Somewhat haphazardly, Washington's memorial landscape narrates the history of the American people. Below are two (very incomplete) lists of subjects that are and are not commemorated on and around the National Mall:
30 Subjects commemorated on the National Mall:Albert Einstein American Veterans Disabled for Life Boy Scouts of America Captain Nathan Hale Christopher Columbus Commodore John Paul Jones Cuban-American Friendship Declaration of Independence General George Meade General José Artigas General Simon Boulevar General Ulysses S. Grant General William Tecumseh Sherman Horticulturalist John Saul Japanese American Patriotism in WWII John Ericsson - Military Engineer Korean War Martin Luther King Jr. President Eisenhower President Franklin D Roosevelt President Garfield President Jefferson President Lincoln President Washington Professor Joseph Henry U.S. Army - Second Division U.S. Civil War Sailors Vietnam War World War I World War II | 30 Subjects not commemorated on the National Mall:Abolition of Slavery American Nobel Laureates Apollo Program Apple/The Personal Computer AT&T's Bell Labs The Barbary Wars Booker T. Washington Frank Lloyd Wright Frederick Law Olmsted George Eastman/Kodak Henry Ford/The Model T Invention of Lasers Invention of Oil Drilling Invention of Television Invention of the Internet Invention of the Light Bulb Invention of the Telephone Jackie Robinson James Watson John Muir Marian Anderson Mark Twain Native Americans…anything at all about Native Americans The Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii Rachel Carson Robert Oppenheimer/Manhattan Project Samuel Morse Skylab Thurgood Marshall Union-Pacific Railroad |
Does the mall get it right? What other subjects are missing? Who/what else should be included in the Mall's version of the American story?