essay on our historical monuments

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Essay on “Historical Monuments of India” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Historical monuments of india.

Essay No. 01

Indian History is full of the rise and fall of many kingdoms and empires. Monuments, built y the kings and they perform of every period throw light on the past history of India. these monuments exhibit the glory of India and are part of our cultural heritage. Almost all states of India boast of some or the other important historical monuments. Thousands of tourists visit India to have a glimpse of its important historical places.

Taj Mahal is one of the most famous and beautiful buildings of the world. Taj Mahal was build by Emperor Shah Jahan as the tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. It matchless beauty draws visitors from all parts of the world. The taj mahal got the highest ranking among the Seven Wonders of the World after the biggest online poll at www.new7wonders.com . Part forms Taj Mahal there are other historical monuments in Agra.

Red fort is one of those monuments which enhance the grace of Delhi. Red fort was also built by shah Jahan the Mughal emperor. The architecture of this building has a splendid impact of red stone and marble works. it has delicate carving on every possible surface.

Qutub Miner’s also a significant historical monument. The construction of Qutub Minar was started by Qutub-ud-din Aibek in twelfth century. But it was completed by his successor Iltutmnish. the Minar rises over 230 feet. The walls of the Minar are intricately carved and inscribed with verses from the Holly Quram. It is often viewed as a symbol of the military might of the Turko Afghan dynasty. Delhi also boasts of historical monument like Purana Qila, humayun’s tomb Jantar Mantar and many more.

Hyderabad is famous for its charming minarets Charminar. The city is often identified with the majestic Charminaar which stands at the center of the old city. It was built by Muhammad quil Shah. Charminar with its enormous size and majestic splendor attracts a number of visitors. Hyderabad has many other famous monuments like Golkunda Fort, Purani Haveli Tombs of Qutub Shahi kings etc.

There are a number of such monuments that are not only historically famous but also have religious significance. Puri is well known for a twelfth century temple called Jagannath erected in honour of the Hindu god Vishnu. It begun by king chodagangaeva and completed by king Ananga Bhima Deva iii. it is very vast temple.

Golden Temple of Amritsar is also known as Darbar Sahib. It is a great pilgrimage center of the Sikhs. The holy temple was completed under the direct control and supervision of Guru Arjan Dev. It’s foundation stone was laid by a renowned Muslim divine Main Mir. The Guru intended to keep the temple open to people of all castes creeds and faith a. so it was given four door women each direction. it has a lire pool around it. During Maharaja Ranjit Singh reign the lower half of the temple was decorated with marble while the entire upper half was in laid with copper converted over by gold plate. Hence it is known as golden temple. Some other religious monuments are Badrinath temple, Dilwara temple Dakshineshwara temple, Kailashnath temple ,Seven pagoda , Lotus temple Rameshwaram temple.

In British era too some important monuments were constructed. These monuments have their own important place in Indian history. India gate was constructed in the memory of those Indian soldiers who were killed in world war i. gateway of India was built to commemorate the visit of the first ever British Monarch King George V and Queen Mary in 1911. There are a number of other monuments built by the British. These are Rashtrapati Bhawan Parliament House Victoria Memorial.

Al these monuments are visited by millions of tourists actors the globe throughout the year. These monuments are among the best a in the world for their archaeological value design and historical significance but it is a disturbing fact that we have no looked after these monuments properly.

The majority of them are in a bad shape. Even the most famous monuments like Taj Mahal , Qutub Minar , Lal Qila have been belated. Nearby industrial areas and markets create pollution which is harmful for these monuments. The government must a take initiative to protect these monuments. Proper care of these monuments enhances their life. A committee of experts should be formed to study the present condition of the monuments and the steps needed to be taken to protect them. Proper attention and initiatives of the government can only save these historical monuments from ruining away.

Essay No. 02

The Taj Mahal, popularly considered as one of the wonders of the world, is a remarkable creation synthesized by the human virtues of artistry, endurance, aesthetics and the spirit of adventure; and inspired by the emotions of love and adoration. Situated on the banks of the river Yamuna, it was built by the seventeenth century Mughal Emperor, Shahjahan, in memory of his beloved wife, Mumtaz. The superior craftsmanship of its builders, and the high quality of the materials used to build it, ensure the building against possible ravages by the elements of Nature. The structure, as a whole, retains its luster and reflects its glory to the extent that, it continues to arouse awe and admiration in the numerous people who visit it round the year.

The greatness of the Taj Mahal is not confined to its fantastic beauty, both inside and outside. It is perhaps the only structure of its kind anywhere, in which marble as a building material has been used to create such marvellous effects. While the main ‘onion’ dome, minarets and the outer walls gleam in natural light, the deep-set doors called `aiwans’, and balconies get filled with faint reflected light, which creates an aura of mystery.

Though the. Taj Mahal is visited round the year, it may be seen in all its splendour on moon-lit nights, preferably in winter. It seems as though the charm and beauty of the building is enhanced several times by such a setting. In the rainy season, however, the marble turns to a hazy grey, giving the structure on the whole, a melancholy appearance.

