There is a statue of a young boy, a naked man, and a partially clothed woman. It is the Boy Scout Memorial.
I guess when this was dedicated in 1964, a naked man with a Boy Scout wasn’t as big of a deal as it’s become of late.
The naked guy is supposed to represent physical, mental, and moral fitness. Devotion to country and a solid a 6-pack, good citizenship, honor, and courage. Or at least the courage to walk around without clothes.
The woman symbolizes enlightenment with the love of God and fellow man, justice, freedom, democracy, and total denial of what’s going on.
The Boy Scout is striding into the future, representing hope for tomorrow and general cluelessness of what’s behind him.
The Boy Scout oath is carved on the base. The part about being “morally straight” is rather interesting, given the context.
This is in the President’s Park near the White House. It is the site of the 1937 National Scout Jamboree.
The artist is Donald De Leu who has a portfolio of lots of manly men sculptures.
At the dedication, Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark accepted the statue on behalf of the nation. It was his 50th anniversary of becoming an Eagle Scout. I don’t know if this scene brought back memories for him.
Now it’s odd that this is called a memorial. As we’ve talked about before, monuments are for the living, memorials for the dead. So, I’m not sure this is for dead scouts or scouts that had…some other experience.
In any case, it’s definitely Washington’s creepiest statue.
