In the Park with George

Courtesy the Albert H. Small Collection

Courtesy Carolina Franco (carolinafranco.com)

Courtesy DC Public Library, Washingtoniana Division

Play and Recreation

Planners, architects, and landscape designers cannot always foresee

how the buildings, parks, and monuments they design will be used
and interpreted. The Mall, including the grounds of the Monument, has
become a living landscape that people use in different ways. It is a
dynamic, evolving place that has changed along with the needs of the
American people.
The grounds have been used as a place of recreation and play, whether
for a game of baseball in 1942 or a performance at the Sylvan Theater.
Today, the Cherry Blossom Festival and the Kite Festival are among the
grounds most popular annual activities.
The Mall draws people from near and far for Fourth of July fireworks and
other commemorations. The Monument grounds have also become a
platform for expressing freedom of speecha defining characteristic of
American identity. Notable moments of activism and protest have played
out in part on the groundsfrom anti-war protests during the Vietnam
War to Jon Stewarts Rally to Restore Sanity in 2010.
Over the course of the Washington Monument grounds long history,
the public has stood together and stood apart, engaged with others and
reflected alone, been moved by history, and helped shape the future.

Above

Yoga on the Mall at Cherry Blossom Festival, 2011

Baseball diamonds on the shadow of the Monument, 1947

Courtesy Carolina Franco (carolinafranco.com)

Library of Congress

Wartime Footbridges break Washington Monuments image in Reflecting Pool, 1943

Tidal Basin bathing beach, 1922

Ice skating in front of the Monument, between 1909 & 1932

Courtesy DC Public Library, Washingtoniana Division

Courtesy the Albert H. Small Collection

Library of Congress

Celebration and
Commemoration

Boy Scout National Jamboree Opening Ceremonies, 1937

AIDS Memorial Quilt,1992

Armistice Day illumination of the Monument, 1921

Library of Congress

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Image #92-15051

Courtesy DC Public Library, Washingtoniana Division

Maru Montero Dance Company performs during the Cinco de Mayo

Festival, 2007

Flag Day at the Sylvan Theater, 1937

Library of Congress

Courtesy Gary Jean photoworks

Protest and
Activism

Anti-war demonstrators rally on the grounds of the Washington

Monument, 1968
Reprinted with permission from the DC Public Library, Star Collection,
Washington Post

Fourth of July Cavalcade of Freedom on the Monument grounds, 1947

Civil rights demonstrators at the March on Washington, 1968

Courtesy DC Public Library, Washingtoniana Division

Reprinted with permission from the DC Public Library, Star Collection, Washington Post

Participants at the Rally to Restore Sanity/and or Fear, hosted

by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, 2010
Photograph by David Parrish

Tents at Resurrection City, 1968

Reprinted with permission of the DC Public Library, Star Collection,
Washington Post

Change keeps the monuments alive.

Historian Kirk Savage, 2010