This volume had its genesis in the 2001 conference, "100 Years After the McMillan Plan," which addressed the question of how to respect the past but serve future generations on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It contains essays by historians, cultural anthropologists, planners and architects. It is divided into sections: "The Design of the Mall," "The Nation's Gathering Place," and "Monuments for the Future." Cynthia Field, Smithsonian Architectural Historian emerita, discusses the influence of Daniel Burnham in preserving the McMillan Plan. Richard Kurin, anthropologist at the Smithsonian, discusses efforts in the 1960s and 1970s, led by Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley, to make the Mall a more lively place with public programming such as the Festival of American Folklife.
