Since 1903, members of Arts and Letters have delivered commemorative tributes to fellow members who have passed away. These remarks celebrate and reflect on the lives and work of the members being honored and acknowledge their contribution to the arts. A selection of tributes is now available in the digital archive below. As we prepared this archive, we were reminded that these tributes reflect their times, and, in some instances, include terminology and social and moral judgments we do not endorse.
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Henry Bacon was born at Watseka, Illinois, in 1866. After completing his general education at the University of Illinois, he went to Boston, beginning his architectural studies first in the office of Chamberlain & Whidden and continuing them afterward in New York in the office of McKim, Mead & White. In 1899 he won the Rotch Traveling Scholarship with which he embarked on a period of two years of thoughtful exploration in France, Italy, and Greece. It was by his contacts with Greek architecture that the decisive tendency of his character as an artist was fixed. From thenceforth his style was classic and today he stands in the minds of architects as the embodiment of classic ideals in architecture.
He is best known and will be remembered chiefly for the Lincoln Memorial at Washington, the building to which he dedicated the latter years of his life. The opportunity to design this building is perhaps the finest that has been offered to any architect in our day, the site being at the end of the great Mall which extends from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, thence to the Lincoln Memorial. To acknowledge that Bacon lived up to his opportunity is to give him the very highest praise. The problem was to design a great monument dedicated to a great man, in surroundings appropriate to such a structure. Bacon's accomplishment proved that the work was entrusted to a great architect.
In designing this building, he took as his point of departure the order of the Parthenon, but in fitting the building to its site and uses, he gave the design a form which was his alone. In doing so he showed not only great scholarship but the ability to think along the lines of the highest architectural tradition. His building has grandeur but is not cold. It is his genius which has made the architectural language of the ancients live again.
While this edifice, as I have said, is the one by which Bacon will be chiefly remembered, it stands at the head of a great variety of high accomplishment, consisting of public and private buildings and monuments. He collaborated sympathetically with our most distinguished sculptors. He designed pedestals and statues and provided the necessary surroundings to give effect to this kind of work. It is widely recognized, indeed, that Bacon's invaluable sense of proportion and his instinct of beauty gave nobility to every monument he designed. As a man and an architect Henry Bacon evoked a dual tribute from those who came in contact with him and penetrated the armor of his shy and retiring nature. He won their admiration and their respect. They loved to be in his company. The memory of the man will be long cherished by his friends and his example will be preserved by the architects of this country.
He was elected a member of the Institute November 14, 1913 and passed to the Academy November 18, 1921. His death occurred in 1924.