Talk:General Grant National Memorial

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[edit] Replaced Pic

I replaced this image with a better one (in my opinion). Higher resolution, subject not cropped, better exposure and angle.

--Dschwen 15:44, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "Glory"?

Is there any support for the claim that the motion picture "Glory" apparently single-handedly changed attitudes towards Grant's Tomb PLUS "suddenly" made Civil War battle reenactments and battlefield sites highly popular. On what are these claims based? If there was a surge of interest in the Civil War at that time, I suspect that Ken Burn's "Civil War" (1990) could have had much more to do with it.

In responding to the paragraph above and as the person who had previously mentioned the film "Glory" .... I fully agree with you that the excellent mini-series by Ken Burns in 1990 also helped to rekindle interest in the Civil War nationwide. It was also about this time that PBS did a documentary specifically on the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, in direct response to the popularity of "Glory" and the sense that the role of Black-Americans had not been properly accounted for in Civil War histories prior to 1989. I will edit the article right away to mention Ken Burns in addition to the feature film. Message from DennisJOBrien@yahoo.com.

My original question still stands... what documentation is there that either "Glory" or "Civil War" suddenly made Civil War battle reenactments and battlefield sites highly popular or changed attitudes toward the monument? For instance, did visits to the tomb really increase after these productions or is that speculation. If there is support for such claims, then fine -- But without some support, it seems a stretch.

I looked into the contributions of Frank Scaturro after reading this article and came away with the sense that he was a real hero in sparking the tomb's restoration... even more than the article currently says. I wonder whether much progress was made in the late 80's and early 90's to fix the tomb until after Frank Scaturro began his campaign, which was around 1993, or so (if I recall what I read correctly).

Absent documentation, rather than speculate about a claimed sudden increase in Civil War interest in the late 1980's (there has always been huge interest in the Civil War) AND it's possible effect on restoration of the Tomb perhaps Frank Scaturro's efforts to publicize the tomb's condition and the negative comments left by visitors could be expanded to more closely reflect his contribution. He'd had an interest in Grant as a young boy, had worked at the tomb for the Park Service and apparently felt obliged to expose the tomb's condition until something was done about it.

In response to your paragraph above, I agree fully that there has always been a sizable interest in Civil War history -- as there should be. I was working in the historic preservation area in Virginia during the late 1980's, and early 1990's. I had not visited Grant's Tomb yet (until after restoration). But I can definitely say that interest in our park sites picked up after the popularity of both "Glory" and the Civil War TV series by Ken Burns. I don't have actual visitor numbers to cite for verification, but someone must have them somewhere. It is true that the desecration of Grant's Tomb mirrored the urban problems that happened across the nation in the 1960's and 1970's, particularly in New York City. New York began to come back in the late 1990's, and there was a big effort to clean up the subway trains and Central Park. It is no wonder that the ugly Grant's Tomb suddenly stuck out like a sore thumb at that point, and clearly needed restoration inside and out. Frank Scaturro is certainly a hero and nationwide publicity is what did the trick. I will go and edit the article a bit more to try to show that New York City was making a comeback at the time that Frank brought our attention to the sad situation of the tomb. Perhaps others can add some factual information into the article to lend additional weight to it. Message from DennisJOBrien@yahoo.com on October 29, 2006.