The Founders in Public Memory: D.C.’s Monumental Core and the Rhetorical Character of the George Mason Memorial

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the George Mason Memorial’s obscurity is due to the memorialization of its subject in a way that does not conform with broader cultural understandings of how an American founding figure “should” be remembered. To make this argument, I explore the history and motivations of the memorial and situate that history within the larger context of the increased nationalistic and patriotic impulses in American culture during the aftermath of 9/11. I then compare the rhetorical character of the memorial to two other memorials to founding figures in the monumental core – the Washington Memorial and Thomas Jefferson Memorial. The George Mason Memorial’s design differs from more familiar understandings of American founding figures as towering heroes and emblems of masculine, nationalistic ideals. An examination of this site offers insight into how a memorial’s continued existence in public memory is strongly impacted by whether it conforms to the social norms and expectations of its visitors.