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Alison
Mar 5, 202215 min read

Mapping Public Memory

In the summer of 2021, Doug and Alison participated in the Lynch Fellowship for educators at the Leventhal Map Library of the Boston Public Library.


Over the summer we met over Zoom with over a dozen other educators along with our Leventhal guides Michelle LeBlanc and Lynn Brown. The goal was to develop curricula using maps, as well as digital mapping programs to create curricula. Social justice was a common theme among the group, often using Boston as a site.


This is the project we developed.




Mapping Public Memory


Top: Perspective view of Bunker Hill Monument, drawn by Richard P. Mallory, 1848; Boston Public Library, Leventhal Map Center

Bottom: Krzysztof Wodiczko, Bunker Hill Monument Projection, Boston, 1998. Public projection with video and sound. © Krzysztof Wodiczko Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co., New York.





Doug Healy/ Alison Safford

Carolyn A. Lynch Teaching Fellows 2021

Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library



Index

Index and Project Statement

Introduction and Goals

Foundational Project

Option 1: Making Your Monument

Option 2: Counter Monuments

Option 3: A New Freedom Trail

Sharing Digitally

Resources



Project Statement

The Mapping Memory project grew from a class called Mapping Meaning taught by Doug Healy, a history and humanities teacher, and Alison Safford, a visual arts teacher. These projects touch on visual, cultural, and social literacy in a way that speaks to both subjects, as well as the ways they intersect. We see them fitting best in the context of an art or a history course.

We have started with one core Foundational Project that focuses on the idea of information gathering and filtering that information through the student’s voice. The project is flexible in that you can do only the Foundational Project or continue with one or more of the four project options. While the projects build on each other, they also work as individual projects.

While we have given some loose guidelines around timing and age levels, there is no substitute for knowing your own class to determine how long a project might take, and what options seem the best for your students. We worked together at an independent school with a unique module-based system, with 1 ½ hour long classes every day for 5 weeks, which works well for intensive projects such as these. Of course, since this isn't possible in every school, it's up to each teacher's judgement. We would love to hear how you made it work for your situation.



City of Boston dedication of the Army and Navy Monument, Sept. 17, 1877; Horace McMurtrie, 1877



INTRODUCTION & GOALS


How do we remember the past as a culture? As a city? As a classroom? As ourselves?


We learn about it from our schools, literature and other writings, popular culture, friends and family, and even from objects marking a time, place, and event someone has deemed significant.


In this series of projects students will examine how objects and sites can tell a story, especially ones that exist in the public sphere. We will consider how objects and sites exist in the past, present, and future context and how their meanings change over time. Specifically, we are going to focus on monuments, historical sites, and in the future, museums.


We hope students will learn to look at these manifestations of public memory and start to ask questions:

Who put the object there?

Does it have the same reading now as when it was created?

Who decides what gets to be viewed in the public?

Do those voices speak for everyone? For contemporary values? Values of a pluralistic society? How does your/my/our voice fit into the conversation?

And not just who does the monument speak for, but who does it not? Who is left out?


Ultimately students will add their own values, stories, and conversations, to broaden the array of whose voices speak to public memory.


Since these monuments and historical sites exist in the public sphere, we will first use the public sphere of the city as a classroom. Students will rely on their own senses, knowledge, and experiences to observe the way these sites and monuments speak. Next, they will return to their classroom to research and respond to what they have seen. Finally, students will pool and display their information in the public realm of the internet to create new and expanded guides to Boston, and its history.




Foundational Project: Reading Monuments


Strategics Materials students will need: -a simple notebook and a writing tool (for note taking, mapping, and sketching) -a cell phone to photograph and document what they see (this can be shared, held by an adult, or left to adults to help document) -a simple paper map of the area (one per student) Timing Guideline: ½ day for field trip to monument area of city 2 classes to research and to fill out Survey 123 form 1 class to review ArcGIS map results Students may pick their own memorial, draw an assigned memorial from a “hat”, or simply can be preassigned as works for the class size and dynamics. Students can double up, or work independently, again as fits with class size and dynamics.

