05/14/2025
THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE SPENT 36 HOURS IN CINCINNATI AND LEFT 200 YEARS OF MYSTERIES
Exploring the French general’s local impact on the Bicentennial of his visit.
“Bless the American Friends of Lafayette, who will attempt to commemorate the bicentennial of the French general’s residency in Cincinnati on May 19 and 20 of this year. The celebrants face a daunting task because nothing Lafayette saw in Cincinnati still exists—even the Public Landing was moved two blocks east from where our hero first stepped foot in the Queen City. The modern organizers will bravely soldier on, with a free and open welcoming ceremony at 11 a.m. Monday, May 19, at what is now the Public Landing, a commemorative dinner and ball, and a remembrance of Lafayette’s “adopted daughter,” F***y Wright, on whom more anon…..
Much in the manner of the various old inns claiming “Washington slept here,” Cincinnati businesses exaggerated their connection to Lafayette. Haberdasher Platt Evans boasted that Lafayette ordered a suit from his shop, though there is no record he was ever inside. Sculptor Frederick Eckstein supposedly made a plaster cast of the Lafayette, but where he found time to do so is hard to fathom. Eckstein did produce a very nice bust of the General, now in the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum.”
Read the article here: https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/the-marquis-de-lafayette-spent-36-hours-in-cincinnati-and-left-200-years-of-mysteries/
Exploring the French general's local impact on the Bicentennial of his visit.
