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National Park Quiz 64: Statues

 

1. True or false? A large statue of Juan Bautista de Anza is the centerpiece of a vista park offering panoramic views of San Diego’s harbor and skyline.

2. True or false? The statue of Thomas Jefferson in the Thomas Jefferson Memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world.

3. True or false? The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) once filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service, charging that the statues of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas at Jamestown depict inappropriate touching and should be removed from Park Service property.

4. The Lincoln Memorial was situated so that it would serve as the western "bookend" of Washington D.C.'s Monumental Core, the National Mall. What statue functions as the eastern “bookend” of the National Mall?

5. A 1950s-era movie, which was based on a book of the same name, featured a brave little Grand Canyon feral burro named ______. A bronze statue of this animal was on display in the Grand Canyon National Park visitor center for many years.
a. Sammy
b. Brighty
c. Pablo
d. Frisco

6. Sculptor Lloyd Lily's "The First Wave," which features life-size bronze statues, is on display at the
a. Women’s Rights National Historical Park
b. New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park
c. Korean War Memorial
d. World War II Memorial

7. Each of these statements about the Statue of Liberty’s torch is true EXCEPT: (Choose the statement that “does not belong.”)
a. The torch is made of copper covered in 24K gold leaf.
b. The torch is lighted by a floodlight at night.
c. The torch has been closed to the public since 1916.
d. The original torch was destroyed after a replacement was installed.

8. Which National Park System unit has a statue of a witch located just outside its boundaries?

9. A few blocks from Union Station in National Capital Parks, a 10-foot bronze statue serves as the core component of the Victims of Communism Memorial. What does the statue depict?

10. Which national memorial in our nation’s capital contains multiple statues of the person commemorated?

Extra Credit Question:

11. What Affiliated Area is listed at “0.00 acres” and consists of only a single large statue?

Super Bonus Question:

12. Look at the photo accompanying this article. Name the National Park System unit in which this statue is found and specify the place in which it is situated. (The place where they statue was erected is essential to understanding the significance of the event and the person commemorated.)

Answers:

(1) False. There is a large statue in that place alright, but it depicts Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, the first European to explore the California coast. He got as far north as the Russian River.

(2) False. While Rudulph Evans' bronze statue of Jefferson is mighty impressive, standing 19 feet tall and weighing in at five tons, it’s not the world’s biggest bronze statue. That distinction belongs to the Iwo Jimo Memorial (a component of George Washington Memorial Parkway), which depicts one of the world’s most famous photographs -- six soldiers raising an American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II. The statue’s figures are 32 feet tall and the flagpole is 60 feet long.

(3) False. The statues of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas in Colonial National Historical Park are not even close to each another, much less touching.

(4) Situated at the foot of Capitol Hill, and reputed to be the world’s third-largest equestrian statue, the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial anchors the eastern end of the National Mall. The Washington Monument is situated halfway between the Lincoln Memorial and the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial. BTW, the Grant Memorial is not a National Park System unit, but rather a component of National Capital Parks.

(5) b – The statue of Brighty, the animal hero of the “Brighty of the Grand Canyon” book and movie, is now ensconced in the downstairs lobby of the Grand Lodge on the North Rim.

(6) a -- The life-size bronze statues of "The First Wave" at Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York, depict the five women who organized the First Women's Rights Convention (1848) as well as a few men who attended the two-day meeting. These people were leaders of what could be called the “first wave” of the emerging struggle for social, civil, and religious equality for women.

(7) d -- The original torch was not destroyed. It is on display in the monument’s lobby.

(8) There is a statue of a witch situated just outside Salem National Historical Park.

(9) The statue that is the centerpiece attraction of the Victims of Communism Memorial depicts the Goddess of Democracy statue that Chinese students erected in Tiananmen Square in 1989. The bronze statue is about the same size as the original foam and paper mache statue.

(10) The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial contains two statues of FDR, both of which show him seated in a wheelchair. In the first (original) statue, the wheelchair is almost completely obscured by a cloak. (FDR hid his wheelchair from public view so that people wouldn’t see how severely disabled he actually was.) The second statue, which was added in 2001, clearly shows FDR seated in a wheelchair much like the one he used.

(11) The Benjamin Franklin National Memorial, an Affiliated Area, consists of a huge statue of Benjamin Franklin sculpted by James Earle Fraser. The statue is situated in the Rotunda of Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute and is owned and administered by the Franklin Institute.

(12) Since 1965, this dramatic statue has been situated in front of the Stone Wall at Marye’s Heights in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on the grounds of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park. It depicts Confederate Sgt. Richard Rowland Kirkland, the “Angel of Marye's Heights,” giving water to a badly wounded Federal soldier on December 14, 1862, during the (first) Battle of Fredericksburg. The day before, thousands of Federals had been wounded or killed in futile attacks on the Stone Wall position defended by Rowland and his fellow Confederates. Now, at great personal risk, Sgt. Kirkland was bringing water, blankets, and warm clothing to the suffering men he had helped to cut down. Sadly, Kirkland himself was killed less than a year later in an assault on Snodgrass Hill during the Battle of Chickamauga.

Grading: 9 or 10 correct, rest on your laurels; 7 or 8 correct, pretty darn good; 6 correct, passable fair; 5 or fewer correct, nothing to brag about.

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