Jefferson Memorial Education Series: Time and Text

Grade Level

Middle School: Eighth Grade
High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade

Objective

This series introduces students to the inscriptions in the Jefferson Memorial. Students will compare the text in the memorial with the original source documents. They will analyze whether changes made by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission affect the meaning of Jefferson's words.

Essential Question

How do design choices in a memorial affect the way a historical figure is remembered?

Vocabulary

autobiography: the story of a person's life written by that person
commission: a group of people officially charged with a particular function
conglomeration: several different things that are grouped together
conviction: a firmly held belief or opinion
context: the parts of something written or spoken that come before or follow a word or passage that help make its meaning clear
despotism: the exercise of absolute power, especially in a cruel and oppressive way
inscription: words that are written or engraved on a surface
quotations: a group of words taken from a text or speech and repeated by someone other than the original author or speaker
Quoting out of context: the practice of misquoting someone by shortening what they said, or by leaving out surrounding words or sentences

1941 photo of the Jefferson Memorial chamber prior to the inscriptions being placed on the panels.

NPS

Quoting Thomas Jefferson

On June 26,1934 Congress established the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission to build a new memorial to Thomas Jefferson in Washington, D.C. After the commission decided on a design for the memorial, they appointed a sub-committee whose job was to select five inscriptions that would be added inside the memorial chamber. The committee included Stuart Gibboney, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation which owns and operates Monticello, Utah Senator Elbert Thomas and Brigadier General Jefferson Randolph Kean, a descendant of Thomas Jefferson. They were great admirers of Thomas Jefferson and were determined to select quotations that would be as impressive as the Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address engraved on the walls of the Lincoln Memorial. But there was a problem. Unlike Lincoln, Jefferson was not known for his inspiring speeches. He preferred to write letters.

After extensive research, the committee concluded that there was an overwhelming number of documents and letters that showed Jefferson’s support for “principles that became part of our American tradition.” Each one seemed equally important and equally deserving of a place within the memorial. How could they narrow Jefferson's words down to fit in the available space in the memorial? The committee decided that in order to include as many ideas as possible, they would “remove [words] from their time and original text” and combine sentences from several documents together. This way, the committee members hoped to emphasize Jefferson’s role in shaping “American principle and freedoms.” [1]

Quoting Out of Context?

Although the members of the Sub-Committee on Inscriptions believed that their choices faithfully represented Thomas Jefferson's ideas and his contributions to American principles, not everyone agreed. In 1943, Mississippi Representative John Rankin said of the inscriptions,

Why all this conglomeration, why all this distortion of the words of Jefferson? Why all this changing and mixing of phrases and the elimination of statements in order to misrepresent to the children of the coming generations, the greatest democratic statesman the world has ever seen? [2]

You are "the children of the coming generations." Congressman Rankin worried that people like you would be misled by the inscriptions in the Jefferson Memorial. In the coming lessons, you will compare each of the five quotations with the original documents and determine whether the words in the memorial accurately represent Jefferson's legacy. It will be challenging. One inscription is a conglomeration of at least six different sources!

Think About It

Have you ever been misquoted?
Have your words been taken out of context?
How did that make you feel?
What did you do to correct the mistake?

[1] Elbert Thomas, Congressional Record Proceeding And Debates of the 80^th Congress, second session, Volume 94-Part 10, March 8, 1948 - May 10, 1948, Page A2487
[2] John Rankin, Congressional Record Proceeding And Debates of the 78^th Congress, first session, Volume 89-Part 6, July 7, 1943-Oct 20, 1943, Page 8093