How do monuments and memorials reflect our history?
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand,
A mighty woman with a torch,
whose flame is the imprisoned lightning,
and her name, Mother of Exiles.
How do monuments and memorials reflect our history?
Kirsten Surprenant, American Studies, Rivendell Academy
What is the purpose of memorials and monuments?
What is historical memory?
How do governments and citizens shape historical memory?
What is the difference between history and memory?
Working with images, poetry, and other sources, students will raise and explore questions like the ones above about monuments and memorials as they study American history from European contact to the end of Reconstruction.
Students began their work by reading and discussing Emma Lazarus’s iconic poem The New Colossus which was affixed to the base of the Statue of Liberty in 1903. Her words, “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” changed the original intent of the French gift to the United States. They examined the image of the Statue of Liberty in popular culture and its role as tribute art in response to the September 11th attacks. Researching the history of the Statue of Liberty culminated in their creation of “snapshot biographies” telling the story of the Statue of Liberty’s life and its meaning as a symbol of the United States.
Later in the year, each student will choose an American ideal, event, or person and design and build a monument of their own.