Lincoln Memorial

Abraham Lincoln

Charles Carroll Glover

Clarence O. Sherrill

Daniel Chester French

In his Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865, a re-elected President Abraham Lincoln wanted to unify a broken nation. With the end of the Civil War within sight, many people on both sides felt anger and frustration toward their fellow Americans. Lincoln attempted to rise above the divisiveness and start the process of healing. Heralded as one of the most significant presidential speeches in American history, its meaning and eloquence still resonate with people today.

As we celebrate Juneteenth, it is equally important to recognize the role that the enslaved had in their own emancipation. The National Park Service has the honor of protecting sacred places and histories for the American people, many of which explore enslavement, emancipation, and the fight for equality that are integral to the American experience.

Lincoln Memorial National Memorial not only honors Lincoln, but its design and its use by Americans over the years have made it a symbol of America’s democratic principles and beliefs. It is fitting that the memorial has been the site of some of the nation's most stirring civil rights demonstrations and events.

Although the abolition of slavery emerged as a dominant objective of the Union war effort, most Northerners embraced abolition as a practical measure rather than a moral cause. The war resolved legally and constitutionally the single most important moral question that afflicted the nascent republic, an issue that prevented the country from coalescing around a shared vision of freedom, equality, morality, and nationhood.

The National Park Service is adding an immersive museum beneath the Lincoln Memorial and other upgrades to the visitor experience. Construction is expected to be completed in 2026, in time for the 250th anniversary of American independence.

This finding aid describes the Frank T. and Charles T. Chapman Collection, part of the National Capital Regional Office Museum Collection.

Of the four assassinated presidents, James Garfield is the least recognized. Kennedy’s administration was televised. McKinley was in his second term following the Spanish-American War. And Lincoln was, well, you know... Lincoln? But Garfield falls into that hazy, post-Reconstruction period where nothing much seems to be going on; no war, no global economic or social crisis, no real era-identifying issue.

It is fitting and proper that General John Logan should be honored with a prominent statue in the nation's capital. He was an effective military leader who fought in many Civil War battles, a successful and active politician, head of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans organization, and is credited with establishing Memorial Day as a national day of remembrance for those who lost their lives in the Civil War.