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…

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…

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…

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…

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 National Park Service employs many special maintenance teams to keep the Mall beautiful. Their role is to preserve the monuments and maintain the landscapes. Landscapers care for the grounds and remove 3-4 tons of trash daily. A special crew…

Foot traffic from 25 million annual visitors is hard on the Mall’s natural resources. In 2017, the National Park Service completed a restoration project that re-engineered a total of 18 acres of turf between 3rd and 14th Streets to ensure…

The National Park Service employs a team of professional arborists to ensure the continued health of the Mall's 9,000 trees. Sometimes known as "tree doctors," the arborists care for the cherry trees along the Tidal Basin, which have been a fixture…