Former President William Howard Taft (above) dedicated the
Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall on May 30, 1922.

At the time, Taft was serving as chief justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court. A crowd gathered on the Mall to witness
the ceremony.

The neoclassical monument honors 16th U.S. president 
Abraham Lincoln. Congress authorized construction of
a monument to Lincoln on the Capitol grounds in 1867
(two years after his assassination), but it took until 1911
for funding to be approved; construction was then
slowed due to World War I.

     
       
        
        
        
        
        
       
William Howard Taft (left) President Warren G. Harding (center) and Todd Lincoln, the eldest son of Abraham Lincoln.