The Arts of War and The Arts of Peace

The Arts of War and The Arts of Peace are bronze, fire-gilded statue groups on Lincoln Memorial Circle in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Commissioned in 1929 to complement the plaza constructed on the east side of the Lincoln Memorial as part of the Arlington Memorial Bridge approaches, their completion was delayed until 1939 for budgetary reasons. The models were placed into storage, and the statues not cast until 1950. They were erected in 1951, and repaired in 1974.

The Arts of War were sculpted by Leo Friedlander, an American sculptor. The Art Deco statuary group consists of two separate elements, Valor and Sacrifice, which frame the entrance to Arlington Memorial Bridge.

The Arts of Peace were sculpted by James Earle Fraser, an American sculptor. The Neoclassical statuary group consists of two separate elements, Music and Harvest and Aspiration and Literature, which frame the entrance to the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway.

The Arts of War and The Arts of Peace are contributing properties to the East and West Potomac Parks Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 30, 1973.

Congress first proposed a new bridge across the Potomac River, to be located somewhere between B Street NW and Georgetown in 1886. Designs were proposed in 1886 and 1898, but neither was built.

A new location became available in 1890. When terrible floods hit the District of Columbia in 1881, Congress enacted legislation to have the channel of the Potomac River deepened to help prevent future flooding. The silt would be used to reclaim the Tiber Creek tidal inlet, building up the land south of B Street and west of the Washington Monument grounds to a height great enough to act as a levee. This work was largely complete by 1890, and designated West Potomac Park by Congress in 1897. During this same period, Columbia Island formed as an offshoot of Analostan Island. The combination of reclaimed land and the emergence of a new island meant that it was now possible to build a bridge even further south than the previously proposed locations.

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