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The Tripoli Monument: Commemorating Our Forgotten Past Gene Allen Smith, Texas Christian University

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Abstract

Completed in 1806 by the famed sculptor Giacinto Micali in Livorno, Italy, the white, Carrara marble Tripoli Monument began a precarious journey to the USA aboard the USS Constitution. The memorial traveled from Italy to Newport, Rhode Island, and was then shipped south to Washington, D.C., where it remained in crates until money could be raised to assemble and erect it. After much debate, the Tripoli Monument found a home at the Washington Navy Yard. Damaged in 1814 when the Navy Yard was torched to prevent its capture by the British, the monument was not repaired until it was moved to the US Capitol grounds in 1831. It remained on the west side of the Capitol until 1860 when it was moved to the US Naval Academy. Since its arrival in Annapolis, MD the monument has moved around campus to its current location in front of the Academy’s Officers’ and Faculty Club. Though well positioned, it is virtually overlooked on a historic campus and military installation with many other noteworthy historical monuments.

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Fig. 1

Photograph taken by the author

Fig. 2
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Fig. 5

Photograph courtesy of the US Naval Academy Museum

Fig. 6

Photograph courtesy of the US Naval Academy

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  1. Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, USA

    Gene Allen Smith

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  1. Gene Allen Smith
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Correspondence to Gene Allen Smith.

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Smith, G.A. The Tripoli Monument: Commemorating Our Forgotten Past Gene Allen Smith, Texas Christian University. J Mari Arch 15, 291–305 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-020-09271-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-020-09271-z

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