Exposing the complicated truth of America’s past is the real work of historians.
Tag Archives: Monuments and Memorials (Structures)
Surfside Agonizes After Condo Collapse, With a Memorial Hanging in the Balance
What to do with the site? There is no easy way to both honor victims and compensate condo owners.
Alabama Begins Removing Racist Language From Its Constitution
Many outdated provisions have long since been invalidated, but the language that was specifically intended to enshrine white supremacy has remained.
Memorial Along National Mall Honors Pandemic Victims
Hundreds of thousands of white flags honor the more than 670,000 people in the United States who have died from the coronavirus.
Some Asked, ‘Does Chattanooga Need a Lynching Memorial?’
Yes, said Jerome Meadows, who designed the Ed Johnson Memorial to help bring the city’s history to light, with reconciliation and healing.
Wrapped Arc de Triomphe Is Christo’s Fleeting Gift to Paris
Planned by the conceptual artist 60 years ago, the posthumous work transforms a great monument with a glistening cloak. It feels like a liberating moment for the city.
Adam Pendleton Is Rethinking the Museum
“Who Is Queen?” at MoMA is the artist’s most personal and ambitious show yet, exploring how we might live beyond labels in American society. “I want to overwhelm the museum,” he said.
In Shanksville, Preserving the Memory of 9/11 and the Wars That Followed
After Flight 93 went down, once unthinkable duties were thrust upon the community, including young people who found themselves coming of age in a time of war.
Buffalo Soldiers, the Famed Black Cavalry, Get a Statue at West Point
For decades, the Buffalo Soldiers taught military horsemanship to cadets at West Point. On Friday, a statue was unveiled in their honor.
Rebuilding Ground Zero Was a Mess. Lower Manhattan Bloomed Anyway.
A fraught reconstruction was a missed opportunity, but it helped foster a new urbanism and a broader vision of what a neighborhood can be.
Virginia to Remove Robert E. Lee Statue From State Capital
The nation’s largest Confederate memorial was erected in 1890, the first of six monuments that became symbols of white power along the main boulevard in Richmond.
Mexico City to Replace Columbus Statue With Indigenous Woman Monument
“We owe it to them. We exist because of them,” the mayor of Mexico City said in a news conference.
Colonial-Era Royal Carriage Stirs Up Modern Backlash in Netherlands
The “Golden Coach,” built for Queen Wilhelmina of Holland in 1896, is emerging as a new focus of debate over slavery, colonialist oppression and history.
Virginia Supreme Court Clears Path for Removal of Robert E. Lee Statue
Two unanimous rulings allow Gov. Ralph Northam to remove the statue from its prominent spot on Monument Avenue in Richmond.
Performative Antiracism at the University of Wisconsin
A textbook demonstration of the difference between sincere activism and playacting.
Felix Hall, a Soldier Lynched at Fort Benning, Is Remembered After 80 Years
No one was ever charged in his death in 1941. This month, a memorial was dedicated in Georgia — and a historian finally found a photograph of the young soldier.
Overlooked No More: Hettie Anderson, Sculptors’ Model Who Evaded Fame
Her image has been rendered on gold coins and monuments around the United States. But little is known about this Gilded Age model.
Even the Pope Has Prayed to Venezuela’s Beloved ‘Doctor of the Poor’
In a deeply polarized country, suffering an extreme health crisis, one of the few uniting beliefs is the admiration across the political spectrum for a doctor recently beatified by the Vatican.
The South Must Teach Its Children the Truth
Attempts to restrict how students are taught about racism in schools have multiplied, but some in the South are standing in defense of real history.
The Travel Industry’s Reckoning With Race and Inclusion
Tourists, particularly Black travelers, are paying close attention to how destinations and travel service providers approach diversity and equity after a year of social justice protests.
‘Don’t Sacrifice Your Life to Visit the Taj Mahal’: India Reopens but Fear Pervades
As India emerges from a traumatic spring, its most famous monument is open again. But worries that another wave of infections may be looming have cast a pall over lives that feel stuck in limbo.
India Reopens But Fear Pervades: ‘Don’t Sacrifice Your Life to Visit the Taj Mahal’
As India emerges from a traumatic spring, its most famous monument is open again. But worries that another wave of infections may be looming have cast a pall over lives that feel stuck in limbo.
City Approves Landmarks Honoring Chinese Americans and Native Americans
The Kimlau War Memorial in Manhattan has long been a symbolic gateway to Chinatown, while an archaeological site in Staten Island dates back 8,000 years.
Roast Pig Statue in Rome Draws Animal Rights Protests
A new set of public artworks was supposed to pay tribute to the Italian capital, but a sculpture of a roasted pig has raised the hackles of animal rights groups and finnicky Romans.
