Abstract
Since their re-erection in Rome by Pope Sixtus V (1585–90), obelisks have had many connotations in the Western world. Art-historical literature has demonstrated that this ancient Egyptian form was used by later civilizations to connote glory, wisdom, the Sun, democracy, and eternal duration.1 Those meanings have equal significance for the development of monumental obelisks in nineteenth-century America. Unlike most earlier obelisks, the hollow shafts of these constructions can be ascended by an internal staircase or elevator to interior lookout platforms. Distinctively characteristic of the American landscape,2 monumental obelisks have military connotations and social functions that have not been thoroughly investigated.
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