Gettysburg Battlefield 150 Anniversary and Souvenir Monument Replicas

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War's pivotal battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. More than 50,000 soldiers were killed in the battle, which became a turning point in the Civil War. The battle also inspired President Abraham Lincoln to write his famous Gettysburg address, delivered five months after the battle at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery used to bury Union dead. To commemorate these historic events at the Gettysburg Battlefield, more than 200,000 people -- including thousands of re-enactors -- are expected to visit this small south-central Pennsylvania town through Fourth of July weekend and throughout the year of 2013. Many monuments have been placed inside the Gettysburg Battlefield (here is a list of monuments) and some have been recreated in miniature souvenirs. One is the Eternal Light Peace Memorial monument commemorating the 1913 Gettysburg reunion for the fiftieth anniversary of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The natural gas flame in a one ton bronze urn is atop a tower on a stone pedestrian terrace with views from the terraced hill summit over about 400 square miles and the flame is visible from 20 miles away. The memorial was dedicated by President Franklin Roosevelt on July 3rd, 1938, the 75th anniversary of the battle. One Union and one Confederate veteran unveiled the 47 1/2 foot tall monument. Souvenir replicas of the Eternal Light Peace Memorial are varied. A painted cast Iron Bookend of this memorial was made by the Gettysburg Rotary Conference. The back is stamped ROTARY CONFERENCE / 180 TH   DIST / GETTYSBURG   1939. And on the bottom is ETERNAL LIGHT / PEACE MEMORIAL. The bookend is 5-3/16" wide, 4-5/8" tall and 2-7/8" deep. Other versions include a pot metal souvenir replica and a smaller pencil sharpener photo above. Previously, I wrote about the Irish Brigade Monument at Gettysburg Battlefield. In the coming days, I will write about other souvenir monument replicas from Gettysburg.

China’s Duplitecture: “Original Copies” of Famous Buildings

I recently wrote about full-scale replicas of iconic structures and souvenirs that go with them. We can include Las Vegas, which can take replica architecture to an extreme with pyramid hotels and replicas of the Statue of Liberty and Empire State building. Now China is joining

in the landmark copying act. In the Tianducheng housing complex near Hangzhou, China, you’ll see a peculiar sight: the Eiffel Tower. Bright replicas of the White House also dot Chinese cities from Fuyang to Shenzhen. These examples are but a sampling of China’s most popular and startling architectural movement: the construction of monumental themed communities that replicate towns and cities in the West. It’s “duplitecture,” so named by author Bianca Bosker, who writes about the practice in her new book:  Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China (Spatial Habitus) Another book with a similar theme is:  Shanghai New Towns: Searching for Community and Identity in a Sprawling Metropolis (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition)

Full-Scale Replicas of Famous Buildings Around the World

As everyone knows, the Notre Dame Cathedral is in Kentucky, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is in Illinois, the World Trade Center is in Trinton Falls, N.J., and the Eiffel Tower is in Paris…Texas, that is. While these are not the original structures, they are all large, sometimes full-scale replicas of the famous landmarks. Also in an odd twist, sometimes miniature replica souvenirs are made of the large replicas. The full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee makes resin replicas of it’s replica (see photo above). There is a house in McLean, Va. just out side of Washington, D.C., that is a full-scale replica of the White House. It includes the Oval Office, Lincoln Bedroom, and Portico. A filmmaker in Bangladesh is building a full-scale replica of the Taj Mahal. A ½ size Leaning Tower of Pisa was built in Niles, Illinois in 1934 as part of a recreation park for employees of the Ilg Hot Air Electric Ventilating Company. In 1960, part of the park was donated for the construction of the Leaning Tower YMCA. One-third scale replica of the Notre Dame is located in Covington, Kentucky and named the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption. Construction began in 1894, but the cathedral project was terminated in 1915 and is incomplete. Replicas of the Eiffel Tower are all over the world, from the U.S., to Europe, to Aisa and South America. Here is a list so you can visit each one. So, if you’re tired of collecting replicas that are just inches tall, you can now buy or build larger duplicates of your favorite landmark architecture.

Souvenir Building of Mosque in Algiers, Paris and Poland is a Bank or Inkwell

Reader of this blog, Donna S., sent me photos and information about a souvenir building similar to one that appears in the book, Monumental Miniature, where it is described as a Polish Synagogue (Fig. 479). This one has a small plaque, written in German, the translation means, “Souvenir of Warsaw”  and stands 3 ¾ inches tall. However, Donna’s replica has the words, "SOUVENIR D'ALGER LA MOSQUEE" on the base and the words, "Exposition Coloniale - Paris 1931" printed above that. This one measures about 4 1/2 inches by 2 3/4 inches and stand 4 3/4 inches high. The real Djemaa el-Djedid in Algiers is near the waterfront and on the Place des Martyrs. It is said to date from 1660. Descriptions of this mosque refer to it as an Ottoman mosque that incorporates Turkish, Andalusian and Christian architectural details. It is designed in the shape of a cross, has an Andalusian minaret and vaults and domes in the Turkish style. See the post card pictured below. So, it is likely that there was a real mosque that looked like these replicas in three places: One is the Djemaa el-Djedid (New Mosque) in Algiers, another built for the 1931 Colonial Exposition in Paris, and yet another somewhere in Warsaw, Poland. I have not been able to locate the building in Poland and it may have first been built as a mosque and later became a synagogue. There are also three types of these replicas – an inkwell, a coin bank and a box version and two size of each. All versions have a hinge which opens the reveal either he stored coins or inkwell inserts.

Jamestown Virginia Church Souvenir Building Replica

Back in 2009, reader of this bog and fellow collector, Scott D., wrote an item about his architectural souvenirs from Jamestown, Virginia. He recently found an additional building for his collection from that settlement - the Jamestown Church, seen above. Scott said, "It looks like it is made of lead.  It is 1.5" high and 2.5" long and just over an inch wide." It's painted red, gray and green and has the words, "Jamestown, Va." hand-written on the roof. Nice find, Scott.