 


As citizens or tourists of a city, we are used to passing monuments and memorials around town, and don’t always think about their meanings and stories beyond what is immediately apparent. Monuments work to glorify stories of the past, to honor the war dead, or to focus on an achievement. In the context of history, it is important to investigate not just the monuments, but the events, efforts, and stories that put them there. This exercise will help guide students learn to read a monument in an in-depth and multilayered way.


Recently with the BLM movement, we have seen the power of monuments and more to the point, how the values they promote can affect the lives of those who were excluded from the historic narrative. Students will use their own observations, along with guiding questions to help them look for and notice details, to investigate a monument from many angles, and learn to add their own voices to the readings of these monuments.





Note: There is an emphasis on the student trusting themselves as sources of and gatherers of information. This relates to challenging the idea of a single experience and narrative. Their thoughts and opinions are not irrelevant, but an important part of a larger inquiry. The quick reading below speaks to trusting yourself as a tool of cartography.



 

On using your body and senses as a measuring and cartographical device: In front of me, on the desk where I write, I’ve assembled a bunch of instruments useful in measuring the environment, instruments that I’ve found around the house. In front of me, on the desk where I write, I’ve assembled a tape measure, a yardstick, a stopwatch, a watch, a goniometer and an arm protractor, a clinometer, a map measure, a compass, a wall thermometer, a pocket thermometer, a percentage protractor, a level, a plumb, a light metre, a camera, a pocket scale, a postage scale, a barometer, a measuring cup, a set of measuring spoons, a pedometer, a stud finder, and a passel of questionnaires. Some of them, like the pedometer, no longer work, but still I hold on to them. Others, like a couple of the questionnaires, never worked at all, but even these I am loath to throw away. All of them have told me, or promised to tell me, something about my world, and since the world is some- thing I’m eager to know about, I’m not eager to part with these instruments, functioning, flawed, or broken down. It’s 84˚F where I sit at 11:30:36 in the morning. It is nine minutes and 47 seconds since I typed the first word in this paragraph. There’s another instrument in this room, and I am it. I would have said it was stuffy where I sit and that half an hour had passed since I started writing, although my stop- watch now says it’s been 11 minutes and 38 seconds at, according to my other watch, 11:34 on the nose. I won’t argue with my instruments. They’re measuring different things than I. My thermometer knows nothing of the humidity oppressing me; my watches, recording the pressure of their drive springs, know nothing of the pressure of trying to say something with words. Who should say which is superior instrumentation? Not I, certainly… “Lynch Debord: About Two Psychogeographies”, Denis Wood



 


The City as Classroom


In this initial part of the project, students will rely on themselves as information gatherers.

Ideally gathering the information could be done in a neighborhood of your city with groupings of monuments. Depending on your city and its history, you may need to be creative about finding an appropriate location. The more monuments the more variety and intersectional views the class will have to work with, but even one or two monuments or memorials will do.



Atlas of the City of Boston, plate 32; creators George Washington Bromley and Walter Scott Bromley, 1888, collection of Norman B. Leventhal Map Center


In Boston the areas of Commonwealth Avenue in Back Bay, Boston Garden and Commons, or the Freedom Trail all are saturated with monuments and plaques referring to history and are ideal places to start.



An example of text on the Ether Monument, Boston

Photo by Dr. Roy Winkelman, 2011




THE 4 LENSES

IDENTITY/ Subject Matter

TEXT

PHYSICALITY

PLACEMENT



Within the 4 suggested lenses, the guiding questions serve as a resource for you to choose the questions most appropriate for your class. Each step leads to the next, helping to guide students through the process of visual investigation, to academic and historical investigation, ultimately to authoring.


Once you go out into the city, students should choose a monument from those available, with the intention of covering as many monuments as possible. Students can work alone or in teams, with teams having the benefit of discussing and comparing observations.


