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videos + essays
Over the next two years, Seeing America will grow to include 100 videos, 18 essays, quizzes, discussion questions and lesson plans.
William F. Cogswell, Queen Lili’uokalani, and Maria Kealaulaokalani Lane Ena, ʻAhu ʻula (The Kalākaua Cape)
This royal portrait and cape convey the power of the Hawaiian monarchy and the tensions around the momentous historical events of 1898.
Francisco Oller, Still Life with Plantains and Bananas and Still Life with Coconuts
Oller inspires a sense of monumentality in his paintings of common fruits from Puerto Rico.
Burnham and Root, The Monadnock Building
This early skyscraper stretches the limits of how tall a brick building could be
Paukeigope (Kiowa), Cradleboard
Meant to carry a baby and created by a community of women, this cradleboard is an expression of love
The story of the Oyster Man, a Tlingit totem pole
Learn the story behind this totem pole that no longer stands
A modern gem, the Reliance Building
How Chicago architecture sprung up thanks to new technology at the turn of the century
Tlingit mortuary and memorial totem poles
Learn about two types of totem poles from the Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest Coast that memorialize individuals who have passed
Defeated, heroized, dismantled: Richmond’s Robert E. Lee Monument
Dedicated in 1890; removed in 2021
Monument Avenue and the Lost Cause
A conversation that took place on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, just before the last Confederate monument on the boulevard was removed in September 2021
Tlingit sovereignty and the Proud Raven (“Lincoln”) Pole
A totem pole records Tlingit claims to land in southeastern Alaska by acknowledging the first sighting of a white man, who happens to be based on the likeness of Abraham Lincoln.
