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he obverse (right) and reverse (left) of the James H. Hyde Medallion, designed by Paul H. Manship, on the Janvier reduction machine.

Tokens of Culture

On the medallic art of the Gilded Age.
by James Panero via The New Criterion on December 12, 2024
Statue atop U.S. Capitol dome.

How an Enslaved Genius Saved the Capitol Dome’s ‘Freedom’ Statue

The Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol wouldn’t exist without the artistry of an enslaved man named Philip Reed.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on July 4, 2023
Piccirilli brothers in 1930.

Six Italian Immigrants From the Bronx Carved Some of the Nation’s Most Iconic Sculptures

The Lincoln Memorial, the NY Public Library lions, and the senate pediment of the US Capitol Building are among their creations.
by Lucie Levine via 6sqft on July 31, 2018
Mississippian funerary heads in the collection of Monticello.

“Kicked About”: Native Culture at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

Kristine K. Ronan describes her discovery of two Native American statues at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.
by Kristine K. Ronan via Panorama on October 14, 2017

How Alexander Calder Became America's Most Beloved Sculptor

In an exclusive excerpt from his new book, 'Calder: The Conquest of Time,' Jed Perl reveals a hidden side of the artist.
by Jed Perl via Smithsonian on October 1, 2017

American Sphinx

Civil War monuments erased an emancipated Black population, but the Sphinx looked to an integrated Africa and America.
by Colin Dickey via Longreads on August 31, 2017
A monument to fallen Civil War soldiers with the New York City skyline in the background.

Green-Wood Cemetery’s Living Dead

How the “forever business” is changing at New York City’s biggest graveyard.
by Paige Williams via The New Yorker on June 2, 2025

Donald Trump on Mount Rushmore Would Make More Historical Sense Than You Think

That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
by Matthew Davis via Slate on March 13, 2025
“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

Charlottesville’s Lee Statue Meets its End, in a 2,250-Degree Furnace

The divisive Confederate monument, the focus of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally, was melted down in secret and will become a new piece of public art.
by Teo Armus, Hadley Green via Washington Post on October 26, 2023
Dinosaur models and other prehistoric animals designed by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins.

The Bizarre True Story of Central Park’s Doomed Victorian Dinosaur Museum

For centuries, the infamous Boss Tweed was blamed for destroying its dino-models—but what really happened is even weirder.
by Sarah Durn via Atlas Obscura on August 3, 2023
Good Housekeeping cover with girl looking at wedding cake topper

Wedding Cake Toppers: Miniatures, Excess, and Fantasy

Tying frilly white doves and normative bride-and-groom couples to feminist art and DIY craft practices that offer opportunities for creativity and fantasy.
by Kendall DeBoer via Dilettante Army on May 1, 2023
3 of the Tanesar goddesses placed in a wooden crate lined with police tape.

The Goddess Complex

A set of revered stone deities stolen from a temple in northwestern India can tell us much about our current reckoning with antiquities trafficking.
by Elizabeth Kadetsky via The American Scholar on March 2, 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
Painting, James Daugherty, "Thanksgiving Greetings."

You Cannot Give Thanks for What Is Stolen

American artists were instrumental in propagating the false narrative of Thanksgiving, a deliberate erasure of violence against Indigenous peoples.
by Joseph Pierce via Hyperallergic on November 23, 2022
A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which was previously on display at the U.S. Capitol, now resides at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond.

Richmond Tore Down its Statues — and Revealed a New Angle on History

After the 2020 removal of Confederate memorials, museums provide a place to confront the ugly past and find a way forward.
by Philip Kennicott via Washington Post on July 19, 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
Twin Towers at sunset

How To Remember Minoru Yamasaki’s Twin Towers

Remembered as symbols of strength after 9/11, the Twin Towers and their Japanese American architect were once criticized in racist and sexist terms.
by Alexandra Lange via CityLab on September 8, 2021
A 9/11 memorial

Relic Steel

After 9/11, hundreds of pieces of steel debris were catalouged. Much of it ended up in small municipal memorials and in other locations around the country.
by Max Holleran, Samuel Holleran via Places Journal on September 1, 2021
Illustration from the 1919 catalogue of the Library Bureau depicting women working at desks and filing cabinets.

The Filing Cabinet

The filing cabinet was critical to the information infrastructure of 20th-century nation states and financial systems.
by Craig Robertson via Places Journal on May 1, 2021
Vienna’s plague column; the AIDS quilt; Mexico City’s Memorial to Victims of Violence; Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

How Will We Remember This?

A COVID memorial will have to commemorate shame and failure as well as grief and bravery.
by Justin Davidson via Curbed on March 15, 2021
Men with six-packs on a boat

When Men Started to Obsess Over Six-Packs

Greek statues, the Napoleonic wars, and the advent of photography all played a role.
by Conor Heffernan via The Conversation on February 23, 2021
Statue of "Freedom" on top of the U.S. Capitol

Philip Reed, The Enslaved Man Who Rescued Freedom

The ironies abound in the story of Reed, who made it possible to erect the statue that remains on the top of the Capitol dome today.
by Megan Smolenyak via Medium on January 10, 2021
Carvings on two whaleteeth (scrimshaw)

The Pleasure Crafts

Everyday people's creation of porn and erotic objects over the centuries.
by Cintra Wilson via New York Review of Books on December 17, 2020
Freedmen's memorial.

Of, By & For the Freedmen

On the aesthetics and history of the Freedman’s Memorial in Washington, D.C.
by Allen C. Guelzo, James Hankins via The New Criterion on October 1, 2020
Gettysburg Battlefield, with monuments visible in the distance

We Need to Talk About Confederate Statues on U.S. Public Lands

At places like the Gettysburg battlefield and Arlington National Cemetery, there's a new, escalating conflict over monuments that honor the Lost Cause.
by Alex Heard via Outside on September 28, 2020

Hygeia: Women in the Cemetery Landscape

The Mourning Woman emerged during a revival of classical symbolism in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century gravestone iconography.
by Corinne Elicone via Nursing Clio on September 3, 2020
Diorama of Benjamin Banneker surveying the area around the White House

Art of History: Preserving African American Dioramas

Conservators are restoring a series of dioramas created for the 1940 American Negro Exposition, bringing their magical artistry, and stories, back to life.
by Robbyn McFadden via CBS News on August 30, 2020
Equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt on a horse accompanied by an African man on foot, outside the American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History Grapples with its Most Controversial Piece

Museum visitors, as well as scholars of art, history, and African and Native American studies, discuss the sculpture’s intended and perceived meanings.
by Reniqua Allen via Aeon on August 4, 2020
Christopher Columbus statue being removed from Grant Park in Chicago.
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Americans Put Up Statues During the Gilded Age. Today We’re Tearing Them Down.

Why the Gilded Age was the era of statues.
by Katrina Gulliver via Made By History on July 26, 2020
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