In their notebooks, they should answer as many of the following questions as possible, knowing that not all questions may apply, or may need to be researched more later.


Lens 1: IDENTITY/ SUBJECT

In this step the students will go beyond the name of the person or event memorialized, to consider what we see, but also what we don’t see. Not all the questions may be answered from solely observing the monument, but these can be part of the classroom research phase. And not all questions need to be answered.

.

Guiding questions:

· What person or event is the monument depicting? Who are they?

· Is the person a symbol of an idea (think of the Statue of Liberty)?

· Is anyone else depicted? Is anyone unnamed?

· What is the person’s depicted gender? Race? Age?

· What was the person’s role in history, or event?

· When and where was the person born? Live? Die?

· What else seems important to you?



Lens 2: TEXT

Next students should examine the text to see what it tells, how it tells it, and what is left out.


· What does it say about the subject of the monument (in text or interpreted)?

· Copy it all down if short, in bullet points if long

· Who created the monument? Artist? Sponsors?

· What are the biggest words on the monument? What are the smallest?

· When was the monument placed/ dedicated? (year may be in Roman numerals, copy it down and translate later if needed)

· What else seems important to you?



Lens 3: PHYSICALITY

The materials, size, proportions, and other physical qualities of the monument can give us hints about how this person or event is meant to be perceived.


· What materials is the monument made from?

· What is the monument’s expression? Stance? Gesture? Hand gestures?

· What other objects are represented?

· Where is the monument in relation to YOU? Above you? By how much? Same level as you? Is the figure larger or smaller than you?

· Can you touch the monument? Can you touch the person(s) represented?

· What else seems important to you?



Lens 4: PLACEMENT

In this step, students will learn to notice the space around the monument, to consider who the monument is addressing, and how it’s site can tell us more about the monument.


· What other objects are in the vicinity? Other memorials? Benches? Fountain? Add them to your map.

· Where is the monument? In a park? Urban or suburban? What part of town?

· WHO uses that space typically? (be specific, look around you)

· Does the setting relate to the monument? How?

· Mark where it is on the copy of the map you have been given.

· What else seems important to you?





Classroom Research Follow Up


Once back in the classroom, spend some classroom time fact checking, and or doing some background research about that which was not apparent from looking at the monument alone. Students may want to revisit questions from the 4 lenses, or research questions that arose during their observations.


The purpose of the research is to help flesh out in-depth understanding, to answer questions above that have more of a historical context, and to look to research already done on their monuments and subject matters. Emphasize that the monument in telling just a part of the story.


This research should also be done in their notebooks.


Places to look:

· Typical research sites (wiki, encyclopedia)

· The site of the park the monument is located in

· The organization that helped erect the monument

· Any maps or guides the park may have provided you with


Adding to ArcGIS digital map will be here














Option 1: Making Your Monument


Strategic Materials students will need: -printouts of photographs they took of their monuments -matt board to mount proposals -glue sticks -color markers -laptops for generating text, and digital collage -other material approaches are possible as well such as small sculptures or dioramas, even 3D printed versions of their monuments Time: ½ class for project introduction, including showing visual examples 1 homework period for idea generation 1-2 classes to fabricate proposals


 


When a monument is taken down it can have several root causes, but it often signifies change: a change in power, the need to correct an old or exclusive narrative, or to create a new vision.




Photo by Jesse Costa, WBUR; 2020




In this step, students will consider contemporary values as well as their personal values in the context of the monument. Instead of the idea that monuments address the “universal”, student will focus on how they, as an individual, see the monument. How might they, as authors, want to comment on the monument?


· What do you share with the person/people represented in the monument?

· How are you different?

· What does it make you think about? Or feel?

· How do you think the designers (both artist and those who called for/ paid for the monument) wanted to make you feel?

· If you could change any one thing about the monument, what would you change? Why?

· What text might you add? Or remove?



Using what you (the student) have learned, become the author of the monument by creating a proposal for a new monument or a monument modification. Some possibilities include:


· Add a plaque: Include information that the monument excludes to contextualize it in contemporary times.

