Hall of Fame for Great Americans
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What is the Hall of Fame for Great Americans?
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans is a monument honoring distinguished U.S. citizens. Established in 1900, it stands on the campus of Bronx Community College in New York City.
Designed by architect Stanford White, the Greco-Roman colonnade features bronze portrait busts of Americans who've left their mark on history and culture. Each bust has a tablet commemorating the honored person. The Hall of Fame includes individuals from diverse fields, such as presidents, scientists, scholars, and activists.
The Hall of Fame was founded by Henry Mitchell MacCracken with the support of Helen Miller Gould Shepard.
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Where is the Hall of Fame for Great Americans located?
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans is a monument honoring distinguished U.S. citizens. It is located at the summit of University Heights on the campus of Bronx Community College in New York City. This national shrine, established in 1900, features a Greco-Roman colonnade designed by Stanford White. The monument displays bronze portrait busts of Americans who have significantly impacted the nation's history and culture.
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Why was the Hall of Fame for Great Americans built?
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans was founded by Henry Mitchell MacCracken, chancellor of New York University, and established in 1900 with the aid of Helen Miller Gould Shepard. MacCracken's vision was to create a monument that would rise above sectional and partisan divides, teaching the youth that leaders in science and scholarship are as worthy of recognition as military and naval heroes. The Greco-Roman colonnade, designed by Stanford White, serves as a national shrine honoring distinguished U.S. citizens.
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What does the monument look like and what features does it have?
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans is a monument honoring distinguished U.S. citizens. Located in New York City, it features a Greco-Roman open-air colonnade, 630 feet long and 10 feet wide, designed by Stanford White. Bronze portrait busts of accomplished men and women line the corridor between the columns, each with a recessed tablet commemorating the honoree. The monument, established in 1900, includes figures like George Washington, Susan B. Anthony, and Booker T. Washington. Sculptors such as Daniel Chester French and James Earle Fraser are represented in the colonnade.
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How are people chosen to be honored in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans?
Eligible for election to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans are any deceased U.S. citizens who resided in the United States for at least 25 years. The Hall of Fame does not restrict its posthumous honors to any one class, and it includes persons of achievement in many fields. The Hall of Fame was founded to show youth that leaders in science and scholarship may be as great as military and naval heroes and to overrule sectional and partisan outcry.
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Who are some famous individuals honored in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, and why were they chosen?
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans at Bronx Community College honors distinguished U.S. citizens. Founded by Henry Mitchell MacCracken in 1900, it recognizes individuals who have left indelible marks on American history and culture.
Individuals like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, and Booker T. Washington are honored in the Hall of Fame. These individuals were chosen for their achievements in various fields, including politics, civil rights, and education.
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Hall of Fame for Great Americans, monument which honours U.S. citizens who have achieved distinction or fame, standing at the summit of University Heights on the campus of Bronx Community College (originally the uptown campus of New York University). A national shrine, the open-air colonnade looks down on the northern limits of New York City and stands high over the Hudson and Harlem river valleys, facing the New Jersey Palisades. The Greco-Roman colonnade, designed by the architect Stanford White, is a semicircular granite corridor, 630 feet (192 metres) long and a little over 10 feet (3 metres) wide. In its original design it was an architectural foreground for the three university buildings which it half encircles—the Hall of Philosophy, the Gould Memorial Library, and the Hall of Languages. Bronze portrait busts of men and women who have left indelible marks on the history and culture of the United States are placed, facing each other, between the simple columns. Below each bust is a recessed tablet which commemorates the person honoured.
The founder of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans was Henry Mitchell MacCracken, chancellor of New York University when the uptown campus was being created in the 1890s. MacCracken enlisted the interest of Helen Miller Gould Shepard, who, in memory of her father, Jay Gould, had already provided funds for the erection of the Gould Memorial Library and a dormitory (Gould Hall). With her aid the Hall of Fame for Great Americans was established in 1900.
It does not restrict its posthumous honour to any one class, and it includes persons of achievement in many fields. Writing at the time of the dedication ceremonies in 1901, MacCracken said, “The Hall of Fame will teach youth that leaders in science and scholarship may be as great as military and naval heroes.” He said he had in mind a monument that “would overrule sectional and partisan outcry.” Among the persons honoured in this distinguished group are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, and other U.S. presidents; Susan B. Anthony; Jane Addams; Harriet Beecher Stowe; and Booker T. Washington. The busts of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant stood side by side in the colonnade until 2017, when the sculptures of Lee and Stonewall Jackson were removed in response to a growing movement to take down Confederate statues. Anyone who was a citizen of the United States, who resided in the United States, and who has been deceased 25 years or more is eligible for election.
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Sculptors represented by original works in the colonnade include Daniel Chester French (Nathaniel Hawthorne), James Earle Fraser (Augustus Saint-Gaudens), Chester Beach (Walt Whitman), Richmond Barthé (Booker T. Washington) and Malvina Hoffman (Thomas Paine). There is no mortuary suggestion either in the architecture of the Hall or in its operation. It serves many who seek primarily to familiarize themselves with the great men and women of the country. To guard against any melancholy thought, a former director, Robert Underwood Johnson, placed over the wrought iron gates at the northern entrance of the colonnade the words “Enter with joy that those within have lived” and over the gates at the southern entrance “Take counsel here of beauty, wisdom, power.”