Jan Scruggs, President and Founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, proposed in 2000 to build an education center focusing on veterans' service in the wars following Vietnam. The planned center would have been located across the street from the…

In 1855, Congress commissioned Thomas Crawford to build a statue to top the cast-iron Capitol dome. Two years later, Crawford created the plaster model in Rome and sent it to the US for casting. The bronze was cast at a foundry in Washington DC under…

Louisiana-born sculptor, Jose de Rivera designed and built the abstract sculpture "Infinity" that currently welcomes visitors to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The sculpture slowly rotates on its base, completing 1 revolution…

Sculptor Alexander Calder designed "Gwenfritz" in 1965 after Washington philanthropist Gwendolyn Cafritz commissioned him to create a piece for the new Museum of History and Technology. Calder built the 40-foot tall metal stabile in France and…

Since the 1770s, American indigenous people have always served in the US military at a higher rate than other groups. In 1994, a bipartisan congressional effort passed the Native American Veterans’ Memorial Establishment Act to authorize the creation…

In 1985, Elizabeth Ratcliff, a former English teacher from California, proposed a national monument to peace. The monument was approved by Congress within two years and Hains Point was selected as the site. The Peace Garden Project Committee, led by…

After authorization expired for the Black Revolutionary War Patriots Memorial, Maurice Barboza and Lena Santos Ferguson restarted their campaign to honor African-American service during the Revolutionary War. Congress authorized the National Liberty…

In 1996, the Washington Interdependence Council began planning a memorial to Benjamin Banneker, an African American scientist and surveyor who helped map the boundaries of the District of Columbia. Congress authorized the plan, and the Council was…

In 1986, Maurice Barboza and Lena Santos Ferguson won Congressional authorization to honor African Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War with a monument on the Mall. Congress authorized the memorial, but followed precedent by not allocating…

In 1922, Congress received a proposal from the Washington, DC, chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to create the "Faithful Slave Mammies of the South" memorial recognizing the supposed loyalty of enslaved women to their owners during…