Like any other object of beauty, the Taj Mahal also attracted attention ‘based on two different motives. If some saw it as a culmination of virtuous human endeavour, and, therefore, a source of inspiration, others considered it as a tempting target meant to be exploited. If those in the first category have raised the prestige of the Taj Mahal worldwide, those in the second have vandalized it and deprived it of much of its original beauty. The precious stones and other ornamentation that adorned the Taj Mahal, have from time to time been plundered by the various rulers and dynasties that followed the Mughals.

In modern times, however, the threat to the Taj Mahal is rather indirect. The focus on development in and around the city of Agra is a cause of serious atmospheric pollution in the region. As the main building material of the Taj Mahal is marble, such air pollution can at once cause the decline of its beauty and its physical destruction.

It is a matter of great relief that the people and the authorities have become aware of the modern threats to the Taj Mahal and have started adopting suitable measures to save the monument. It should be the fervent hope of all that the various salvaging ventures succeed. Such a success will ensure that the Taj Mahal as ‘a thing of beauty will remain a joy forever’!

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It is a nice essay .

Super essay

Hmmm…Yes

Waw| This Information Is Very Usefull For 10th and 12th class students. It will help to the students to understand about ancient and Medival history of India.Very effective Information.

This helps me a lot to understand the history of India n Taj Mahal

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The Historian Scrutinizing Our Idea of Monuments

By Alexandra Schwartz

On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof walked into a Bible-study session at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Charleston, South Carolina, and opened fire with a handgun, murdering nine Black congregants. Roof’s motivations were clear. He was a white supremacist who wished to start a race war, and he saw his actions as part of a distinctly American legacy. In the weeks before his massacre, Roof posed for photos at a number of Confederate sites, including a graveyard housing the Confederate dead and the Museum and Library of Confederate History, in Greenville, South Carolina. After the murders, officials in states such as Maryland, Missouri, and Louisiana, responding to public outrage, took down eleven monuments to the Confederacy. But, as the art historian Erin L. Thompson notes in her new book, “ Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Monuments ,” the monuments didn’t stay out of sight for long. “Six quickly went back on view in different public locations, including cemeteries, battlefield sites, and a museum,” Thompson writes. Another was placed next to a ferry station on the banks of the Potomac. Others are in storage as plans to reërect them get under way.

It’s not hard to put up a monument in the United States, even when the cause it commemorates is long lost. Taking one down is another story. When New Yorkers heard the Declaration of Independence read aloud, on July 9, 1776, they rushed to destroy the equestrian statue of King George III that stood at Bowling Green, cutting off the monarch’s nose, chopping off his head, and parading with his severed limbs through the streets. More recently, though, the act of dismantling monuments has been decried as unpatriotic and an assault on the history they purport to represent, even as we tend to forget, or obscure, the history of the monuments themselves. Stone Mountain, in Georgia, the country’s largest Confederate monument, began, as Thompson writes, “as a pet project of the Ku Klux Klan”; Christopher Columbus, who never set foot in the continental U.S., is celebrated by statues across the country, in spite of the protests from Indigenous communities.

The contradictions that make up so much of American life are right there on display in our public art, which is why it seems to hold clues to our future as a nation, too. In her book, Thompson, a professor at the City University of New York, explores the stories behind a number of American monuments, the people who wanted them up, and the activists and community members who are fighting for them to come down. I recently spoke with her over Zoom to ask her about her discoveries. Our conversation has been edited and condensed.

Let’s start with the Statue of Freedom on top of the Capitol building, and with Philip Reid, one of the workmen responsible for it. A lot of people are probably vaguely aware that there is a statue on top of the Capitol. But I also think they probably don’t know what it represents, and they certainly don’t know the story of how it got there. So tell us: Who was Philip Reid?

He was an enslaved man owned by Clark Mills, who was the sculptor of the very first American bronze monument, a sculpture of Andrew Jackson. And the success of that sculpture—which still stands outside the White House—meant that he got hired for additional commissions, including to cast, in bronze, a statue symbolizing freedom to top the Capitol dome. It was started before the Civil War, and was put up only after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. So by the time it went up Philip Reid was free, but he worked on it while enslaved. And, in fact, Clark Mills bought additional people from the profits he made from the sculpture of Andrew Jackson.

This is the type of story that led me to write the book. A lot of the debates about monuments have focussed on the character of the person honored—you know, should we be honoring Robert E. Lee or not, et cetera. But I’m more interested in how these objects function as monuments, how they were made, why they were put up, how they’ve been used since. And so Reid’s story seemed really important, because to know that someone was forced to make this representation of a liberty that he didn’t have was deeply compelling to me. And the statue itself was modified under the direction of Jefferson Davis, who would, of course, become the President of the Confederacy—but at that point he was the Secretary of War, charged with supervising the decorations for the Capitol. He made the sculptor change the original design to not include a symbolization of emancipation. He thought that American freedom was the freedom of people who had always been free, had been born free—like him, not like Reid.

