Latter-day Saint Images

A Mormon Image: Surrender Dorothy

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0--SurrenderDorothy-DCTempleI grew up in the Washington DC area, and fondly remember driving on the capitol beltway from the east toward the Temple and seeing the “Surrender Dorothy” graffiti on a railroad bridge, soon after the Temple had appeared to rise from the ground in front of me. I’ve regularly laughed at the sly commentary on the Temple’s architectural similarity to the Emerald City of the Wizard of Oz.

Yesterday, the Washington Post’s answerman ran the above photo and asked for information about who the graffiti artist was and why he risked life and limb to repeatedly make this statement. I would find it quite amusing if the perpetrator were LDS!

Kent

9 comments for “A Mormon Image: Surrender Dorothy”

  1. I have been looking for a picture of this for awhile! I only seem to remember it when I’m in second hand bookstores, and not online, so thanks for posting it!

  3. As a kid I always thought the DC temple looked like an X-wing pointed upwards (Star Wars having just come out when I first saw it).

    From then on, my family referred to it as the big X-wing.

  4. I too grew up in the DC area and a friend of some of my best friend’s claimed that it was her parents who had done it.

  5. The San Diego Temple looks like the gunstar in “The Last Starfighter”.

  6. This photo is just classic! We just went on the only big vacation our family of 6 ever had, as our oldest turned 18! We visited the DC Visitor Center, then several days later, ended up in NY watching “Wicked!” This image sums up a lot of our trip! So funny!

  7. My told us yesterday in history class that it was her aunt who did it. Her aunt and friend’s from Holy Cross.

  8. Driving toward the temple on the beltway from the north the temple seems to pop up out of the ground behind this railroad bridge. The “Surrender Dorothy” caption not withstanding, it _is_ almost a magical experience.

  9. GVP WTV, and anyone else who has contact with those who did this:

    I would be heavily indebted to anyone who can put me in contact with those who did this. I think it needs to be better documented for history. I’d love to know the methods and motivations of those who kept this statement on the bridge for so long.

    Please, someone put me in contact with these daring folks!

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