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"First Inaugural" cast bronze 36 x 108 inches
"Social Programs" cast bronze five panels 6 x 6 feet each five columns 6 x 2.6 feet diameter each
Dedicated on May 2, 1997, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was commissioned through a resolution established by the U.S. Congress and funded through the National Parks Service and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission.
"First Inaugural" is a bronze bas-relief that shows a moment from the frames of the newsreel of FDR's first inauguration. The figure of the president seated in a car and waving his hat to the cheering crowd, is cast in bronze and mounted on a granite wall.
"Social Programs" contains images of the fifty-four programs that were initiated under FDR and the New Deal. Within each panel, individual images symbolize the essence of various innovative programs, set within a background of the hands and faces of workers. The names of each program are also written in Braille. These are organized as five bronze panels, each measuring 6 x 6 feet with five corresponding bronze cylinders, which contain the negative images or molds of the five panels.
The original panel for the First Inaugural was molded in clay at 6 x 18 inches and enlarged to 3 x 9 feet and cast in bronze.
Each panel for the Social Programs was molded in clay and cast in same size to bronze.
In spring 1998, Robert Graham was commissioned to create the addition to the FDR Memorial. A life-size freestanding figure of President Roosevelt in his wheelchair is installed at the entrance to the FDR Memorial as a "Prologue". On a wall behind the figure is a 40-foot long bronze bas-relief quote by Eleanor Roosevelt: "Franklin's illness gave him strength and courage he had not had before. He had to think out the fundamentals of living and learn the greatest of all lessons -- infinite patience and never-ending persistence." The statue was dedicated on January 10, 2001.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is designed by Lawrence Halprin, and installed at West Potomac Park in Washington D.C.
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