudulph Evans, was first installed as a painted plaster cast. It wasn't replaced with the permanent bronze version until 1947. Inside the open-air rotunda, the walls are inscribed with excerpts from Jefferson's writing on religious freedom, education, and the Constitution, the ideas the memorial was really built to honor.
Today the memorial anchors the Tidal Basin, ringed each spring by the Yoshino cherry trees that draw millions of visitors to see it in bloom.