· Alter the monument: Could you change the meaning by changing the placement? Paint or rearrange the monument? Add to or take away from the monument?

· Move the monument: we examined how a site can give a monument importance or historical context. Change the site or placement in a way that comments on the original monument.

· Replace the monument: Create a new monument that of your own design. It should still relate to the content of the original monument.

· Interact with: Can you interact with the monument? Can you dance or perform in a way that comments on the monument?



How-To Tips for Creating a Proposal There are many ways to create the proposals, depending on student/teacher comfort with materials, and time allotted. Some simple and accessible options are: -print out images of their monument and to draw or collage on top of that -create a digital collage -create a presentation board with multiple images which inform their solution -include simple text to add clarity, and to add a statement of intent, BUT the changes should be visually obvious Other options include creating 3D models using clay, papier mâché, or even designing in CAD and using a 3D printer. As we always say, aesthetics and presentation matter.




Option 2: Counter Monuments


Strategics Materials students will need: -matt board to mount proposals or nice drawing paper (11x17”, or 18 x 24”) -glue sticks -color markers -laptops for generating text, and images Time: ½ class for project introduction, including showing visual examples 1 homework period for idea generation 1-2 classes to fabricate proposals




Map of Stolperstein (stumbling stones) in Berlin, placed there by artist Gunter Demnig. The stones mark the homes of Jewish citizens and others who were persecuted by the Nazis. The stones in Berlin were placed starting in 1996, and also exist all over Europe.



A counter monument is, according to James E. Young, “against the authoritarian propensity in all art that reduces viewers to passive spectators” (p. 28, The Texture of Memory).


Counter monuments go beyond the idea of a passive monument (memorializing a person, event, or idea) to challenge the viewer to take an action (from reconsidering history, to working to correct past and present injustices). They ask the viewer to consider their place and role in history through interactions, placement, even temporality.


In this project, students respond either to their monument from the Reading a Monument exercise or can choose a social justice issue that speaks to their own interest. The examples in the included resources, illustrate the diverse ways artists and designers have engaged viewers to go beyond commemorating, and would help equip students with concrete examples.




L: Irish Potato Famine Memorial by Robert Shure, Image by BostonbyAida

R: Food Not Bombs, an organization giving away food at community events, photo from Food Not Bombs


Students can propose a work that addresses the issue in a way that:

· Provokes thought or raises awareness

· Works to right a wrong

· Solves a problem related to the monument

· Asks the viewer to interact with the work in a new way

· Asks the viewer to add to the work

· Tells an untold, forgotten, or suppressed story


A main point is that this can be performative or socially engaged. It can be an action, it can ask something of the viewer, or give something to the viewer.



How-To Tips for Creating a Proposal (same as above) There are many ways to create the proposals, depending on student/teacher comfort with materials, and time allotted. Some simple and accessible options are: -print out images of their monument and to draw or collage on top of that -create a digital collage -create a presentation board with multiple images which inform their solution -include simple text to add clarity, and to add a statement of intent, BUT the changes should be visually obvious Other options include creating 3D models using clay, papier mâché, or even designing in CAD and using a 3D printer. As I always say, aesthetics and presentation matter.



 


Resources for Making Your Monument and Counter Monument Projects

PowerPoint: Monuments and Counter Monuments



The Monument Project

Started by Harvard College students, The Monument Project provides a central space for creative thinkers to reimagine monuments and public art. Student artwork can be uploaded to this collection!


