The concept
Where citizens stand among leaders.
A place, indoors and out, to meet the Americans who shaped, built and protected the nation.
Its halls and grounds will honor civic, military and cultural leaders. Every visitor will step into the company of those who helped build the country.
Monumental sculpture
Famous and unsung, side by side.
Great sculptures will honor famous leaders beside lesser-known heroes: pioneers, inventors, artists and community builders whose lives show grit, ingenuity and devotion to their neighbors.
Conversations with history
Talk one-on-one with the past.
Touch screens, statues and AI kiosks will open each story in depth. Visitors can even speak one-on-one with a figure from American history, brought to life by AI.
Unsung heroes
The names history almost forgot.
Among them: Col. Hans Christian Heg (1829–1863), a Norwegian immigrant, Wisconsin public servant and Union colonel killed at Chickamauga; and Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey (1914–2015), the FDA doctor who refused to approve thalidomide in 1960, which led to stronger drug-safety laws in 1962.
The Indoor Amphitheater
Living history, on the American stage.
A living classroom for talks, interviews and questions with historians, veterans, scholars and cultural leaders. It will double as a cinema, from the Tuskegee Airmen and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team to today’s stories of service. After each program, a guided discussion will connect the past to the country we are still building together.
At the center
“A hall not of memorials alone, but of moments.”
From the American Leadership Center concept
Gallery
Support the memorial
Honor a leader.
Help the unsung stand in the same light as the famous.