Major General Hancock and staff at Grant's funeral illustration   Save
Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Collection
Description: Major General Hancock and staff riding at the head of General Ulysses S. Grant's funeral procession on August 8, 1885. They are passing up Fifth Ave, New York, New York, in front of the horse-drawn catafalque bearing Grant's coffin. Spectators lined the route of the procession, which stretched for seven miles. Grant, Civil War general and eighteenth president of the United States, died July 23, 1885, in Mount McGregor, New York. In accordance with his wishes, his family selected Riverside Park in New York City as the site of his final resting place. Grant’s remains were interred in a temporary vault. Shortly after his death a newly organized grassroots organization, the Grant Monument Association, began accepting donations to fund the construction of a permanent memorial. Ninety thousand individuals collectively donated an estimated $600,000 to the fund its construction (the largest public fundraising effort at the time). The cornerstone was laid in 1891, and the memorial was completed six years later. More than one million people attended the parade and dedication ceremony of General Grant National Memorial (popularly known as Grant’s Tomb) on April 27, 1897. Julia Grant died on December 14, 1902, in Washington, D.C., and her remains were interred beside her husband's in a twin sarcophagus. Architect John Duncan designed the granite and marble structure, still the largest mausoleum in North America. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05797
Subjects: Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885--Death & burial--New York (State)--New York; Ohio History--Presidents and Politics
Places: New York (New York); New York County (New York)