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"The Navy - Merchant Marine
Memorial" by Paul McGehee. In the
years following the armistice of 1918, veterans of both the United
States Navy and the United States Merchant Marine lobbied Congress to
erect a statue commemmorating the service and sacrifice of the 7,200
sailors and merchant seamen who lost their lives during the first World
War. Finally, it was agreed that a memorial to both maritime services
be erected within the nation's capital. The Navy - Merchant
Marine Memorial, as it was to be called, was designed in 1922 by famed
architect Harvey Wiley Corbett, the same man who designed such varied
projects as the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in
Alexandria, Virginia and Bush House (the longtime home of the BBC) in
London, England. The new memorial, featuring seven seagulls flying over
the waves, was to be sculpted by Ernesto Begni del Piatta. It was to be
built upon Columbia Island, a part man-made, part naturally-formed spit
of land stretching along the Virginia shoreline of the Potomac River.
The process of funding the project spanned several years, and ground
was not broken on the memorial until eight years after its design was
approved. On December 2, 1930, a ceremonial shovel passed between Secretary of the Navy
Charles Francis Adams, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon,
Marine Corps Major General Ben H. Fuller, Coast Guard Commandant Rear
Admiral Frederick C. Billard, and Assistant Secretary of Commerce David
Sinton Ingalls...and the construction of the cast-aluminum and granite
monument commenced. With progress on the memorial soon delayed again
for three years during the worst point of the Great Depression, it was
eventually completed in 1934. Due to lack of funding, the original
design which called for a sculpted, polished green granite base
depicting the waves of a stormy sea was altered into a simple concrete
plinth, artistically diminishing the visual effect of the maritime
statue. A few years later, in 1940, the Works Progress Administration
provided the funding needed to complete Corbett's vision with the
construction of the wavy green granite base...now featuring steps and a
surrounding concrete plaza with gardens. Today, the unique and dramatic Navy - Merchant Marine
Memorial is one of the visual highlights of Washington, DC. Situated near the foot of the
14th Street Bridge and the mouth of the Pentagon Yacht Basin, it is part of Lady Bird Johnson Park on Columbia
Island, maintained by the National Park Service. In the springtime of
the year it is especially breathtaking, as it is surrounded by a
vibrant ring of bright-red tulips. It is known as one of the most
beautiful monuments in our nation's capital. "The Navy - Merchant
Marine Memorial" is
faithfully reproduced from Paul's original color
pencil drawing as an archival quality print issued in a strictly
limited edition of only 500 pieces each hand-signed by the artist.
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