The symbol that Davis wanted to replace was a wreath, right?

It was a hat, the Pileus cap. My editor wouldn’t let me say that it’s the type of hat that Smurfs wear. [ Laughs. ]

A liberty cap. And what did they replace it with?

So she wears this Vegas-y headdress, which has an eagle and feathers. And it looks completely ridiculous now.

Right, the irony of trying to craft a symbol of freedom when America was deeply dependent on slavery created actual, practical problems in the representation of freedom.

Exactly. And those problems are hard to see because they were often simply disguised altogether. So it is extremely rare to see a Black person in public art until the twentieth century—even in, say, Northern Civil War memorials, though a large part of the Union forces were African American soldiers.

And, when Black people were included in public art, it seems like they were often included in ways that suggested subservience to their white liberators.

Yeah, and Frederick Douglass, for example, knew that this was a problem as soon as this art went up. He criticized a statue that still stands, in D.C., celebrating Lincoln’s granting of emancipation to African Americans. There’s this grovelling Black man kneeling in front of Lincoln. Ironically enough, that man’s face is modelled after an actual man, who escaped from slavery and then re-escaped after being kidnapped by men who wanted to send him back into slavery. This is Archer Alexander. So he liberated himself twice with no help from Lincoln, but has been made into a powerless recipient of the largesse of white Americans.

It seems like the question of what to do with monuments has sprung into the public eye almost overnight. I was interested to see you write that, before 2015, not a single Confederate monument had come down, but in the year after George Floyd ’s murder, in May of 2020, around a hundred and fifty monuments were destroyed or removed. That’s an enormous shift. I’m wondering whether you had given much thought to America’s monuments before 2020.

I just did the calculations over again, and, as of January 31st, a hundred and forty-two Confederate monuments have been removed since the death of George Floyd, along with seventy-two others, mostly of settlers and Columbus. But just to be picky about removal versus destruction—

Do be picky.

A lot of what I did in this book was ask questions that I thought were stupid. Like, there’s all these news stories of monuments being loaded on the backs of trucks and driven away, so where are those trucks going? And it turns out that no monument has been irrevocably destroyed but one: a single platter-size portrait of Columbus, which was removed from a monument in Connecticut. Otherwise, they’ve all been relocated or are in storage. The Charlottesville Lee monument, which was at the center of the Unite the Right rally in 2017—the city council awarded it to a local nonprofit, which proposed melting it down and giving the bronze to an artist for a new monument. But that process has been stalled by yet another lawsuit from Confederate-heritage groups. So people really, really want to keep these up.

Did I think about monuments before? I didn’t think so much about American monuments. I’m a classicist, and, to me, destroying a monument is a normal part of human life. Practically everything that I studied from ancient sculpture was at one point broken, thrown into a pit, buried, and then dug up again. So when protests started I realized that Americans are in this strange, exceptional period of history where we haven’t replaced a lot of our monuments in a long time, which is very unlike human beings.

The very first equestrian monument that Americans got, a statue of George III, lasted only six years before we tore it down upon reading the Declaration of Independence. So we used to destroy a lot of monuments. In the twentieth century, not so much.

And now there’s this sea change.

I don’t think it’s so much of a sea change. It’s a sea change among a certain audience. Something I did in the book was try and talk to activists who have been protesting particular monuments for, in some cases, decades—their entire adult lives—like Mike Forcia protesting a statue of Columbus in the Twin Cities.

I think the real change has been people who assume that they are praised by these monuments. They’re starting to rethink whether that praise is worth keeping up a monument that pains others.

Another thing that you highlight in your book is how hard it is to remove a monument by any kind of public or legal process. In the past year or two, we’ve seen these dramatic images of protesters tearing down monuments, and people get upset and say that isn’t the right way to go about it. But you write about how, even when people try to approach this in “the right way,” they can’t accomplish anything. I’m thinking specifically of what you write about the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument, in Birmingham, Alabama. Do you want to tell that story?

I’m such a fangirl of Mayor Woodfin.

Birmingham’s Confederate monument celebrated a past that the city didn’t even have—Birmingham was founded well after the Civil War. It was put up in two parts at the turn of the twentieth century, both parts in response to unionization efforts among area miners. These were interracial efforts, and the city’s [leading citizens], who paid for the statue’s base and then the obelisk that went on top, wanted to persuade white workers that keeping within racial boundaries was more important than making a living wage.

By the nineteen-seventies, Birmingham was a majority Black city, and even less willing to have the monument. But, by the time discussion really started about taking it down, the Alabama state legislature had passed a law prohibiting the removal of monuments more than forty years old, which included this monument and almost all of the state’s Confederate monuments.

And there was simply no discussion possible, regardless of the wishes of the community, unless the majority of the state legislature changed the law. And this is true in a surprisingly large number of U.S. jurisdictions—that removal is not up for debate, it’s simply prohibited by law. Even in jurisdictions like New York, where there are no prohibitions, there’s no process for asking for removal or reconsideration of a monument. So these requests get lost in the bureaucratic shuffle.

