OBJECT FILE
Black Aggie
FOLLOWCourtyard beside the Dolley Madison House, Lafayette Square (open weekdays 8 a.m.–6 p.m.), Washington, DC, United States
THE OBJECT
A seated, shrouded bronze figure by Edward L. A. Pausch, an unlicensed replica of Augustus Saint-Gaudens' 1891 Adams Memorial ('Grief') in Rock Creek Cemetery. It was placed on the family plot of Brig. Gen. Felix Agnus, a Baltimore newspaper publisher, at Druid Ridge Cemetery, Pikesville, Maryland, in the 1920s. Removed in 1967 and given to the Smithsonian, which kept it in storage because it was an unauthorised copy; the General Services Administration received it in 1987 and in the 1990s placed it in a public courtyard beside the Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square, Washington. The empty pedestal is still at Druid Ridge.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
Local legend said anyone who sat in her lap at night would be haunted or die, that her eyes glowed red, that the dead gathered around her and that no grass grew in her shadow. Teenagers broke into the cemetery to sit with her and the pedestal was repeatedly vandalised, which is why she was taken away.
WHERE IT IS NOW
On public display — kept by U.S. General Services Administration. Courtyard beside the Dolley Madison House, Lafayette Square (open weekdays 8 a.m.–6 p.m.), Washington, DC, United States.
PROVENANCE · 3 ENTRIES
TRACE ON THE MAP →1926 – 1967
The Agnus family (grave of Brig. Gen. Felix Agnus)
Druid Ridge Cemetery, Pikesville, MD, United States
Year-level dates. The Banner says only 'the 1920s'.
Source: Wikipedia, Black Aggie (installed 1926); The Baltimore Banner, 4 Oct 2024 ('installed in the 1920s')
1967 – 1987
Smithsonian Institution (National Collection of Fine Arts, later the Smithsonian American Art Museum)
museum storage, Washington, DC, United States · not placed on the map
Kept in storage because it was an unlicensed copy.
Source: The Baltimore Banner, 4 Oct 2024 ('removed the statue in 1967 … donated it to the Smithsonian … placed in storage')
1987 — CURRENT LOCATION
U.S. General Services Administration
Courtyard beside the Dolley Madison House and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Lafayette Square, Washington, DC, United States
The GSA has held it since 1987; it went into the courtyard in the 1990s (exact year not in the sources).
Source: The Baltimore Banner, 4 Oct 2024 ('The General Services Administration received the statue in 1987. In the 1990s, the GSA relocated it to a public courtyard')
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS · 0
REPORT AN EXPERIENCE →Nobody has filed an encounter with this object yet.
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