Francis Patrick Fowler
Aug.6, 2020
Internship in History
Journal entry 3
Third Week at NAMA Internship
About but not written on Monday August.3
I went back on top of the Jefferson Memorial! Wow! This time it was with four GIS interns and four NCPE interns from Arlington National Cemetery. The group was too big to get up on the dome like last time.
This time we walked around the roof and then walked on the platform where repair work is being made on two tiles that broke off and expedited the multi million renovation. This time I got up and close with some of the pillars and for the first time in my life actual saw Jefferson’s bronze statue.
I have really explored the space of the memorial. And like most things I do in life I did it against convention in an upside-down matter. I started from the top of the dome one day. Then the next day I walked on a platform on the middle of the dome overlooking Thomas Jefferson’s statue and walking my way down to the bottom.
I have not been on the ground floor yet. I ought to get on that. In any event hieratic scale, how a statue is positioned in comparison to the viewer, has taken on a new meaning for me.
If I had started like most people, I would be caning my head up at a 19-foot five-ton statue and ask myself. “Was this a good guy or a bad guy?” For the first time I was towering over a statue and wondering what judgments and analysis Thomas Jefferson was making of me. T.J does not look quite as intimidating from up here
Interesting talks during the tour were made about sound resonance tests in the nineties. At certain times of day, the sounds of planes, cars, ships ect cause vibrations to climb up the Jefferson dome at the perfect pitch “like the tip of a dogs wagging tail”.
This overtime caused much of the damage; sound can damage stone it appears. Another study showed that if the lights on the Jefferson came on an hour after they normally do at night, this would prevent bugs from hitting the memorial and causing further damage. The process of the steam cleaning on the dome, the water sealing of the dome and the lazer treatment on the dome’s biofilm were further talked about.
Then we went underneath the Lincoln Memorial! I did not know Lincoln had a basement! It called the Undercroft. Construction workers from 1914 to 1922 had to build a massive support labyrinth going 40 feet below the monument. To find bedrock for the memorial’s supporting concrete columns, a 43,800 square foot hole was dug in the marshy Potomac flats.
After they created the concrete and started on the marble monument above, many workers drew cartoons and their names before sealing everything off. The undercroft was mostly ignored until sixty years later in 1975. Limited tours to the public were allowed from the seventies to the nineties but were completely discontinued after 9/11.
Not a lot of people get to see this! It fascinated me! Underneath the memorial’s staircase, there were stalactites from minerals leaking out of the concrete. Underneath Lincoln’s serene seat of white marble and neoclassical grandeur, the concrete foundations had arches that might not be gothic architecture; but they were some sort of wacky cousin. Brutalism is the closest architectural movement I could place the undercroft. Since it was never intended to be seen by anyone, I thought of a made up a word. It looked like Functional/ Accidental Brutalism.
But it was not scary or ugly. It was beautiful in its secrecy and its lack of definition. Concrete cathedral was used by many in the tour to describe it. This ambiguity extended to the temperature and light of the undercroft’s environment.
Under the pavers and staircase in the stalactite section, it was humid. But a step into the concrete cathedral that held the monument cavern it was cool. It was dark in the inner sanctum of the concrete columns. But walk out into the outer layer of the cavern and natural light flowed.
In observations of the Lincoln Memorial, you will see that the architecture endears respect. The sign Infront of Webster French’s masterpiece reads “Please be respectful and quite”. Fifty percent of visitors listen.
The architecture in the undercroft gave me the impression that such a sign might read “if your down here, you do you”. There was a bra from the seventies tucked underneath the wooden walkway of the stairwell section. Alongside 1920 graffiti, there is the more recent “This way out” painted in the concrete. “Dis vay out” is etched underneath it. A historic can of Fanta met us as we first entered the complex.
In public history and conservation work there is a push and pull between restoring and letting things erode with some dignity, while presenting them to the public in some form of shared authority. The upcoming renovations of the undercroft seem to be an experiment in a new field. The push and pull of preserving and leaving alone what are and aught to me undignified in a form of shared absurdity. But what a magnificent and all inspiring absurdity.
I am starting to see I am interested in overlooked sections of the built environment that have been partly reclaimed by nature. I will remember it always a place to get a bit of fresh air forty feet below a marsh. Laughter, laughter, laughter at the bleakness of these times. A place of rest from a Pandemic and a recharging for action against racial inequities.
As we exited through doors that flowed into the Memorials small museum and gift shop, someone commented not be left in or we would be Lincoln memorial’s phantom. But what if I stayed behind for decades living off left over Fanta. When I met the next generation would they think of me in my now historic magnificent and all inspiring absurdity?
There is one distinction that I already want to do away with is the divide between the Lincoln Memorial and the Lincoln undercroft: it is all the same to me. There will always be the knowledge there is another phrase underneath the immortal.
In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.
Forty feet below rest the words “I love chicken and waffles”. But I will go on the record I think Lincoln would find them funny. He might agree with my idea for the signage “If your down here you do you.” What a magnificent, all inspiring, and shared absurdity.
About but not written on Wednesday Aug. 5th:
A delightful day. I spent it with the Geographic Information Systems Interns identifying and assessing trees on the National Mall. The three made me feel welcome and it was awesome learning something new. I am mostly only good at identifying oak and not-oak. However, I think a couple more outings and I will get the hang of it.
On a personal note, collaborating with other students today made me especially happy. I have done teamwork with the preservation crew, with the conservator and with contractors in this internship. But this was the first time since last March where I have worked with other students. The work reminded me of field work that I almost did for a UMBC class last Spring.
I took a Special projects class last semester where I was collaborating with a team of UMBC students to write up a nomination for a site to be placed in the National Register of Historic Places. The group was small like the GIS interns with about six of us. This project was changed the day we were going into the field due to Covid. We made do. Through zoom calls and interviews made a great foundation for the next group. But I missed that opportunity to go out into the field with my classmates.
Neither the special projects class nor the GIS field work were substitutes for each other. I am still proud of the adaptability of my classmates in March. The experience of looking up a tree leaves and spray-painting markers with three up standing people was a pleasure by itself.
Really everything is linked. And having a nice sunny day with trees, caterpillars, friendly people, and an obnoxious squirrel helped remind me that there is no shame in connecting even the most loosely connected of events. So long as a I enjoy them for themselves too. Long story short it was a beautiful day.
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