But shortly after the death of George Floyd, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin saw protesters trying to take down the monument, essentially with their hands. And he decided—for public safety, and for the soul of Birmingham—to remove it, to break the law in an act of civil disobedience. The law would impose a fine of twenty-five thousand dollars on the city for any modification of the monument, and he decided it was well worth it. Other [Alabama] cities have also taken down Confederate monuments and paid the fine. In reaction, the state legislature has heard proposals to make the law much stricter, to make any officials who authorize removal, or even vote in approval of removal, personally liable for fines. So it’s no surprise to me that, when you have these very punitive laws, the only way out is going to be an act of civil disobedience.

One argument we hear a lot is that, if we remove monuments, we’ll be getting rid of the history that they represent. But it often seems that what they represent is not necessarily history but the time in which they were erected, as in the case of Birmingham. The period after Reconstruction was a major moment for the creation of monuments to the Confederacy. Why was that?

Well, public art has always been a way for humans to shape societies, to tell members of a community what their roles should be. And a lot of Civil War monuments did precisely that. You might think they went up right after the Civil War, but this is not usually true. In the decades immediately following the war, monuments went up in cemeteries; they were monuments of mourning to commemorate personal losses. But the monuments we see today generally went up only starting in the eighteen-nineties, when Reconstruction was over, and when Jim Crow laws had been passed to reduce the possibility of Black engagement in the political and economic life of the South. They went up as a reminder that this is how things should be—a fantasy of antebellum life where everyone knew their places, and no one was trying to ask for more, whether it was Black Southerners trying to ask for political participation or working-class white Southerners trying to gain more wealth.

So, yeah, I think it’s always more interesting to ask how a monument has shaped its society versus what sort of past it’s commemorating. Monuments are not how we learn about the past. Often, they erase the past. A Northern Civil War monument that shows only white soldiers, for example, is erasing the participation of Black soldiers.

You mention working-class whites. I learned from your book about the pose called parade rest. Why was it so important for the makers of so many Confederate monuments to depict Confederate soldiers in parade rest?

The vast majority of Civil War monuments are not of a named officer but of an unnamed low-ranking soldier. Almost all of these are standing in parade rest, which, according to infantry instruction manuals of the period, was a pose soldiers would take not when fighting—not when doing anything heroic—but when listening to a drill instructor.

So it’s a posture celebrating obedience. Soldiers were forbidden to speak when standing in this position. It’s a posture of listening to your betters, your leaders. And it’s no surprise that these monuments went up in periods of labor unrest, when they could try to convince the descendants of soldiers that they were part of a glorious tradition—not of rebellion but of obedience. These sculptures were paid for by factory owners, by white-collar entrepreneurs, at a time when they were trying to control their employees.

Let’s talk about Stone Mountain, the huge Confederate memorial, in Georgia, that depicts Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson. One thing I didn’t know was that the person responsible for it also created Mount Rushmore—which, of course, features Abraham Lincoln. What’s the story there?

I really want Gutzon Borglum’s life to be, like, a Netflix miniseries.

Starting with the name.

So what we see today, carved into a mountain outside Georgia, was finished only in the mid-nineteen-seventies. But the project started in the nineteen-tens, when a Confederate widow called in a sculptor to carve a bust of Lee on the mountainside. And that sculptor was Gutzon Borglum, who was a rather strange choice. He was the son of Danish immigrants. He lived in Connecticut. He had made his name sculpting Lincoln, and in fact had named his son Lincoln, during a bid to be hired to make the Lincoln Memorial. He lost out to Daniel Chester French, and defected to the Confederate cause to make Stone Mountain.

And he upsold the widow rather dramatically. He said that a single bust of Lee would look as insignificant as a dime falling on a rug. Instead, he proposed more than seven hundred figures, all at least thirty-five feet tall, sweeping across the mountain. And he did so because he was in a lot of debt, and he’d get paid a percentage of the cost. So the bigger it was, the more it celebrated the Confederacy, the more money he would make.

What could go wrong?

The story of Stone Mountain has so many wild details. Borglum joined the newly revived Ku Klux Klan to solidify his ties to the patron of the project. He teamed up with Klansmen [who embezzled] donations intended for the sculpture. He was eventually fired, and the head of Lee that he carved on the mountain was blasted off. He almost went under from debt, but, just in time, he signed a contract to make what would become Mount Rushmore.

So I think that Stone Mountain is more a memorial to a con than to the Confederacy. It was in limbo for a long time, and it was only revived in the fifties, when Georgia’s anti-integration governor bought the property for a state park, hoping to make it a rallying point for resistance to integration. The Klan was revived there. Some people debate whether Lee, Jackson, and Davis should be represented, but I don’t really care. This history—the monument as a rallying point for anti-integration, as a birthplace of the Klan not once but twice—seems to me more important for making decisions about what its fate should be.

