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At the microphone: Louis Armstrong, surrounded by his orchestra, 1931

De-Satch-uration

Louis Armstrong’s complicated relationship with New Orleans.
Artist Vinnie Bagwell's proposal for a Harriet Tubman statue.

Philadelphia Unveils Proposals for New Harriet Tubman Statue

After a year of controversy, the city has narrowed down five options for a monument to the activist and abolitionist.
The iconic white lettered Hollywood sign

The Hidden History of the Hollywood Sign

“The sign has become a worldwide symbol of the Hollywood of the imagination, and it allows anyone who sees it to fill it with whatever meaning they want.”
Illustration of the Battle of Little Big Horn.

The True History of 'Custer's Last Stand'

We're talking about the Battle of Little Bighorn all wrong.
Exhibit

Monument Wars

This exhibit explores discussions about what we choose to memorialize – and why.

Woman playing piano for African American soldiers.

Black Burials and Civil War Forgetting in Olustee, Florida

Finding the forgotten and racialized landscape of Civil War memory.
Donellia Chives, a trustee of Penn Center.

White Gold from Black Hands: The Gullah Geechee Fight for a Legacy after Slavery

Descendants of the west Africans who picked the cotton that made Manchester rich are struggling to keep their distinct culture alive.
Collage of famous historical sites around the world.

The Future of Historic Preservation: History Matters … But Which History?

The complicated and visceral issue of how we preserve our history offers an opportunity for meaningful discourse.
The statue Sons of St. Augustine depicting Alexander Darnes and Edmund Kirby Smith.

The Doctor and the Confederate

A historian’s journey into the relationship between Alexander Darnes and Edmund Kirby Smith starts with a surprising eulogy.
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, showing a castle sculpture and reading "Lullaby land"

Inside the Disneyland of Graveyards

How Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, a star-studded cemetery in Los Angeles, corporatized mourning in America.
Headstones in Mount Auburn cemetery. Photograph by Daderot at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18003519.
original

A Tour of Mount Auburn Cemetery

Two centuries of New England intellectual history through the lives and ideas of people who are memorialized there.
Mount Rushmore with painted crowd behind it

A Usable Past for a Post-American Nation

We are living through a time when we cannot take our shared identity—and therefore our shared stories—for granted.
original

High Domes and Bottomless Pits

Exploring the homes of two presidents, the birthplace of another, and a natural wonder that once drew visitors from far and wide.
Arlen Parsa's Painting, Declaration of Independence Revisited (2019), the famous painting of the signing but with red dots over the faces of slaveholders.

How to Decolonize the Capitol

Art historians, legislators, and activists have long decried themes of white supremacy in the art collection of the U.S. Capitol. Can this place be decolonized?
A woman tends to a lawn at the corner of Confederate Lane and Plantation Parkway in the Mosby Woods neighborhood of Fairfax on Wednesday. The city is considering changing several names in the Civil War-themed development, but neighbors are divided. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

A Civil War Among Neighbors Over Confederate-Themed Streets

Debates between neighbors escalate over the use of Confederate names within a Northern Virginia neighborhood.
Various photos of Dylan.

One Fan’s Search for Seeds of Greatness in Bob Dylan’s Hometown

The iconic songwriter has transcended time and place for 60 years. What should that mean for the rest of us?
Lithograph of African Americans in prayer as Liberty lays a wreath on Charles Sumner’s casket. By Matt Morgan, from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1874.

Reconciliation Process

When Charles Sumner died in 1874, a bill he had sponsored two years earlier threatened to overshadow his legacy.
Picture of the statue of Black Hawk.

Remembering Black Hawk

A history of imperial forgetting.
Scene from from 'The Gilded Age' in which a wealthy white woman and an African American woman walk in the street, with a stagecoach behind them.

The True History Behind HBO's 'The Gilded Age'

Julian Fellowes' new series dramatizes the late 19th-century clash between New York City's old and new monied elite.
The Virginia monument, an equestrian statue on a pedestal with solders at its base.

The Contested Origins of Gettysburg’s Virginia Monument

Jon Tracey discusses the history of the creation of the Gettysburg Virginia Monument and the true reason it was erected.
An unkempt cemetery

When Black History Is Unearthed, Who Gets to Speak for the Dead?

Efforts to rescue African American burial grounds and remains have exposed deep conflicts over inheritance and representation.
‘The Proposed Emigrant Dumping Site’; cartoon by Victor Gillam from Judge magazine, March 22, 1890

Whose Freedom?

On the ways that people have conflated freedom with whiteness but pays too little attention to the force of freedom as a concept.
Photo of Union commanders.

The Anti-Lee

George Henry Thomas, southerner in blue.
Removal of graffitied Stonewall Jackson statue

The Fate of Confederate Monuments Should Be Clear

We know why they were built and why they have to come down.
Bass Reeves

The Resurrection of Bass Reeves

Today, the legendary deputy U.S. marshal is widely believed to be the real Lone Ranger. But his true legacy is even greater.
A Slavers of New York sticker pasted over a Bergen Street subway sign.

Mapping the History of Slavery in New York

A group of activists is calling attention to the legacy of slavery encoded in the names of New York City’s streets and neighborhoods.
The Gun Violence Memorial

What Should a Coronavirus Memorial Look Like? This Powerful Statement on Gun Violence Offers a Model

The pandemic, like other open wounds, must be remembered with an “open” memorial.
Construction of the U.S. Air Force Academy Chapel

Up In The Air

The restoration of the Air Force Academy Chapel is the U.S.’s most complex modernist preservation project ever.
US Capitol

Is the US Capitol a 'Temple of Democracy'? Its Authoritarian Architecture Suggests Otherwise

The neoclassical building was inspired by European shrines to imperial power.
John C. Calhoun

American Heretic, American Burke

A review of Robert Elder's new biography of John C. Calhoun.
Illustration of a coastline with indications of industry and farming

Human History and the Hunger for Land

From Bronze Age farmers to New World colonialists, the stories of struggle to claim more ground have shaped where and how we live.

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