Monument Wars in Delaware: A Roundtable Discussion

Preservation Delaware, Inc.

Please join us for this roundtable discussion on the role of public monuments in Delaware! September 30, 2020 event starts at 6:30 PM.

Why have monuments, including several here in Delaware, sparked such intense debate and become catalysts for acts of vandalism -- pitting social protests over injustice against the preservation of heritage?
Please join the University of Delaware’s Center for Historic Architecture and Design and Preservation Delaware, Inc. on Wednesday, September 30th from 6:30-8:00 p.m. for an engaging roundtable discussion about the past, present, and future of historical monuments in Delaware. The roundtable will be held virtually via Zoom, and is free and open to the public (pre-registration required).
For years, activists have challenged Americans to consider the subtle implications and secondary meanings of honoring complicated historical figures in public spaces. Historians have long advocated for the importance of understanding the circumstances and motivations at the creation of monuments, in addition to the people and events those monuments are intended to commemorate. The legacy and contemporary meanings of those monuments become even more complicated when the people honored for their virtuous actions also engaged in violent or oppressive behaviors not acceptable by current standards. Recent high-profile deaths of Black Americans in police custody have intensified debates about systemic racism across the country, with historical monuments often serving as focal points for symbolic action (or inaction). Many have argued that honoring our traditional heroes with permanent additions to the landscape can sustain historical traumas and perpetuate oppressive power structures and injustices. Others assert that we should not judge historical figures by today’s moral standards, and that the removal of historical monuments risks a collective historical amnesia and threatens patriotic values. In the polarization of our current political climate, balanced perspectives on the value, meaning, and the future prospects of these monuments are much needed--and this roundtable seeks to advance this cause.
Our moderated discussion will feature four panelists with expertise in American history and monuments. During the second half of our program, panelists will answer questions submitted by our audience. Our roundtable panelists include:

Dr. Sarah Beetham, is the Chair of Liberal Arts and Assistant Professor of Art History at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, specializing in American art and particularly the monuments erected to citizen soldiers after the Civil War. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from the University of Delaware and a B.A. in art history and English from Rutgers University. Her current book project, Monumental Crisis: Accident, Vandalism, and the Civil War Citizen Soldier, considers the long history of damage and alteration of Civil War monuments in the context of the recent debate over Confederate memory. Dr. Beetham has published work on Civil War monuments and art history pedagogy in Public Art Dialogue, Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art, Nierika: Revista de Estudios de Arte, and Common-Place. She has been interviewed regarding her work on Civil War monuments and the current debate over the future of Confederate monuments in several outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, Inside Edition, and NBC News.

Dr. Cheryl Renée Gooch, is the author of Hinsonville’s Heroes: Black Civil War Soldiers of Chester County, Pennsylvania and frequently speaks to Civil War groups (including the Civil War Roundtable Congress; Baltimore Civil War Roundtable; Old Baldy Philadelphia Civil War Roundtable; Eastern Pennsylvania Civil War Roundtable; American Legion Benjamin Franklin Post #405; and Sons of Union Veterans-Bradbury Camp), and advises the National Park Service on ways to ensure inclusive interpretive themes at battlefields, parks and historic sites. She served as historian and lead writer for the Delaware History Museum’s permanent exhibition Journey to Freedom chronicling the Black Delawarean experience from 1629 to the present.

Dr. Scott Hancock, is an Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at Gettysburg College. His scholarly interests focus on the African American experience from the mid-seventeenth century to just before the Civil War. His work considers African Americans’ engagement with the law, and incorporates other disciplinary perspectives such as law &amp; society and geography. He is particularly interested in how black interaction with the law in a variety of ways, from small disputes in lower courts to escaping via the underground railroad, shaped constitutional law, legal ideologies, black identity and U.S. society. Some of his work has appeared in the anthologies Paths to Freedom, We Shall Independent Be, and Slavery, Resistance, Freedom, and more recently, in the journal Civil War History.

William Hosley, is a cultural resource development and marketing consultant, historian, museologist, and photographer. He is passionate about local history and historic preservation and has developed a deep attachment to dozens of places worth caring about. He and his wife are both graduates of the Winterthur Program and loved their years in Delaware - a place they continue to explore and visit often. He was formerly Director of the New Haven Museum and Connecticut Landmarks, where he cared for a chain of historic attractions. Prior to that, as a curator and exhibition developer at Wadsworth Atheneum, Bill organized major exhibitions including The Great River: Art &amp; Society of the Connecticut Valley, The Japan Idea: Art and Life in Victorian America, and Sam &amp; Elizabeth: Legend and Legacy of Colt's Empire, which spawned the Coltsville National Park. He’s been fascinated with gravestones and monuments since college and has sought out and photographed hundreds of monuments and public sculptures, from Maine to Alabama and beyond.

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Monument Wars in Delaware: A Roundtable Discussion

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