It’s kind of impossible to talk about Stone Mountain and Mount Rushmore without talking about kitsch. Kitsch seems endemic to the whole form of monuments, maybe because art made for the purpose of veneration can’t admit irony, and I guess kitsch could be described as the ironic total lack of irony.

Are there any monuments you came across that you thought had aesthetic value?

I think monuments have the privilege of boredom. They are designed to give us a view of history and then discourage us from asking further questions. And so in one way they’re easily understood, and in another way they’re totally impenetrable, because you’re not meant to see any of the complexities. So they’re usually not that interesting aesthetically.

They can be very interesting when modified by artists today. But some of them are just not very good at all. In Tompkins Square Park, in New York City, there’s a monument to Samuel Cox, who voted against emancipation as a congressman. And even when the statue went up, in the late nineteenth century, the New York Times said that it was, aesthetically, not very good. It looks like three toddlers in a trenchcoat. But the statue received police protection in 2020.

So monuments get the privilege of preservation by being put in the category of art, and thus get to disseminate ideas even if we mostly all agree that those ideas no longer characterize the community. It doesn’t make sense to me that, just because it’s in bronze or marble, it gets to stay up as a loudspeaker.

Monuments obviously affect people who don’t want to see them. But then there are cases such as Dylann Roof, who visited Confederate landmarks before he committed his massacre, in 2015. It seems like these monuments still have a lot of power, even if for a lot of us they’re background noise. I wouldn’t know, walking through Tompkins Square Park, whom I was passing—I’d probably be looking for whomever I was going to meet. It’s interesting to see which monuments seem to lose their power, and then regain their power, depending on how much attention we’re paying to them at any given moment.

Yeah, monuments can reactivate. And that’s what gives you hope for the future. I think just making a monument vanish does nothing. But taking a monument down, or modifying it in a way that lets us talk about our future, how our community should change, can be incredibly powerful. So these monuments still have a role to play in the shaping of America—but toward equality, not oppression.

What are the most successful instances of what you mentioned before—contemporary artists working to modify or respond to monuments?

I wrote in the book about the Houston Museum of African American Culture, which took in a Confederate monument from a Houston park and had artists respond to it. Willow Curry made a really powerful video in which she’s directly addressing the sculpture, telling it that it can’t intimidate her and her fellow-citizens. That was very powerful.

There’s a sculpture outside the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, of a generic Indian on a horse. It isn’t meant to be derogatory, but it’s sort of insultingly nonspecific. The museum commissioned an Indigenous artist, who created a garden around the sculpture, including corn stalks that grew up and partially concealed it. I think it made people curious—why is there corn here, in front of the museum?—and encouraged them to think through what the sculpture was meant to do, what art is meant to do, in terms of representing America to itself.

And I think what we call graffiti on the monuments have been powerful reactions. There are plans under way to put the Jefferson Davis sculpture, from Richmond’s Monument Avenue, back on display, still coated in the pink paint that was thrown on it. That’ll be a reminder of this period of public debate.

Monuments can often seem to be an immovable part of our landscape. Where did you grow up?

Were there any monuments there that were a significant visual presence in your childhood?

Every day on my way to school, we would drive past a Mexican restaurant with a life-size sculpture of a bull and a bullfighter in front of it, in the parking lot. The bull was very anatomically correct, and college students would frequently paint the testicles in different colors, and then the restaurant would have to repaint them black. I was going to this private religious school where life was very restricted, where questioning authority was very much not allowed. And this act of playful vandalism was so encouraging to me as a sign that you could, in fact, question authority—you could make a change in the landscape.

Well, this brings us back to kitsch. A lot of monuments really are funny. I’m thinking of the monument you describe, completed in 1841, of George Washington , by the sculptor Horatio Greenough. Washington is seated, and his head is very clearly the head of George Washington, but he’s in a sort of Zeus pose, with one arm raised, his fingers pointing to the sky, and he’s naked from the waist up, with a torso that is chiselled both literally and figuratively. I think even at the time people thought this was a joke, right?

Yeah. I love how his jowls morph into pecs in this completely unrealistic way. Nobody thought this was a good idea. Well, some people did, but it did not translate well to the public. Which I think is a problem with monuments in general, right? It is difficult to represent the intellectual achievements of someone. Throughout history, intellect, power, or qualities of leadership have just been translated into physical perfection. So you get superhero George Washington instead of an actual portrait.

This sculpture was very interesting to me because it was commissioned for the rotunda of the Capitol, but got kicked out after only a few years. And, when I started writing the book, I thought that there hadn’t been that many removals of public art. In fact, there have been plenty of removals, so long as the art was seen as insulting by people in power. So if congressmen are saying, “We feel like only superheroes can become President if you have this sculpture of the chiselled George Washington in our midst, we don’t like that,” it’s going to go pretty quickly.

It seems to me that we’ve started to move away from figurative monuments. Maya Lin really brought us there with her Vietnam Veterans Memorial , and I’m also thinking of the reflecting pools at the World Trade Center. Is there something useful about the nonfigurative—that it doesn’t put all this weight on the body to represent universal human experience?

