Sculpture and architecture created a sense of civic identity.
1800–1900 C.E.
videos + essays
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William Wetmore Story, Cleopatra
What does this marble sculpture of Cleopatra tell us about race and the Civil War in the U.S.?
David Drake, Double-handled jug
Enslaved artist David Drake inscribed a poem onto this jug at a time when literacy among enslaved people was outlawed
Burnham and Root, Reliance Building
How Chicago architecture sprung up thanks to new technology at the turn of the century
Slave Burial Ground, University of Alabama
This plaque is the only marker of the burial ground of people who died while enslaved by the University of Alabama and its faculty.
Monument Avenue and the Lost Cause
A conversation that took place on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, July, 2021
Defeated, heroized, dismantled: Richmond’s Robert E. Lee Monument
Dedicated in 1890; removed in 2021
Little Round House
The University of Alabama, Civil War, and slavery; examining the role of architecture as historical marker
Soaring upward, Louis Sullivan and the invention of the skyscraper
A miracle on Bleecker Street, ornament, invention, and one of the great early skyscrapers
The Alamo (& Mission San Antonio de Valero)
At the Alamo, the representation of patriotic heroism and brave sacrifice eclipses Spain’s earlier colonial presence and the history of the site’s ruination, reconstruction, and reframing.
Cultures and slavery in the American south: a Face Jug from Edgefield county
This jug is one of the earliest known alkaline-glazed stoneware face vessels made by slaves or their descendants in the Edgefield District of South Carolina.
Hiram Powers, The Greek Slave
Though at first glance this nude seems plucked from classical antiquity, it actually alludes to modern politics.
Inventing America, Colt’s Experimental Pocket Pistol
The gun that "won the West" also transformed American manufacturing and marketing.
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