Henry Bacon

Henry Bacon was a New York architect of the Beaux Arts generation who designed the Lincoln Memorial as a Greek temple and oversaw its building from 1915 to 1922. Many at the time thought a temple was too grand for a man of Lincoln's humble character; Bacon's answer was to fill it with meaning. The 36 columns stand for the 36 states of the Union at Lincoln's death, and the names of the states run along the top.

In May 1923 President Warren Harding presented him with the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal, and he died the following year. He often worked with the sculptor Daniel Chester French: French carved the seated Lincoln inside Bacon's temple, and together they made the fountain in Dupont Circle and the Oglethorpe monument in Savannah's Chippewa Square, where Bacon designed the pedestal. At the memorial, stand at the foot of the steps and count the columns before you climb.