It really depends on whom you ask. Right now we’re arguing about what monuments should come down. We’re going to have even bigger arguments when we start to talk about what should replace them.

Very often, people in the art world will propose nonfigurative monuments, because they think those can evoke emotions without running into the problems of discriminatory representation. But, almost always, community groups want a figural monument to commemorate someone who is more important to that community. And this leads to a lot of disputes. Zachary Small in the New York Times wrote an article about a lawsuit over an abolitionist monument in Brooklyn. Essentially, the community group was, like, “Wait, you want this to be nonfigural? No, we are suing to prevent that.” So there’s going to need to be a lot of discussion, which is not what usually happens. Usually, monuments get air-dropped into a community by an arts authority or a funder without any discussion. If I were czar of monuments, they would all be nonfigural. But I am not, fortunately—too many headaches.

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The Texas School District That Provided the Blueprint for an Attack on Public Education

By Jessica Winter

Can State Supreme Courts Preserve&-or Expand&-Rights?

By Eyal Press

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Why preserving historical places and sites matters.

Tom Mayes is the author of Why Old Places Matter: How Historic Places Affect Our Identity and Wellbeing (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).

Why do old places matter to people? Why should old places matter to historians, or to the general public that historians serve? What can we learn from the continued existence of old places in our communities, and in our nation? Why does it matter if we save these old places or if we don’t?

There are many reasons old places matter, from memory, to civic identity, to history, to architecture, to beauty, to economics. While even the fourteen reasons I name in Why Old Places Matterdon’t fully capture all the many meanings old places have for people, for the readers of History News Network, I’d like to emphasize one main idea: old places give us an understanding of history that no other documents or evidence possibly can.

At Civil War battlefields like Antietam, historians and visitors alike can understand how a slight rise in the lay of the land could mean victory or defeat, and how one division was lost, while another survived. At artists’ homes and studios like Chesterwood, the home of Daniel Chester French, who sculpted the Seated Lincoln, we can understand how a certain quality of light, or a clear mountain view, or the ticking of a clock, may have inspired a painting, poem, or sculpture – and may inspire visitors today.

At the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, we can understand something profoundly visceral about cramped, dark, and crowded lives of emigrants in New York in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

And at dirt-floored, often roughly-built slave dwellings, we can try to glean an inkling of the reality of human bondage that we cannot understand from documents alone. We experience old places with all of our senses, like full body immersion, and because of that, we understand different aspects of history as it was lived.

This would be enough. But I believe that these old places play a larger role. The continued existence of these old places may foster a deeper understanding of history that tells a more full and true story.

Yes, these places can be manipulated to spin a particular viewpoint, like the way, for many years, the reality of slavery wasn’t acknowledged at plantation houses, or Native American perspectives weren’t expressed at frontier forts, or the way countless workers were left out of the story altogether. One reason people weren’t acknowledged is that their places were not often recognized, valued, and retained. These are the places that were easy to erase – to pave over with interstates, sports stadiums, and urban renewal. Many have literally been erased from our landscape and our memory.

It’s easier to pretend that slavery was benevolent if the reality of the poor living conditions of slave dwellings isn’t confronting visitors. Or that labor unrest didn’t happen if the places where it happened are bulldozed. Erasure of places can serve to hide truths that can’t be hidden if the place survives. The recognition of sites by the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund functions as an act of social justice. As a descendant of the Chinese American builders of an 1850’s Taoist temple in Mendocino, California said to me, the fact that the place exists – a Taoist temple from the 1850s—announces to everyone that “we were here.”

If the place survives, it can also become the vortex and venue for understanding our changing civic and national identity. The places we choose to save-or not-reflect our identity. That’s why we see places that are important to the “enemy” being targeted in times of conflict, such as the Mostar Bridge. The destruction of the old place is tantamount to the destruction of the group identity. Old places may also be targeted precisely because they tell a deeper, older, and different story, such as the Bamiyan Buddhas, which were destroyed because they represented a different religion, or the archaeological sites of Babylon or Palmyra.

I don’t want to suggest that we can understand everything about history simply by experiencing the old places where history happened. In fact, I’d like to emphasize a completely different point. These old places matter not only for what they can tell us, but precisely because they raise questions. There are often things about an old building, or a battlefield, or a working landscape that will surprise or puzzle us. It may only be a quirky door, or the etching of initials on glass, or an unexpected rise in an otherwise flat field, or an unusual place name.

An old place continues to carry memories of other stories that we don’t necessarily understand today, like the way the bones of our ancestors continue to surface in our cities and towns where we thought there were no people buried, or the way a Hebrew letter on an ancient column reminds us that the Jews of Rome were not always forced to live in the ghetto.

These puzzles upend what we thought we knew and help us remember that we can never know everything about the past. These quirks at old places jab us to be less arrogant and remind us to be humble and open as we try to understand the past and what it means for us today.

