The Mystery of the Hereafter Monument....

Henry Adams, the grandson of President John Quincy Adams, and a founding member of the Cosmos Club, had commissioned the unique sculpture from Augustus Saint Gaudens as a gravesite memorial to his wife Marian "Clover" Hooper Adams (1843-1885). She killed herself at the age of 42 by swallowing chemicals used in the developing of her photographs in 1885.

Marian "Clover" Hooper Adams came from the wealthy Boston family of Hoopers living on Beacon Hill. Her mother was Ellen H. Sturgis (1812-November 3, 1848) a Transcendentalist poet. Amid transcendentalists' fundamental thinking was an ultimate spiritual state that "transcends" the physical and experiential and is realized only through the individual's sixth sense, rather than through the dogma of established religions. Her mother died when she was five years of age and she became very close to her physician father. Marian "Clover" Hooper Adams was an American socialite, active society hostess and trendsetter of Washington, D.C., and a talented photographer.

Marian’s father died on April 13, 1885 after which she sank into periods of devastating depression. Awaiting the completion of the house, the Adams rented a house nearby at 1607 H Street on Lafayette Square. Clover documented the construction of the houses with her camera. On Sunday morning, December 6, 1885, after a late breakfast at their rented home, Marian Hooper Adams, known in her social circle as Clover, went to her room. She was found a short time later by her husband with a opened bottle of poisonous chemical potassium cyanide nearby. The evening newspaper reported that she had suddenly dropped dead from paralysis of the heart.

There was a great deal conjecture and abundant hypothesis concerning the causes of Clover Adams’s suicide. The legitimacy of any or all of these causes was sharpened by Henry Adams’ annihilation of nearly all of Clover’s letters and photos made by her, after her death. To boot, silence about his wife after her suicide and the obvious lack of any mention to her in his autobiography, “The Education of Henry Adams,” further added to an ambiance of suspicion and mystery.

 Adams spent the day with Clarence King and Augustus Saint Gaudens in New York on June 3, 1886.  That was the first time Adams may have mentioned his plan for a memorial to his wife at Rock Creek Cemetery.  Colonel John Bradford, a Maryland planter donated a approximately 100 acres to the St. Paul’s Church vestry on September 18, 1719. The chapel and surrounding land became the Rock Creek Cemetery. An Act of Congress in 1840 recognized the cemetery as a public burial place and it has since become the final resting place for many of the famous people who shaped the political, social and business history of the United States.

The interpretation of the Adams Memorial developed from September 11, 1887, when in a letter to Adams, Saint Gaudens referred to “some sketches,” to January 1888 during a visit by Adams to Saint Gaudens’ studio in New York.  A male model was used for the figure, which has an genderless quality. The work on The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding (the proper name) as it was called, began in November 1888.  Added was Stanford White’s stone seat, an upright stone, behind the bronze figure, and platform within his elegant architectural setting which included a stone bench for viewers. The process of creativity went slowly as Saint Gaudens grappled with his client’s desires and his own inspiration.  The monument wasn’t completed and installed until March 1891.

The seated bronze figure is in a meditative pose with its right hand touching its chin.  The figure is enveloped in a garment resembling a monk’s hood from head to foot. The face is strong with a straight nose, full lips and a firm chin. The closed eyes thwart any inner analysis but invite conjecture. Shadows shed by the changing light across the edges of the cowl give the only resemblance of change to this otherwise impassive feature. No aspect of pose or form suggests its sex.

Although Adams had received photographs of the installed monument from Saint Gaudens, it wasn’t until mid–February 1892 that he visited Rock Creek Cemetery and sat before his Adams Memorial.Twenty-six years later, he would rest beneath it with his wife Clover. The resulting memorial is considered Saint Gaudens’ masterpiece.

Rock Creek Cemetery is probably one the most beautiful and compelling cemeteries in what would soon become the District of Columbia. Situated at Rock Creek Church Rd and Webster St. NW and bordered by New Hampshire Avenue to the East; The Rock Creek Cemetery is also not far from President Abraham Lincoln’s summer home located on the grounds of the United States  Soldier’s and Airmen’s  Home just south down North Capitol Street, NW. On August 12, 1977, Rock Creek Cemetery and the adjacent church grounds were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Rock Creek Cemetery grounds are open to visitors daily. For more information please call :(202) 829-0585