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“The Caring Hand,” by Eva Oertli and Beat Huber, sculpture of a hand holding a tree.

Bryan Stevenson Reclaims the Monument, in the Heart of the Deep South

The civil-rights attorney has created a sculpture park, indicting the city of Montgomery—a former capital of the domestic slave trade.
by Doreen St. Félix via The New Yorker on March 25, 2024
Design drawing for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Competition, 1947.
original

A Gateway to the Past

The Arch in St. Louis stands as a monument to contradictory histories.
by Ed Ayers on September 13, 2023
Lithograph of the Haymarket riot.

Chicago Never Forgot the Haymarket Martyrs

Ever since the execution of labor radicals in 1886, reactionaries have tried to tarnish their legacy — and leftists have honored them as working-class martyrs.
by Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on May 1, 2023
Venable Mound, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, built ca. 700–1200 CE.

Monuments Upon the Tumultuous Earth

For thousands of years, Indigenous societies were building hundred-foot pyramids along the Mississippi River.
by Boyce Upholt via Emergence Magazine on March 23, 2023
The Lady of the Rockies statue. Photo by Doug Zwick/Flickr.

The 90-foot Sentinel of Butte, Montana

What does a statue dedicated to mothers reveal about women’s rights?
by Leah Sottile via High Country News on March 1, 2023
Horatio Greenough's statue of George Washington in a toga.

The First Statue Removed From the Capitol

Long before monuments to enslavers were removed, lawmakers decided to relocate a scandalous, half-naked depiction of George Washington in a toga.
by Ronald G. Shafer via Retropolis on January 22, 2023
A crane removes the Robert E. Lee statue from Monument Avenue in Richmond, 2021.

The Question of the Offensive Monument

A new book asks what we lose by simply removing monuments.
by Erin L. Thompson via The Nation on December 5, 2022
Royal Fusiliers War Memorial, 2011. Photograph by Robert Scarth.

Monuments with Mission Creep

On “all wars” memorials.
by Andrew M. Shanken via Lapham’s Quarterly on October 26, 2022

A Tale of Two Toms

The uses and abuses of history through the "diary" of Thomas Fallon.
by Jenny Hale Pulsipher via Commonplace on July 12, 2022
Stereograph of the original Lincoln Monument, seen from City Hall. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

The Original Lincoln Memorial Stands Forgotten in D.C.’s Judiciary Square

“It is a better likeness of Lincoln than anything in plaster, stone, marble, or bronze that I have ever seen."
by Jason Emerson via Retropolis on May 29, 2022
The Lincoln Memorial with a crowd of people in front attending its dedication.

A Century Ago, the Lincoln Memorial's Dedication Underscored the Nation's Racial Divide

Seating was segregated, and the ceremony's only Black speaker was forced to drastically revise his speech to avoid spreading "propaganda."
by Kellie B. Gormly via Smithsonian on May 27, 2022
Protesters led by Bad River Anishinaabe activist Mike Forcia toppled this statue of Christopher Columbus on June 10, 2020.

Meet the Indigenous Activist Who Toppled Minnesota's Christopher Columbus Statue

The unauthorized removal of the monument took place during the racial justice protests of summer 2020.
by Erin L. Thompson via Smithsonian on February 3, 2022

Alabama’s Capitol Is a Crime Scene. The Cover-up Has Lasted 120 Years.

How more than a century of whitewashed history poisons Alabama today.
by Kyle Whitmire via al.com on January 12, 2022
Portraits of the top 50 individuals in US public monuments - mostly white men

National Monument Audit

A massive assessment of the nation's current monument landscape, posing questions about common knowledge and debunking misperceptions within public memory.
via Monument Lab on September 29, 2021
Art sculpture "House" by Rachael Whiteread, 1993 (a concrete casting of the inside of a Victorian house).

Monuments for the Interim Twenty-Four Thousand Years.

An account of the long-lasting effects of nuclear energy in the US.
by Annie Simpson via Southern Cultures on August 23, 2021
Statue on blue background

History Was Never Subject to Democratic Control

Elite merchants put up a statue of a British slave trader. A band of protesters toppled it. Who decides what happens now?
by Helen Lewis via The Atlantic on August 9, 2021
Workers cover a statue of Christopher Columbus in Chicago before the start of a Juneteenth march on June 19, 2020. The memorial was later removed.

When Monuments Go Bad

The Chicago Monuments Project is searching for ways to resolve its landscape of problematic statues and make room for a new, different kind of public memorial.
by Zach Mortice via CityLab on June 8, 2021
The Equestrian statue, depicting a man on a horse.

The Racist History Behind El Paso’s XII Travelers Memorial

Protesters in El Paso have focused on toppling The Equestrian, a monument to a racist colonizer. But the story behind the monument goes deeper.
by David Dorado Romo via The Texas Observer on September 28, 2020
Graffitied Robert E. Lee Statue with child playing basketball.

The New Monuments That America Needs

Every statue defends an idea about history, but what if those ideas are wrong?
by Hua Hsu via The New Yorker on September 15, 2020
Workers removing a Confederate statue

Take it From a Historian. We Don't Owe Anything to Confederate Monuments.

Trump spends so much time defending statues not because he cares about history, but precisely because he doesn’t
by Timothy Snyder via The Guardian on July 23, 2020
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Exhibit

Monument Wars

This exhibit explores discussions about what we choose to memorialize – and why.

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