Old places matter because they give us a deeper understanding of the past – an understanding no other documents possibly can, while reminding us to be humble about what we know.

Monuments Essay

Monuments are the buildings or any infrastructural structures that were built-in history. They have archeological and social importance. Monuments are the cultural heritage of a particular place or region. Monuments are the structure that is built thousands of years ago.

Monuments reflect the civilization or the particular dynasty in which they were built. Prehistoric period’s buildings are also excavated and discovered, they also have equal importance as the medieval or ancient period monuments.

The Archeological Survey of any country has the legal right to protect the ancient buildings and they also take care of the place where such monuments are found. In India, the Harappa Civilization excavations are the oldest form of monuments we found.

The Mohenjo-Daro, Kalibangan, and Dholavira bricks and some historical buildings are important. The Seven Wonders of the World and all the monuments that have social and cultural importance have come under the world or national level monument.

They are important for the tourism point of view, some of the monuments are declared as the world heritage by UNESCO. Monuments are more than the tourism spot, they carry the tales from the past and the age in which they are built.

Essay on Historical Monuments: Explore the Importance of Historical Monuments

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Essay on Historical Monuments under 150 Words

Essay on historical monuments under 100 words, essay on historical monuments in delhi under 350 words, short essay on historical monuments in india, essay on historical monuments: taj mahal, essay on historical monuments near uttar pradesh, essay on historical monuments in delhi, essay on historical monuments faqs.

Essay on Historical Monuments: Historical monuments are significant landmarks that represent the past and reflect the cultural, social, and economic aspects of a particular era. They are a source of inspiration and knowledge for the present and future generations, and they are essential in preserving the cultural heritage of a region or a country. India, being a culturally diverse country, is home to a wide range of historical monuments that are spread across the country, each with its own unique architecture, design, and historical significance.

In this article, you will learn how to write essay on historical monuments in different word range.

Essay on Historical Monuments in 350 words

In India, historical monuments can be traced back to ancient times, where kings, emperors, and rulers built them to showcase their power and wealth. These monuments were built using various techniques and styles, such as Mughal, Rajput, Buddhist, and Jain, to name a few. Some of the most popular and well-known historical monuments in India include the Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Red Fort, and many more.

The Taj Mahal, located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, is one of the most popular and recognizable historical monuments in the world. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is known for its white marble architecture and intricate carvings, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a symbol of love and devotion, and it attracts millions of tourists from all over the world every year.

In addition to the Taj Mahal, there are several other historical monuments near Uttar Pradesh that are equally significant. For example, Jhansi Fort, located in the city of Jhansi, is a popular tourist destination and is known for its association with Rani Laxmi Bai, a warrior queen who fought against the British. Other popular historical monuments near Uttar Pradesh include Fatehpur Sikri, Khajuraho, and Sanchi Stupa, to name a few.

Delhi, the capital of India, is home to several historical monuments, each with its own unique history and significance. These monuments include the Red Fort, Jama Masjid, India Gate, and Humayun’s Tomb, among others. The Red Fort, built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is known for its stunning architecture and design. India Gate, on the other hand, is a war memorial that pays tribute to the Indian soldiers who died in World War I.

In conclusion, historical monuments play a crucial role in preserving the cultural heritage of a region or a country. They are a source of inspiration and knowledge for the present and future generations, and they help us understand our past and the people who lived before us. It is important that we protect and preserve these monuments for future generations to come so that they can learn from them and appreciate their cultural significance.

Historical monuments are not just structures, but they are an integral part of our collective heritage. They represent our past and offer valuable insights into our history and culture. The importance of preserving these monuments cannot be overstated. These structures need to be protected and maintained so that future generations can continue to appreciate and learn from them.

India is home to several historical monuments that are a testament to the country’s rich cultural heritage. Monuments like the Taj Mahal, the Jhansi Fort, and the Red Fort are significant tourist attractions that bring millions of visitors to India every year. The government and the public should work together to preserve these historical monuments so that they can continue to inspire and educate future generations.

Historical monuments are an integral part of India’s heritage and culture. They not only serve as a testament to the country’s rich history but also attract tourists from all over the world. Delhi, being the capital of India, is home to several historical monuments that reflect the city’s glorious past. The Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb, and Jama Masjid are some of the famous historical monuments in Delhi that are a must-visit for tourists who want to experience the rich history and culture of India.

Delhi, the capital of India, is a city rich in history and culture. The city is home to several historical monuments that reflect the glorious past of India. These monuments are not just architectural marvels, but they also hold great significance in the Indian history and culture. In this essay, we will explore some of the famous historical monuments in Delhi.

Red Fort: The Red Fort, also known as the Lal Qila, is one of the most famous historical monuments in Delhi. Built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the 17th century, the Red Fort is made of red sandstone and is a fine example of Mughal architecture. The fort is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracts tourists from all over the world.

Qutub Minar: The Qutub Minar is a 73-meter-high minaret that was built in the 12th century by Qutb-ud-din Aibak. The minaret is made of red sandstone and marble and is considered to be one of the finest examples of Indo-Islamic architecture. The Qutub Minar is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is visited by millions of tourists every year.