George Floyd Statue in Brooklyn Is Defaced With Hate Group’s Symbol
The vandalism came just days after the statue was unveiled, and only a day before the officer who killed Mr. Floyd was to be sentenced.
Unanimous Vote Is Final Step Toward Removing Roosevelt Statue
The American Museum of Natural History’s sculpture of the ex-president, flanked by a Native American man and an African man, will be sent to an institution dedicated to his life.
Congress Backs National Memorial Designation for Former Pulse Nightclub Site
Congress has adopted legislation to formally designate the site of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., as a memorial to the 49 people who were killed there on June 12, 2016.
Deb Haaland Wants to Restore National Monuments Slashed by Trump
Deb Haaland has advised the president to reinstate former boundaries at Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, and also in a marine area off New England.
Oxford University Scholars Refuse to Teach Under Cecil Rhodes Statue
A statue of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University has drawn criticism for decades. Now some academics said they would refuse to teach at the college where the statue sits.
France Sends the U.S. Another, Smaller Statue of Liberty
The replica will go on display on Ellis Island for Independence Day before being moved to Washington, D.C., where it will remain until 2031.
On a Kentucky Riverbank, a Path to Remembrance
Hannah Drake’s Un(Known) Project in Louisville is both a memorial to enslaved people whose stories will never be uncovered, and a challenge to unearth narratives hidden in attics and archives.
The Remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest Are Being Exhumed in Memphis
The remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave trader and leader of the Ku Klux Klan, will be moved from Memphis to a Confederate museum 200 miles away.
Greenwood Rising Links Tulsa’s Tragic History to Today’s Struggles
Throughout the South, fluid new museums serve as memorial markers too. Greenwood Rising follows a neighborhood’s history into the present.
Book Review: ‘How the Word Is Passed,’ by Clint Smith
In “How the Word Is Passed,” the poet and journalist Clint Smith visits nine places to assess how we are reckoning with our racial history and its legacy.
Stone Mountain’s Giant Confederate Monument Avoids Removal
Officials at the Georgia park voted to move flags and create exhibits to put the Civil War into fuller context. But the likeness of three Confederate leaders carved into stone isn’t going anywhere.
We Took Down Richmond’s Confederate Monuments. Now We Build.
Confederate monuments no longer define our city. But we must build something new in their place.
New York City Unveils First Memorial for Victims of Covid-19
The Sanitation Department unveiled a statue dedicated to the essential workers it lost during the pandemic. It is likely to be the first of many such memorials.
Memorializing a Year of Loss in New York
City agencies are grappling with how to recognize workers who were lost in the coronavirus pandemic.
8 Ways a Modern Civil Rights Movement Moved the Culture
From music to movies, canceled podcasts to toppled monuments, our writers take stock of the culture we shared in the year after George Floyd’s murder.
Ukraine’s Burial Mounds Offer Meaning in a Heap of History
The Scythians, marijuana-smoking nomadic warriors of ancient Ukraine, built thousands of burial mounds that are at risk today. A preservation group finds resonance in them for a country at war.
Tree of Life Synagogue Plans a New Beginning, Years After Deadly Shooting
Daniel Libeskind, an architect known for memorializing historical trauma, will turn the site of 11 deaths back into a home for worship as well as a place to learn about confronting hatred.
They Are Their Own Monuments
In two North Philadelphia neighborhoods, many hands create homegrown art tributes to local heroes.
$18 Million Refit of Colosseum Will Give Visitors a Gladiator’s View
The winning design for a new floor for the Roman landmark, planned to be ready for 2023, will cover the exposed subterranean chambers and reconnect “the thread of time.”
Why Biden Must Save Bears Ears National Monument
‘We are rooted to Mother Earth through her body like the plants are rooted to the soil.’
After a Tragedy at Sea, a Wrecked Ship Becomes a Powerful Symbol in Italy
The relic of the deadliest shipwreck in the Mediterranean in living memory — in which some 1,000 migrants died — is being re-envisioned as a human rights monument.
World War I Memorial in Washington Raises First Flag After Years of Wrangling
As the United States withdraws from its longest war, a memorial that recognizes one of its most complicated ones officially opens in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
After Threats to Turn It Into a Toilet, a Confederate Monument Is Recovered
A stone chair dedicated to Jefferson Davis has been returned to the United Daughters of the Confederacy after a group calling itself White Lies Matter claimed to have stolen it.
Charlottesville Can Remove Confederate Statues, High Court Rules
Monuments to the Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are not protected by state law and can come down, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
A Painful Project for France: A Museum on the Ravages of Terrorism
After a decade of traumatic attacks that killed nearly 300 people and wounded almost 1,000, the project aims to build a memorial to help heal the country’s wounds.
South Dakota Wildfires Prompt Mount Rushmore to Close
Gov. Kristi Noem said the monument was not under threat but that gusting winds could cause conditions to change quickly.