CE N T E N N I A L CE L E B R AT I O N
Celebrate the Lincoln Memorial Centennial in the Berkshires Chesterwood marks anniversary with documentary film premiere, collaborative exhibit at Norman Rockwell Museum BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU
O
n May 30, 1922, in a simple ceremony with only three speakers and an estimated crowd of 50,000 onlookers, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. Seated in places of honor were architect Henry Bacon Jr. and sculptor Daniel Chester French. Bacon modeled the memorial after
the Greek Parthenon, with 36 exterior columns symbolizing the 36 states of the Union at the time of Abraham Lincoln’s death. The interior was designed to have three chambers— two dedicated to his celebrated speeches and a central chamber featuring a sculpture of the president. French personally was selected, by the memorial committee and by Bacon, to sculpt the Lincoln statue. French spent several years researching Lincoln, studying photographs and casts of his hands and face, before designing the 19-foot-tall marble statue of the nation’s 16th president in his studio at Chesterwood, his Gilded Age cottage in
18 Berkshire Landscapes I SPRING 2022
PHOTO PROVIDED BY CHESTERWOOD
Daniel Chester French stands with his model of Abraham Lincoln in the Chesterwood studio.
