John J. Pershing General of the Armies, Military memorial sculpture in Pennsylvania Avenue, United States
John J. Pershing General of the Armies is a bronze sculpture in Pershing Park on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., showing the general holding field glasses and standing on a Dakota mahogany granite pedestal. Granite walls encircle the statue and carry engraved military maps along with descriptive text about the campaigns he led.
Congress authorized the memorial park in 1956, but it took nearly three decades to complete: the park opened in 1981 and the bronze statue was added two years later. The long process reflected how slowly the country moved toward officially honoring Pershing's role in World War I.
The walls surrounding the statue carry maps and text panels showing the military campaigns of World War I. Visitors can read these elements directly, getting a concrete picture of the battlefields where Pershing commanded.
The sculpture sits at the corner of 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, a short walk from the White House, and can be visited any day of the year. Because it stands along one of the city's main streets, it fits naturally into a walk through central Washington.
The sculptor Robert White was the grandson of Stanford White, the American architect known for designing the Washington Square Arch in New York. Few visitors standing in front of the statue know about this family link across two generations of American art.
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