Wikipedia: Anti-Monumentalism


James E. Young, Memory and Counter-Memory








Option 3: A New Freedom Trail


Materials students will need: -matt board to mount proposals or nice drawing paper (11x17”, or 18 x 24”) -glue sticks -color markers -laptops for generating text, and images Time: ½ day field trip to walk Freedom Trail (optional) ½ class for project introduction, including showing visual examples 1 homework period for idea generation 1-2 classes to fabricate proposals, and to add to collective map ½ class to reflect on collective map




“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. “

The Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile self- guided tour of Revolutionary War sites and monuments in downtown Boston. Visitors follow a red brick trail in the sidewalk, which takes them to 16 sites, including Paul Revere’s house, the Old State House, and the site of the Boston Tea Party. It’s a fascinating tour, but the city’s emphasis on the Revolution leaves out the rest of Boston’s history, both before and after the Revolution.


Boston has long and varied history of struggles: against racism, urban renewal & redlining, slavery, for women’s rights. The African Meeting House is preserved on Beacon Hill, but what sites of modern Black history ought to be commemorated? What about Boston’s Native American history, or women’s struggles? LGBTQ? Labor unions? Economic justice movements such as Occupy Wall Street? Antiwar movements such as those about Vietnam or Iraq? Punks, hip-hop or other alternative cultural movements? Boston rabble-rousers?


Should public history only tell stories everyone agrees with? Only about history’s “winners”?


What historical events, ideas, people and stories do you, as a citizen of Boston, think we should be remembering or commemorating? Which freedoms do you think matter the most? Who should we acknowledge and honor?


Design Your Own Freedom Trail

Now that you’ve designed your monument, expand on your ideas and map your own Freedom Trail, which would educate and inspire Boston’s residents and visitors about the people, events and ideas that have been left out of our public history; tell a story that has not yet been told, but needs to be.


Before you design your own trail, walk the current Freedom Trail. Think about how the sites connect to each other – how does the Freedom Trail tell its story? Are the sites chronological? Geographical? Thematic?


How will your trail tell its story? How will you connect the sites so that you’re telling a story, not just laying out a random collection of sites? What kind of freedom will your trail deal with? Will you tell a story of freedom from oppression? Of freedom of speech and expression? Of the expansion of democracy?



Materials needed: -color drawing pencils or markers (color can give information about your map and included sites) -small simple maps of the area (one per student) -a larger map for the class (where student’s Freedom Trails can be collectively mapped and compared) -glue sticks

 

Freedom Trail Map Requirements (map out on individual student maps of Boston)

· Your trail must have at least six thematic stops. One of your stops must be a current freedom fight, for example Black Lives Matter.


· You must also include at least one site which acknowledges a person or event in Boston’s history that has been ignored or glossed over, but that should be better known, e.g., the bussing riots


· For each stop on your Freedom Trail, you must write a short information paragraph explaining the significance of the site. Include all the who/what/why/when/where information visitors need. This should be word processed and either collaged into place on the map or attached to it with a key to connect content to site.


Once individual maps are completed, on a large communal map of Boston, students should take turns laying out their own maps so that this map contains all the classes’ trails. Each student should use their own color and/or line pattern so they are easily distinguishable.


Once the various Freedom Trails are all on a communal map, spend time as a class studying the relationships that emerge.


What connections do you see?

Do different Freedom Trails overlap or connect to each other? Why might that be?

Which Freedom Trails seem separate?

Do different struggles take place in different parts of the city? What does that tell you?


Adding to ArcGIS digital map will be here



 

Resources for Freedom Trail Project The Trail of Tears


The Underground Railroad




Redlining tours





 



General Resources



Podcast of 99% Invisible: Falling of the Lenins


Podcast of 99% Invisible: Return of Onate’s Foot


1,712 Confederate Monuments Remain Standing in United States

The Monument Lab

“Monument Lab is a public art and history studio based in Philadelphia. Monument Lab works with artists, students, educators, activists, municipal agencies, and cultural institutions on participatory approaches to public engagement and collective memory. Founded by Paul Farber and Ken Lum in 2012, Monument Lab cultivates and facilitates critical conversations around the past, present, and future of monuments.”

Making the Memorial, by Maya Lin


Decoding Dictatorial Statues, by Bernke Klein Zandvoort (editor)


Alison’s Map Pinterest


Doug’s Map Pinterest





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