Meade in front of Prettyman

Stumbling along near the Mall recently, I noticed this sculpture of General  George Meade in front of the District of Columbia district court house, the Prettyman building.  Such sculptures and their locations often give me an excuse to delve into history and local development, an exercise that the Internet has made very easy and that allows me to tank up my personal knowledge database.  Apparently, Meade was an American Civil War Union general who commanded the Army of the Potomac and defeated Confederate General Robert Lee at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, the largest land war in the western world. I was less aware of who E. Barrett Prettyman was but it turns out he was a longtime Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which meets in that building. Prettyman was also a tax expert teaching at Georgetown University and acted as the District of Columbia's tax attorney at one time.  This Prettyman building is the site of many historic legal arguments in cases such as involving the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate trials, the Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy plane and thousands more cases heard in the US District court. In fact, you can see news media camped out on the forecourt of the building -- "on the beach" -- their vans bristling with antennas and made-up news announcers staring into cameras during these major proceedings. Who knew that such a plain looking building and figurative sculpture would give me such keys into American history? Amazing!

One of the Big Friezes in Washington DC

Typical doorway at National Building Museum

The frieze traverses the entire building.

I nearly always have to stop and stare at the National Building Museum every time I go by there as it is just so ornate.  Each doorway is decorated with interesting red brick work, roman arch, reclining figures and mythic-looking heads. Then there's the big frieze that goes around the entire building -- which is the size of a city block. I'm sure there's whole books written about the civil war figures and carts and munitions depicted but suffice to say, the detail is staggeringly visible even if you do have to crane your neck to look up at it.  I've been to half a dozen events inside the building from annual dinners, to a college graduation to a political ball.  And the inside is just as interesting and wonderful.  Apparently, it was built first as the Pension Building where civil servants sat row upon row processing pensions for civil war and other veterans.  I seem to recall a great exhibit about this in one room on the second floor and which includes photos of the construction as it occurred.  This building is truly a marvelous feat and something not to miss seeing if you happen to be near Judiciary Square or have the time to walk up from the Nauseum, whoops, I meant Newseum.

Museum Days

With my mother-in-law visiting, it was a perfect excuse to tank up on the exhibits at the National Gallery of Art, the American Portrait Gallery and Museum of American Art. So we saw a somewhat interesting set of portraits of Elvis Presley, the Norman Rockwell exhibit from the collection by Stephen Spielberg and a good walk-through of favorites from the National Gallery. I always have to check out my favorite paintings and the wonderful experience of walking through the computer-generated light tunnel to the cafeteria for lunch in the national gallery. There's all the Madonna and Christ images that I must see as well as the huge American Frank Church landscapes and the Turner-Mallord seascapes. So this time, I took my camera with me and took photos of many of these.  On special loan from another museum was the Auguste Saint-Gaudens sculpture called Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th African American regiment that fought in the civil war. This is truly a spectacular relief type sculpture in a bright red shiny bronze material and well worth the visit alone. To our surprise the museums were not that crowded and when we ate at the very nice, and expensive, cafe-style restaurants at the galleries the food was fresh and there were not long lines. For a weekend in the middle of July I really did expect more people in the galleries. The same was true for parking -- plenty of available spots for the National Gallery. Manifold blessings in the city!

Damn the Torpedos, Full Speed Ahead!

Not far from where I work is Farragut Square that I stumbled into today and snapped a shot of ole Admiral David Farragut, the guy who apparently said, "Damn the torpedoes, Full Speed ahead," during the Battle of Mobile Bay in the Civil War. I looked him up on the Internet of course -- as who has encyclopedias in their houses anymore? Sure enough, Wikipedia gave me all I needed. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and full admiral of the Navy and is the guy who said this all-American type phrase. His statue had some pigeons napping on his feet and walking on the four cannons pointed in all four directions at the park visitors.  No-one who walked by appeared to notice him in the afternoon sun and he seems to stand there, at least thirty foot high, but invisible.. The statue faces towards the White House and I wonder what they think of him there, if they think of civil war at all. ..