Published: May 24, 2013
This is a country awash in monuments. They adorn traffic circles, street corners and, of course, the National Mall. We’ve memorialized everything from famous soldiers and statesmen, to big ideas or major events – and a lot in between. Yet our ambivalence towards these monuments is as old as our enthusiasm for them. Case in point: The Washington Monument. Ever wonder why there isn’t actually a image of Washington on it?
In this Memorial Day episode of BackStory, we explore the idea of national remembrance. Looking at some of our country’s most iconic monuments, the Guys ask what—and whom—Americans choose to remember, and discover how memorials often tell us more about their creators than what or whom they memorialize.
Michael Rae
The Andrew Jackson monument in New Orleans, mentioned on the broadcast as a portrayal of an American Napoleon, is contrasted to the “chaste” Washington Monument. However, it is but a copy of the original, the first cast equestrian statue in the New World, located in the center of Lafayette Park, just opposite the White House.
Nat Wooding
In front of the courthouse in Halifax, VA, there is the standard statue of a Confederate soldier. When I was a kid in the 1950s, in a horsepasture a half mile away, stood a statue of a Yankee. The story back then was the a statue was ordered and the wrong one arrived. Apparently the manufacturer didn’t want it back and simply sent a replacement. In case anyone should want to see it, the pasture was behind the modern office building used by Dr. Barnes Mitchell.
John Daly
The Washington Monument reminds one of the obelisk in front of the Egyptian Karnak Temple, and the statue of Lincoln seated in the Lincoln memorial reminds me of the seated statue of Ramesses II in that same temple. How can the monuments to Egyptian gods and god kings — built by workers who would have envied the life style of American slaves — be suitable monuments to the man who played key roles in the creation of American democracy and the abolition of slavery?
Neal
Republican Party in 1800? Please explain.
Anne
There is a monument in Calumet, MI honoring the 73 people who died on Christmas Eve, 1913 at a party for striking miners. The story is that a management shill yelled “fire” at the party and when the people rushed down the stairs, the doors wouldn’t open and so the 73 people, mostly children, died of suffocation. There is controversy over whether the doors opened inward, or whether the management strongmen held the doors shut to keep the people in. The building (The Italian Hall) was demolished in the 1980′s and all that remains is the sandstone arch of the doorway and a plaque. This is the disaster that Woody Guthrie wrote his song “1913 Massacre” about. The Wikipedia link is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Hall_disaster
Jess@BackStory
Neal — Yep, there’s a lot of room for confusion here! The party we’re talking about is sometimes called the “Democratic Republicans,” sometimes the “Jeffersonian Republicans,” and sometimes just the “Republicans.” The last of those three was the most common contemporary usage, as in this letter from Madison to Jefferson, which refers (somewhat illegibly!) to “the Republican party.” That said, what Americans today refer to as the Republican party took shape decades later, in 1854, for very different reasons. Hope this clarifies.
Craig Shaw
Dear Ed Ayers,
I listened intently to your piece on Monuments in Charlottesville, Va. The final comments about that ” African Americanso of the area might not mind those Monuments rmoved from being a daily reminder” A very good friend shared on Facebook this story of the very first Memorial Day. I thought you might like this monument ”
KNOW YOUR HISTORY: Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May, 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for 2 weeks to give them a proper burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. They then held a parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 Black children where they marched, sang and celebrated.
Thanks to Abstrakt Goldsmith for this nugget of history that most of us never learned in school. http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photo.php?fbid=10151398028325493&set=a.61232960492.81458.7292655492&type=1&theater
Thanks,
Craig
Dave Palmer
One of the presenters made a comment to the effect that monuments usually commemorate people or events within living history, and are intended to mark that history before the generation that experienced it passes on. I don’t think that’s true as a general statement.
Most, if not all, of the statues of Casimir Pulaski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko — Polish generals who fought in the American Revolution — were not put up by Revolutionary War veterans, but by Polish-Americans in the 20th Century. Similarly, none of the statues of Christopher Columbus in the United States were built by his contemporaries. More often than not, they were built by Italian-Americans in relatively recent times.
These statues do not simply commemorate the persons they depict, as important as they may be. Rather, they commemorate these immigrant groups coming into their own as part of U.S. society, and winning a share of political and economic power. In that sense, they are monuments to thousands of people — not just one.
(To some extent, perhaps this is an answer to John Daly’s question about how monuments to great individuals can be reconciled with egalitarian ideals).
Brenna
In the middle of my town of Arlington, Massachusetts is a frequently overlooked monument dedicated to the local soldiers who died in the Civil War. Mainly overlooked, despite it’s prominent location across from the local Starbucks and at the junction of two major roads, it is the reason the town is now called “Arlington” and not West Cambridge or, as it was named during the Revolutionary War, Menotomy. The statue was of much controversy at the time not because of the subject but because of its late delivery and dedication date–almost 20 years after the Civil War. http://www.babcock-smithhouse.com/GraniteIndustry/MapUS/MA/CivilWar/arlington.html