examining a historical site in america how do we remember the past?
TRANSCRIPT
EXAMINING A HISTORICAL SITE IN AMERICA
How do we remember the past?
*SITES OF MEMORY PROJECT
* What is a “site of memory”?
*It is when something becomes symbolic of a piece of the heritage of a particular community.
*They can be places like archives, museums, cathedrals, palaces, cemeteries, memorials
*They can be objects like a commemorative monument, emblem, symbol
*They tell a story. But whose story do they tell?
*EXAMPLES
*WHAT IS A MONUMENT?
*Something which stands, or remains, to keep in remembrance what is past; a building, pillar, stone, etc. erected to preserve the remembrance of a person, event or action
*EXAMPLE
*WHAT IS A MEMORIAL?
*Anything intended to preserve the memory of a person or event; something that serves to keep something else in remembrance. This may include objects of a temporary nature, such as personal items left at a site
*Example
*What is a “historical marker”?
*Historical markers are located throughout the states to highlight people, places, and events to recognize.
*Pa. historical markers were established beginning in 1946, They are blue and gold marker and you see them everywhere if you pay attention to them.
*http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/trails_of_history_sites/1800
*Historical Marker
*Historical Marker
*Most Monuments and Memorials are controversial
* LINCOLN PARK MONUMENT
*Lincoln Park is home to an Emancipation Statue. It is one of the most famous statues for historians to examine. Lincoln is standing and a slave is kneeling. It is one of the only public recognitions of emancipation. Many countries have either public recognitions of slavery or emancipation days. In America, there is no recognition of the end of slavery.
*What Do You See?
* How did the Lincoln Park Statue begin?
*Charlotte Scott, a Virginia former slave took $5.00 of her own money to begin the fund raising following Lincoln’s death. Colored Troop veterans raised $20,000. An agency was needed to push the project forward. The Western Sanitary Commission, with strong ties in St. Louis, took on the project. Thomas Ball designed the statue. What is this a statue to?? Lincoln or emancipation?? Is it paternalistic and condescending? The slave’s face is a real slave from Missouri named Archer Anderson. Missouri was a border state. On April 14, 1876, Fredrick Douglass was selected to speak at the dedication of the statue. Douglass was very conflicted by the statue. He said, “it showed the negro on his knees”. “Lincoln was neither our man or our model; we are Lincoln’s stepchildren.”
*Richmond, Virginia
* JEFFERSON DAVIS MONUMENT
* ARTHUR ASHE MONUMENT
*BENJAMIN TILLMAN
MONUMENT
*BENJAMIN TILLMAN
*Who was Ben Tillman?
*Spokesman for the poor rural whites
*Shifted tax burden to wealthy
*Regulated the railroads
*Governor of South Carolina
*U.S. Senator
*White supremacist/supporter of KKK
*Enacted Jim Crow laws in S.C.
*Considered lynching an acceptable law-enforcement measure
*Emmitt Till
*Does Emmitt Till have a monument?
*Flight 93 Memorial
*“Makeshift Memorial”
*September 11, 2001
*The U.S. experienced the worst incident of terrorism in its history
*Four commercial airliners were hijacked
*Flight 93 departed from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, Ca.
*Plane abruptly changed courses heading towards D.C.
*Crashed in Somerset Co, Pa.
*All 33 passengers, 7 crew members, 4 hijackers killed
*Flight 93 Memorial
*http://www.nps.gov/flni/index.htm
*http://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=2AB43C21-155D-451F-67BCCC170B08AB44
*9-11 Memorial
*http://abcnews.go.com/US/victims-families-furious-911-memorial-museum/story?id=23774869
*Controversy from the start!
*Set to open May 21, 2014
*Cost $700 million dollars
*Heyward Shepherd Memorial
*Heyward Shepherd
Monument
*Heyward Shepherd Monument: At Harper’s Ferry, there is a monument to a man named Heyward Shepherd, who was killed in John Brown’s raid. He was a railroad worker, a black man. It was dark when Brown and his men took Harper’s Ferry. Shepherd stumbled upon one of Brown’s men, turned, fled, and was shot down by this man, who obviously couldn’t see him in the dark and didn’t know if he was white, black, red, yellow, or what. But, in the 1920’s certain Confederate groups put into place at the scene of the raid what they called the Faithful Slave monument and that became the Heyward Shepherd monument. The Southern perception was that upon seeing the abolitionists, Shepherd saw them as a danger and not as saviors. In other words, he fled from them rather than run to them. The irony is, he was a free black worker – he wasn’t a slave.
*FDR Memorial
*Took 50 years before reaching an agreement on the memorial in Washington, D.C.
*Should he be shown in a wheelchair?
*Should he have a cigarette in his hand with his famous “holder”?
*Franklin D. Roosevelt
*MLK Monument
*MLK Memorial (D.C.)
*MLK Jr. Memorial
*MLK Memorial and Designer
*MLK Memorial (controversy)
*Abbreviated quote
*MLK Memorial Controversy
*http://www.npr.org/2012/02/24/147301301/quote-on-mlk-memorial-to-be-fixed-but-how
*Vietnam Memorial
*Vietnam Memorial
*Maya Lin: Designer
*Jan Scruggs
*http://www.npr.org/2015/04/30/403034599/vietnam-veterans-memorial-founder-monument-almost-never-got-built?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=us
* Now its your turn to find a controversial monument or
memorial