May 5, 2008
D.C. Quarter Designs Unveiled...Kind Of
A few months after a controversy erupted over the design of the District's state quarter, the Post managed to get images of three new possible designs on Friday. According to Post reporter David Nakamura, the three designs -- Benjamin Banneker appears on one, Duke Ellington on another, and Frederick Douglass on the third -- will be officially released soon and subjected to public comment before a winner is chosen in time for a 2009 rollout.
According to Dena Iverson, spokesperson for Mayor Adrian Fenty, the designs published in the Post are not final, and the Mint has asked the city not to release them until they are. Nakamura, apparently carrying his own camera, managed to snap a few pictures of the designs at the monthly Mayor-Council breakfast last week, allowing him to beat every other media outlet in the area to the punch. Nakamura is the same reporter who was recently accused of having scoops spoon-fed to him by the Fenty administration, though to be fair, both the Washington City Paper's Mike DeBonis and WTOP's Mark Segraves told us they did not attend the breakfast meeting last week, which is theoretically open to the media.
We asked for images of the designs to publish on DCist, but were told we'd have to wait until the Mint gave the city the go-ahead, so you'll just have to make do with our artist's rendering above until then.
Given the circumstances, the designs are about as good as we could expect. As Post columnist Marc Fisher writes today, none of the three designs fully captures the District's history and identity. Then again, what does? But after looking at the three, we'd have to go with Frederick Douglass. In the past we expressed sympathy for the Douglass design, mostly because his political activism and writings closely mirror the continuing injustice that District residents face while not having voting rights. Moreover, unlike Ellington and Banneker, Douglass spent the better part of his later years in the District, having settled down in Anacostia. An online poll over at the Post has the Douglass design winning easily.
What do you think? Which quarter would you like to see represent your city?
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i prefer Ellington's squiggle dancing legs
I agree, look at the finesse and the style of Ellington! And that look on his face -- it symbolizes the raw power and spirit of every American living within the district.
Benjamin's waving at me. he TOTALLY likes me.
I would go with Douglas b/c of his more in-depth connection to DC. Ellington was born here, but achieved fame in NYC. Banneker was very tangential to DC. Even Douglas accomplished most of his great work in upstate NY.
I'm not sure a single person really should represent DC on the quarter. I like other states where it's images of either places (Old Man in the Mountain, RIP, Statue of Liberty) or things (horse for Kentucky; buffalo for the Western square states). There are very few where it's a person (California is, I think, the only one; although it also has one of its state parks). I don't believe there is any quarter that has a single individual as representing the state.
My ideal: Fredrick Douglas, a map of DC with the two rivers, and a cherry blossom. Maybe a half-smoke, crack pipe and pothole hidden in the background too.
Gotta go with Frederick Douglass. The man was BAD-ASS.
how come duke's the only one with little feetsies?
When I look at that rendition of Benjamin Banneker, it's like I'm looking in a mirror! I want royalties!!!
Two observations,
1. Apparently holing a piece of paper is something DC historical figures do well.
2. It looks like someone just walked in on Mr Douglas surfing for porn, the 18th century way.
Cranky: a bunch of states have people on it, although the Mint sorta discouraged it. Some are generic people, others are actual individuals. The ones I can think of:
Vermont-some dude tapping a maple tree
Mass-The statue of the Minuteman
Delaware-Some dude on a horse that probably only Delaware schoolkids know
Alabama-Hellen Keller
Illinois-Lincoln (cause the penny and the $5 bill isn't enough for that guy)
Wyoming-a cowboy
That's all I can remember without checking the Mint's webpage.
Apparently holding a piece of paper is something DC historical figures do well.
The papers say "No Taxation Without Representation."
who is benjamin banneker?
Management, technical and administrative support services.
@Reid: You're right - Delaware does have some random guy on a horse (Ceasar Rodney) and Alabama does have Hellen Keller and Illinois does have Honest Abe. But, except for Delaware, the other two with particular individuals have other symbols of the state (Delaware is the only one that's represented by a single person (well, a single person and his horse)). Technically, Wyoming is represented by a single cowboy and his horse (again with this horse thing...)
My point was that I don't think using a single, identifiable person is a good way to represent a state. Although, to be fair, I think Texas and Michigan's quarters with just outlines of the state are pretty lame as well. I much rather prefer ones like NY, Mass, SC, Georgia, and OH that have outlines of the state and then some symbols of the state.
In DC's case, I don't know if Fredrick Douglas really is representative of the District. I don't know what single person would be (although the original GW and L'Enfant would be contenders). And that's my beef with using a single person to be representative of the entire state.
Rhode Island's is the best by far, with the Newport Claibourne Pell Bridge in the background. But, of course, I am biased.
I saw these sketches and immediately thought of they resembled Monkeyrotica's avatar.
Benjamin Banneker was the African American who actually is responsible for the layout of DC.
Oh, I know, don't everybody they their cullotes in a knot. L'Enfant is credited with the work, but got canned, cried and pulled the equivalent of a kid who is a sore sport taking the only football home with him crying, or in this case, all the plans for the city. There's some dispute about whether Washington had a copy, but there's at least one legend that the plans were redrawn based on Banneker's photographic memory of the survey work he had done while working on the project with L'Enfant, and was then completed by the Andrew Ellicott.
So, yeah, Banneker would pretty much reflect how DC works: whiny snivelling European aristocrat who jumps ship when the going gets rough----namesake for the central downtown area. Black man who picks up the pieces from memory (after said whiny aristocrat bails)--namesake for a frigging swimming pool in SE.
