Is it Washington's or Lincoln's DC?

As the nation moves further into the sesquicentennial commemoration of the Civil War, one name appears more than any other in papers, symposia, and discussions—Abraham Lincoln.

Washington, D.C., is a city of Lincoln echoes. The capital, named for the first president, contains perhaps a greater presence of Lincoln than it does of the Founding Father. Abraham Lincoln is credited with saving the nation and its capital during the most trying days of the Union’s existence, and Lincoln tributes in Washington are as commonplace as half-smoke vendors.
 

In addition to the obvious—Ford’s Theatre and the Lincoln Memorial (both shown above)—smaller monuments and markers are everywhere in Washington. The National Historic Landmark building that now houses the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum was built as the Old Patent Office Building and played host to Lincoln’s second inaugural ball in 1865. The White House has the Lincoln bedroom. A plaque on E Street Northwest marks John Wilkes Booth’s escape route, while a plaque on H Street Northwest denotes the Surratt House, home of several of the convicted Lincoln conspirators.

Washington is also the final resting place for the two most famous Lincoln photographers, Alexander Gardner (Glenwood Cemetery) and Mathew Brady (Congressional Cemetery), as well as the home of the most famous photograph of Lincoln, Gardner’s “cracked plate” from early 1865, at the National Portrait Gallery (below).

Both ends of the axis that includes the National Mall are capped with Lincoln tributes—the Lincoln Memorial by Daniel Chester French seals off the west end, while East Capitol Street, the extension of the line that bisects the United States Capitol, has as its penultimate monument site the public space of Lincoln Park, within which is contained a statue of Abraham Lincoln emancipating the slaves (below).

Other large monuments to Lincoln in the district may be found at the United States Capitol rotunda, the White House, Fort Stevens, and the National Cathedral.

Of course, one needs to look no further than one’s own pocket to understand America’s love for Lincoln; he has his own penny and five-dollar note. And though Lincoln does not have a cherry tree legend to his attribution, he does have a set of child’s building logs. The case for Lincoln’s endearment to America continues to be made every day in many different forms. After all, Ford did not build a Ford named Washington; Ford built a Ford named Lincoln.

—Warren Perry, Catalog of American Portraits, National Portrait Gallery