Monuments and Memory

Archaeological Perspectives on Commemoration

John H. Jameson, Sherene Baugher, Richard Veit

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9780813079233
• eBook ISBN: 9780813073576
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social History
• Index: Social Sciences

Examining the pasts, evolving meanings, and silenced histories surrounding public monuments  



This volume examines many different public monuments to increase understanding of the cultural factors that have shaped their creation, maintenance, and—in some cases—removal. The role of monuments in communities and society continues to be an important and controversial topic, and the case studies in this volume contribute to this conversation by assessing the ways such markers can be empowering or marginalizing from a wide range of perspectives.



The monuments discussed here represent historical events from the Revolutionary War through the Korean War, including the “slave auction block” formerly located on the streets of Fredericksburg, Virginia; memorials to Confederate soldiers across the South and in northern POW cemeteries; and the Pullman National Monument in Chicago for workers who participated in the 1894 Pullman Strike. This volume also highlights the dearth of statues memorializing the achievements of women and minorities, especially women of color, and contributors discuss whether recent movements advocating for more inclusive histories will lead to an increase in monuments honoring people whose narratives have been suppressed.



Looking at the powerful role of monuments in conveying the memory of history to future generations, the contributors to Monuments and Memory show why it is important to address the messages of these sites and ask whose histories they may be silencing. This book demonstrates how conversations surrounding preservation and interpretation of monuments encourage community involvement.  



A volume in the series Cultural Heritage Studies, edited by Katherine Hayes

Contributors: Mark Cassello | Richard F. Veit | Mark Cianciosi | Joshua Butchko | Diane Wallman | Suzanne Spencer-Wood | Sherene Baugher | Lu Ann De Cunzo | John H. Jameson | Jeffrey Smith | Hilary Green | Brant Venables | Timo Ylimaunu | Paul R. Mullins | Kerri Barile | Harold Mytum | Melissa Ziobro | M. Jay Stottman | Levi Fox | Matthew Litteral

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Monuments and Memories: Irish, Polish, and Haudenosaunee Engagements with the Heritage Narratives of the American Revolutionary War
• 3. The Fredericksburg Slave Auction Block: A Monumental Reminder of Race Relations in Virginia
• 4. “Each Soldier’s Grave a Shrine”: Confederate Cemetery Monuments
• 5. Remembering, Reconciliation, and Forgetting: Monuments of Northern Cemeteries for Confederate Prisoners of War, Especially Elmira
• 6. Race, Gettysburg Memory, and the Jenkins Monument in Pennsylvania, 1990s–2020
• 7. Confronting Confederate Narratives: Archaeology at the Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park
• 8. Hidden in Public: The Power of the Memorial Landscape and the Archaeology of a Cornerstone Deposit from Louisville’s Confederate Monument
• 9. Pullman: A Model Town Becomes a National Monument
• 10. A Feminist Intersectional Perspective Addressing the Dearth of Statues of Women and Minorities Resulting from the Great Predominance of Racist Patriarchal Public Statues in the United States
• 11. Three Ways of Remembering World War I: The Sledmere Memorials, Yorkshire, England
• 12. Memorializing Defeat: Remembering Civil Wars in Finland and USA
• 13. The Forgotten War Memory Boom: State and Local Korean War Memorials, 1987–2003
• 14. “Be Assured That … All … Memorials Will Be Kept Sacred and Beautiful”: The Life Cycle of Memorials at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey
• 15. Cannons by the Courthouse: War Memorials, Memory, and Commemoration in Modern Suburbia
• 16. Contested Monuments, Contested Spaces, and Contested Narratives
• List of Contributors
• Index
• Cultural Heritage Studies