Press Conference: February 10, 2009

Designing the Lincoln Memorial: Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon

(l-r): Eileen R. Mackevich, executive director, Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission; Richard Moe, president, National Trust for Historic Preservation; Donna Hassler, director, Chesterwood; and Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art, in front of the six-foot-high plaster final model of the most renowned Lincoln statue by American sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850–1931), as designed for the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall. The model is included in the exhibition Designing the Lincoln Memorial: Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon, on view in the West Building, Main Floor, through February 12, 2010. © 2009 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
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MP3 Audio file of this mornings press conference is available for download. Click here to listen. (9.7 MB | 27:00 min)

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov. The Gallery is now on Facebook—become a fan at www.facebook.com/NationalGalleryofArt.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:

Press Office
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov

Deborah Ziska
Chief of Press and Public Information
(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov

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