The Lincoln Memorial: The Statue’s Hands and What They May Be Saying

Daniel Chester French had a deaf son. He also designed the Gallaudet Memorial, depicting Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet teaching a student to sign. When French created the Lincoln statue for the Lincoln Memorial in 1922, he positioned Lincoln’s left hand in a configuration resembling the letter “A” in American Sign Language, and the right hand in a position resembling “L.” Lincoln’s initials. The National Park Service neither confirms nor denies the interpretation, but French knew the manual alphabet, used it in another major sculpture, and the positions of the hands are not arbitrary.

This is the kind of detail the Lincoln Memorial rewards if you slow down. Most visitors arrive, climb the steps, look at the 19-foot marble figure, read the Gettysburg Address inscription on the south wall, and leave. The building repays more than that.

What to Know Before You Go (2026)

The Lincoln Memorial is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Entry is free. It is staffed by National Park Service rangers during normal visitor hours, typically 9:30am to 10pm.

An important note for 2026: the undercroft (the basement level of the memorial) is currently closed for a major renovation project converting it into a visitor experience space with new restrooms, a gift shop, and a replacement elevator. Completion is expected in mid-2026. During this work, a large accessible ramp is in place on one side of the main steps. The main chamber and Lincoln statue remain fully accessible.

The Reflecting Pool east of the memorial was repainted in 2026 as part of a federally funded renovation. As of June 2026, the pool has been refilled. A 250-foot triumphal arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery has been proposed by the Trump administration; construction has not begun as of this writing, though the design has attracted significant public attention.

The Statue

Lincoln is seated, and that was a deliberate decision. French originally envisioned a standing figure of around 10 feet. Placed in Henry Bacon’s vast Greek temple structure, a 10-foot Lincoln would have looked miniaturised. Scaling the statue up to 19 feet (not including the pedestal) and seating it created the sense of contemplative authority the composition has. Standing, the figure would have read as a general. Seated, it reads as a man thinking.

The statue was carved in 28 sections of Georgia marble by the Piccirilli Brothers, a family of Italian-American sculptors who executed many of the most ambitious American public monuments of the early 20th century. It was in place for the dedication on May 30, 1922.

French designed the statue to be lit by a large skylight. The skylight was never installed. The original electric lighting cast Lincoln’s face in shadow, which French objected to. New lighting was added in 1926 and adjusted over subsequent decades. The current illumination is overhead and direct, giving the statue the slightly theatrical quality that photographs capture well.

The Inscriptions

The Gettysburg Address is inscribed on the south wall of the interior chamber. The Second Inaugural Address, which Lincoln delivered in March 1865 with the Civil War nearly over, is on the north wall. The Second Inaugural is, by any fair assessment, a more remarkable piece of writing than the Gettysburg Address, and less commonly quoted. “With malice toward none, with charity for all” is its closing movement. The epitaph above the statue was written by Royal Cortissoz and contains the line: “In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.”

The sentence is carved in stone but the sentiment has never been uncontested. The dedication ceremony in 1922 was racially segregated. Robert Russa Moton, the Black president of Tuskegee University, delivered remarks but was seated with other Black attendees in a section separated from white guests. His prepared speech, which addressed the contradiction between Lincoln’s legacy and the treatment of Black Americans in 1922, was edited by the Lincoln Memorial Commission before he was permitted to deliver it.

In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Marian Anderson to sing at Constitution Hall because she was Black. Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for Anderson to perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial instead, to an audience of 75,000. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech from the same steps. The memorial is genuinely layered.

Getting There

The Lincoln Memorial sits at the west end of the National Mall in Washington DC. The nearest Metro stations are Foggy Bottom (Blue, Orange, Silver lines) about 15 minutes’ walk, or Smithsonian (Blue, Orange, Silver), about 20 minutes from the opposite direction. The Mall is a pedestrian space; most visitors walk from the Smithsonian clusters of museums eastward to the Washington Monument, then continue west to the Lincoln Memorial. The full walk from the Capitol building to the Lincoln Memorial is about 3.5 kilometres.

DC’s Metro system charges fares based on distance and time of day, typically $2-6 for most journeys. Get a SmarTrip card at any station.

Eating Near the Mall

The Smithsonian museum cafeterias are the most convenient option for Mall visitors: consistently decent food at moderate prices, no reservation required. The National Museum of Natural History and the National Air and Space Museum both have decent food courts.

For something with more local character, Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street, about 2 kilometres north of the Mall, has operated since 1958 and is as Washington as anything on the tourist circuit. The half-smoke sausage with chili is the relevant order. Budget around $12-18 for a full meal. The U Street neighbourhood around it has undergone significant change since Ben’s opened, but the restaurant has stayed.

Founding Farmers, with a location on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, does farm-to-table American cooking in a busy, social setting. Prices run $20-40 per person for dinner. It is popular enough that reservations for weekend evenings book out well in advance.

Staying Near the Mall

The Hyatt Place Washington DC/National Mall is a 5-minute walk from the Mall and runs around $180-280 per night depending on season. The Hilton Washington DC National Mall at the Wharf is slightly south near the waterfront, similarly priced, with a rooftop that has good city views.

For a more characterful option, the Hay-Adams on Lafayette Square near the White House is one of DC’s classic hotels at $350-600 per night and has the most direct view of the White House of any hotel in the city. The bar on the lower level has been a reliable Washington institution for decades.

Visiting Strategically

The Lincoln Memorial is best at two times: early morning (before 8am) when the reflecting pool is still and the steps are quiet, and late evening after dark when the interior is lit and the memorial’s relationship to the Potomac behind it is more visible. Summer midday visits involve full sun on white marble, heat, and crowds. They are not the best version of the experience.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a 10-minute walk north of the Lincoln Memorial, works best after you have visited the Lincoln Memorial rather than before it. The design argument of the two memorials in sequence (the maximalism of Lincoln’s temple versus the minimalism of Maya Lin’s wall) is clearer when experienced in that order. Start at Lincoln.