Last updated: May 21, 2024
Article
Bunker Hill: Construction of the Monument
This article is part of the online feature "Bunker Hill Memory."
On June 17, 1825— the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill— the Marquis de Lafayette laid the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument. Over the next eighteen years, the building of the Monument progressed slowly. In 1843, construction finally finished, and Senator Daniel Webster dedicated the Monument.
The members of the Bunker Hill Monument Association (BHMA), who championed the Monument’s construction, had their own ideas about what it represented. They wanted a symbol that would "proclaim the magnitude and importance of [the Battle of Bunker Hill] to every class and every age."1 This interpretation of the Monument's meaning has remained prominent today.
Even at the time of construction, not everyone agreed on this one meaning. Some veterans, whom the Monument supposedly honored, rejected it. They felt the energy and money spent on its construction would be better used to support veterans. Other activists cited unfulfilled promises of the Revolution in their critiques.
These differences signaled the beginning of tensions surrounding the Battle’s commemoration. Even today, the Monument continues to have different meanings for everyone who interacts with it.
Explore the perspectives and voices of community members reacting to the construction of the Monument. What assumptions do you bring when visiting or thinking about the Bunker Hill Monument?
Major Caleb Stark
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Construction of the Monument: Major Caleb Stark Quote
Quote from "Letter from Major Caleb Stark to the Bunker Hill Monument Association, April 10, 1825."
Bunker Hill Monument Association
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Construction of the Monument: Bunker Hill Monument Association (BHMA) Quote
Quote from Daniel Webster, "Oration at the cornerstone-laying ceremony of the Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1825."
Seth Luther
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Construction of the Monument: Seth Luther Quote
Quote from Seth Luther, "An Address to the Working Men of New England, on the State of Education, and on the Condition of the Producing Classes in Europe and America, 1836."
Fanny Appleton
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Construction of the Monument: Fanny Appleton Quote
Quote from "Letter from Fanny Appleton to Isaac Appleton Jewett, 9 Sep. 1840."
Footnotes
Daniel Webster, “Webster’s First Oration on the Bunker Hill Monument,” June 17, 1825, in Webster’s First Bunker Hill Oration June 17, 1825 with Introduction, List of Masterpieces and Notes, edited by Alexander S. Twombly (New York, Boston, & Chicago: Silver, Burdett and Company, 1897), https://archive.org/details/danielwebstersfi01webs/mode/2up, 35.