While on some errand of research or another several years ago, I was spooling through the microfilm at the Richmond Public Library when this picture caused me to stop.

The artist’s rendering is of the 1896 proposal for the Jefferson Davis Monument by New York architect Percy Griffin. (Griffin went on to design such structures as the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, N.Y.)

This massive domed structure was a gigantic memorial — in my view — to Southern Post-Traumatic We Lost the War Syndrome. Grief and nostalgia conflated and inflated memories, and thus this grandiose thing was intended for the middle of Monroe Park. The technical term for it is baldacchino, an ornamental canopy.

An elaborate groundbreaking ceremony occurred on June 25, 1896 (the illustrated page is dated June 30).

The $210,000 pricetag proved too high (thankfully), and it took a few other failed groups and efforts until the United Daughters of the Confederacy hired locals William C. Noland and Edward Virginius Valentine to design something within their budget. On June 3, 1907, it was unveiled on Monument Avenue.

But, should the occasion arise, they can dust this off. As to the location, I’ll let future generations hash that out. By then, rather than a boring statute, they can put a hologram of me under the dome to interact with citizens and visitors. The Harry Hologram could say clever things that I might’ve said, or could be reasonably attributed. Except, of course, it would only work half the time.