Since 2020 historical monuments in the United States and abroad have come under increasing scrutiny. Many long-standing monuments have been pulled down, some moved to new locations, others reinterpreted with new inscriptions. High profile initiatives have been launched to reassess the commemorative landscape and ask pointed questions about not only who is represented but who is not. More and more citizens have become aware that historical monuments are not neutral observers of the past, but rather efforts to set a particular interpretation of the past in stone and to communicate that view into the future. To understand a monument one must study the person or event being memorialized, the historical moment in which the monument was constructed, as well as how present day views of the person or event have evolved.
To engage with these issues and gain a greater appreciation for the symbolic power of historical commemoration, students at the University of New Haven have researched case studies of particular monuments. You can find these on the Case Studies page.
