The “Cherry Tree Rebellion”: Jefferson’s Controversial Addition to the Washington Memorial Landscape, 1936 - 1939

Barber, Meredith

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The “Cherry Tree Rebellion”: Jefferson’s Controversial Addition to the Washington Memorial Landscape, 1936 - 1939

Barber, Meredith

Abstract

This research paper is the second chapter of my honors thesis, “Jefferson’s ‘Marble Mausoleum’: Incongruence in the Historical Memory of Thomas Jefferson, 1936-1945.” The first chapter covers the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission’s formation and situates the commission’s memory of Jefferson into the political and economic landscape of the time. The third chapter explores the incorporation of Jefferson as an “abolitionist” into the memorial and determines how memory of early American slavery influenced the memorialization of Jefferson. It also focuses on African American perceptions of the memorial.