The results of the audit-drawing from records of approximately 50,000 conventional monuments-were sobering, though not surprising. Among the first grants was $4 million in support of Monument Lab, a nonprofit public art and history studio in Philadelphia, whose first project under this initiative was the design and implementation of an audit of the existing commemorative landscape in the United States. In 2020, the Mellon Foundation launched the Monuments Project Initiative with a quarter-billion-dollar commitment to build on our efforts to preserve the stories of those who have often been denied historical recognition.
When we looked around and started asking these questions, the bigger picture became clear: our monuments were telling a story that wasn’t fully squaring with who we know America to be. And we did strain to find examples of the most influential women of our history remembered in a public way. We did run into more tributes to war than to peace. Until recently, our country didn’t have a reliable or comprehensive way to answer questions about an important part of the public sphere: namely, what we commemorate, memorialize, and honor together.īut we did see standing the statues of Confederate generals. If there’s a statue or sculpture, who does it represent? If there’s a sign or plaque, what does it say?Īnd what do they say about the people who left them there? But keep looking, and what else do you notice? What else have people built? When you step outside, walk down the street, head to the nearest park or gathering place, and look around, what do you find? Trees and grass-more than likely. How might we reconstruct a forgotten origin story? How might we immerse in histories erased?
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