Washington, DC as a Pilgrimage Destination

Capitol from Hirshorn Museum Sculpture Court, EOP Autumn 2008

This blog and the course for which it is written have looked almost exclusively at pilgrimages with a significant religious component, ignoring for the most part pilgrimages that are primarily secular. Those include pilgrimages devoted to historical events (the Civil War or WWII as examples), politics (homes of great political leaders as one case), sports (great stadia, places where records were set, etc.) or the arts (though in a recent posting I did suggest an architectural pilgrimage). In part that was a response to the notion that religious pilgrimages are slightly different in kind, and in part secular pilgrimages were ignored because there are simply too many of them, especially to discuss in an eight week course. Last week a question was raised about Washington, DC as a pilgrimage site, and as it happens there is a good book on the subject:

Meyer, Jeffrey F. 2001. Myths in stone: religious dimensions of Washington, D.C. Berkeley: University of California Press. xi + 343 pp. ISBN 0520214811

“This is an examination of Washington DC as a secular pilgrimage site. Meyer argues that the city was conceived and executed along various axes of power and influence that suggest the central and continually contested values that inform religious and civic beliefs.” (quoted from Fairfax County Public Library catalogue listing for the book)

Mr. Meyer is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Charlotte and brings to his study of DC as a secular pilgrimage site some perspectives very close to those we have been using in this course. The book is strongly recommended, and the Fairfax County Public Library has copies (George Mason University's library does not seem to have a copy).