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…

The first national memorial to specifically honor members of the American armed forces who were permanently disabled during their service opened in 2014. The memorial was proposed to Congress in 1998 by a group led by philanthropist Lois Pope; Jesse…

In his will, James Smithson left his estate to his nephew or his nephew's children. In the event that his nephew died without any children, Smithson's fortune was to go to the United States government for "an establishment for the increase and…

On March 11, 1988, deaf students from Gallaudet University in Washington, DC marched to the steps of the Capitol protesting the selection of Elisabeth A. Zinser, a hearing person, as the University's 7th president. Student leaders directed the crowd…

The John Stevens Shop is a stone carving workshop based in Rhode Island and currently co-owned by the father and son team of John E. and Nicholas Benson. They have been involved in the design and execution of lettering for inscriptions for four…

The artist in this photograph is carving one of the many inscriptions found in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. Calligrapher and stone carver John Benson, designed the layout and typeface of the inscriptions. Each letter was carved and…