Cranky: I agree with you. I don't think it's a good idea to attempt to use one person to symbolize a state. But then again, the idea that any symbol could adequately represent a state is already a weak premise. In DC's case, in particular, the attempt (insistence, really, seeing as the only choices are people) to use people is particularly strained by the fact that none of these men has a particularly strong connection with DC. Ok, Ellington was born here, but he left. Plenty of great people were born here but left before they were "great". And Douglas was great, and then he lived here. But plenty of great historical figures spent their twilight years in DC (Woodrow Wilson comes to mind, but surely there are others). Banneker is a stretch any which way you put it. He wasn't quite "great" (at least not as great as the other two) and he has a really weak connection to DC. I can think of scores of people who were not quite great and have only a weak connection with DC. (I suspect that Banneker High School boosters and alums are behind his selection).
"Benjamin Banneker was the African American who actually is responsible for the layout of DC."
But only if you believe that apocryphal story, and even Wikipedia doesn't. Besides, no one suggests that Banneker came up with the layout, just that he remembered it (but, again, that's likely a myth).
Banneker is an impressive figure for reasons other than his connection with DC. Those other reasons would make him a good candidate for the Maryland quarter, not ours.
Trying to sum up or symbolize a whole state (or federal district) in a quarter design is recipe for a mediocre design. The Arkansas and Louisiana quarter designs are particularly awful on this score. One side of a quarter is not much real estate. Good designs keep it simple and focused on a single image. I personally like that Mississippi, North Carolina, and Connecticut have the best designs. If you go into it feeling you have to explain everything on the side of a coin, you end up with an artistic abortion of a pelican, a trumpet, and a map of the Louisiana Purchase slapped together.
All three are meh. But I like the Banneker because it shows the District as it was and ought to be: a 10 by 10 square. If it confuses just one grade school geography student, that's enough.
i'm also in the camp that doesn't like trying to choose one person to represent us on our "state" quarter. something people could come see today would be more my thing, but eh, no one's listening.
a metro station, how about that? it would make for some pretty patterns, and it is practically an enormous public art instillation. my 25¢.
I don't quite understand - how is "Justice for All" less of a political statement than "Taxation without Representation"? When you take the new phrase to its logical conclusion - you are talking about a pretty liberal political outlook.
They should really consider punching a hole in DC's coin like the Canadians do. Not only would it help save the Treasury on raw materials, but the hole is a perfect tabula rase for people to read things into. Perhaps it stands for DC's lack of voting representation. Or their lack of Second Amendment rights. Or maybe, like Sacramento, there's no "there" there in DC.
And it would make for a great Pentagon/Hirshorn/goatse mashup.
I'd have no problem with "Justice for All" if they included something bitchy on the reverse side, like "All who can afford it" or "No justice. There's just us."
And if they're going to crib lines from the Pledge of Allegiance, they could probably find room for the Life in Hell version:
I plead alignment to the flakes
Of the untitled snakes of a merry cow.
And to the Republicans, for which they scam,
One nacho, underpants,
With licorice and jugs of wine for owls.
@Reid: This reminds me of the Saturday Night Live skit where we find out George Washington Carver invented peanut butter but was so preoccupied with other industrial uses of the peanut that he overlooks the commercial viability of his "butter substitute" which is promptly stolen by Edward "Skippy" Williamson and Frederick "Jif" Armstrong.
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/84/84iminute.phtml
Only redrew it from memory? Well, if there's anything to that legend, that's probably a bigger accomplishment than laying out it out from scratch. As for proof, what would you like, a videotape of Banneker redrawing the map from memory? And do you really think history would accurately "remember" the accomplishments of a black man (as the whole slave states issue was beginning to play out), while L'Enfant had caught the Founding Fathers with their knickers down? I'd imagine they'd try to keep that sensitive material on the DL.
Nevertheless, let's talk about the copy L'Enfant left behind. I imagine they have it down at the archives, right? I say we give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Well, if there's anything to that legend, that's probably a bigger accomplishment than laying out it out from scratch."
But it's just not true. It's the product of mythology and wishful thinking on the part of history text book makers. Banneker accomplished enough in his life to be well regarded without having to rely on myths. It's just that those things he accomplished don't have that much to do with DC.
I love IMgoph's idea of the metro ceiling. That could be a truly beautiful coin.
Caesar Rodney was the first signer of the declaration of independence and made Delaware the first state.
Caeser Rodney Bio
We're missing the obvious.
Eastern Market.
Because that way there'd be endless lawsuits and bitching, forever delaying the actual production of the quarter, and driving the cost up so that each actual quarter produced would cost about $75 to make.
Or perhaps Hine Jr High School. After all, some doofus recently wrote a letter to the Hill Rag suggesting that Hine Jr High is actually a stunning example of 60s architecture (and not really a rotting craphole), and that to tear it down would be, and I quote, 'ethnic cleansing'.
You know, sortof like the millions tortured and slaughtered in actual ethnic cleansing, except different.
Only in my beloved pretentious neighborhood could such a thing happen.
hillman: i read that letter in the hillrag (here [warning: PDF] at the bottom of the first page) too, and i couldn't believe how stupid it was. i thought, sorry buddy, we've all given our opinion on "brutal" architecture with watha t. daniel and the church at 16th and I.
no.thank.you.