New Collection Alert: Hall of Fame for Great Americans
While many of the collections that are brought to our platform are additive due to their breadth, the Bronx Community College’s Hall of Fame for Great Americans collection amazes due to its center. The collection’s photos focus on one eponymous subject: The Hall of Fame for Great Americans in University Heights.
Dr. Henry Mitchell MacCracken, the Chancellor of New York University, founded the Hall of Fame. Intended to be a secular monument to the best of Americans, MacCracken organized so that “admission to this Hall of Fame should be controlled by a national body of electors, who might, as nearly as possible, represent the wisdom of the American people.” Once elected, these Americans would have their busts added to an impressive resting place. The iconic architect, Stanford White designed the neo-classical open-air collonade. Dedicated in 1901, its pediments were mostly empty. Then, as the electors did their work, new busts were gradually added to it.
With contents dating from throughout the century (from the Hall’s creation under New York University to its transfer to Bronx Comunity College)this collection tells the story of the monument as well as the ideals of the nation. From the elector ballots and memos to images of the installation and commemoration of busts, it maps how the Hall of Fame transformed and changed with the times. Moreover, it shows how its denizens changed with it.
The Hall of Fame collection demonstrates the value of depth, alongside breadth, in collections. Its singular focus presents an opportunity to dive into an encyclopedic record of a monument once thought to rival the Nobel prize in prominence. Moreover, it allows viewers to witness how what it means to be a “Great American” has mutated as the country and city have evolved. It does what a simple image cannot: brings the marble collonade to life, filling it with people from across the years.
This emphasis on the Hall offers us access to a complex history that might otherwise be lost. Where nine years after a formerly enslaved man offered a wreath to a bust of Lincoln, the Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated one to Stonewall Jackson. Where Robert E. Lee and Booker T. Washington’s likenesses sit under the same collonade. Examining these contradictions in how we have celebrated and memorialized history allows us further comprehension of that same history. Thankfully, we have the Hall of Great American’s collection to help us with that.
To dive deeper into what it means to be a “Great American” and into further examinations on the legacy and future of the Hall of Fame, visit Bronx Community College’s writing on it here. You can also check out the Bronx Community College’s stories on Urban Archive here.