Humayun’s Tomb: Humayun’s Tomb is a magnificent mausoleum built in the 16th century for the Mughal emperor Humayun. The tomb is made of red sandstone and white marble and is considered to be the first garden-tomb in India. The tomb is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is known for its beautiful architecture and lush gardens.

Jama Masjid: The Jama Masjid is one of the largest mosques in India and was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the 17th century. The mosque is made of red sandstone and white marble and can accommodate over 25,000 worshippers at a time. The Jama Masjid is a must-visit for tourists who want to experience the rich Islamic culture of India.

Apart from these monuments, Delhi is also home to other historical landmarks such as India Gate, Lotus Temple, and the Akshardham Temple. These monuments not only reflect the architectural and cultural richness of India but also serve as a reminder of the country’s glorious past.

India is home to some of the world’s most magnificent and historically significant monuments. Indian historical monuments are a testament to the country’s rich cultural and architectural heritage. These monuments have stood the test of time and have become an integral part of India’s identity.

The importance of Indian historical monuments cannot be overstated. They not only serve as reminders of India’s glorious past but also attract millions of tourists every year. The tourism industry has become a significant contributor to India’s economy, and historical monuments play a crucial role in this.

The history of historical monuments in India dates back to ancient times. India has been home to several empires and civilizations, each leaving behind their unique mark on the country’s landscape. The monuments from different eras and cultures offer a glimpse into India’s diverse and rich past.

Memorials and Monuments

Memorials and monuments punctuate our lives. Many of us are taught to revere them early on—in town squares, at museums, throughout our national parks, and everywhere in between. We may repeat the ritual with our own children, who may someday bury us beneath smaller though no less meaningful monuments. All the while, we live our lives before the silent gaze of granite soldiers, towering obelisks, historic buildings, roadside crucifixes, memorial bridges, and no end of scattered mementos. Some of them were left by ancestors for reasons that may be obscured by time. Some appear as if overnight, often born of grief for a loved one lost to violence or disregard. People have given their lives in the service of monuments; others have killed to protect them. Love, hate, fear, faith, determination, and deception all inhere in our nation’s commemorative landscape. But what do we really know about these silent sentinels?

We know quite well from our vantage point in the early twenty-first century that memorials, monuments, and other expressions of our nation’s complex public memory are not, in fact, as silent as we might suppose. They have, rather, since the beginning of our national saga, witnessed and prompted impassioned dissent, vocal nationalism, and sometimes lethal violence. We know too from decades of scholarship that memorials and monuments trade in all matter of perceptual trickery. One person’s hero was another’s worst enemy. One town’s achievement meant another’s demise. One empire’s victory signaled the death of families and kingdoms and ecosystems elsewhere. Choices made about which of these memories to enshrine, and which ones to erase, are the messages that memorials and monuments convey today. In this sense, then, memorials are never silent, and they certainly do not reflect consensus. They are rather arguments about the past presented as if there were no argument.

We need monuments, even despite their tendency to misrepresent. At their best, monuments can bind us together and fortify our communities in the face of tragedy or uncertainty. They can also remind us that to be great is worthy of aspiration. The meaning of greatness, however, is never fixed. Indeed, how we define it—how, that is, we choose to remember—has become a matter of pointed concern, especially as Americans seek to expand opportunity among those whose forebears were so long erased from public memory. Is it possible to change a monument’s meaning once it has been built? Is there such a thing as a public memorial that respects the infinite diversity of the American public? These and other questions underlie what headlines and pundits characterize as our nation’s “monument wars,” longstanding contests of memory wherein the very meaning of citizenship is up for grabs.

Defining Terms : Memory, Commemoration, Monuments, and Memorials

Making sense of our monument wars and their history is complicated by the variety of words that are used, often interchangeably, to describe them. Words such as “monument,” “memorial,” and “commemoration” all share in their deep history a root in another complicated word: “memory.” Memory, of course, is as old as humankind, and perhaps older. Historians study memory, as do neuroscientists, physiologists, physicists, sociologists, philosophers, and others besides. The remarkable scope of memory studies and the field’s growth in recent decades, signals how deeply memory runs through all facets of modern life. Historians cannot make sense of memory alone. We have, however, made important contributions to the conversation, especially concerning memory’s capacity to shape ideas about nation and citizenship.

In the United States, for instance, leading memory scholars—including Michael Kammen, David Blight, James Young, and Erika Doss—have advanced a set of propositions, drawn from an array of social and cultural theory, that explain how memory promotes a common sense of American identity over time and across lines of difference. They include the possibility that, in addition to each person’s individual memory, there exists a collective memory too—a stew of facts and images and stories—that shapes and is itself shaped by our personal recollections. There is also the notion that memory can reside in objects and places, and that attending to these is one way that nations sustain our loyalties. Historians are concerned, too, with traumatic memories, such as those associated with war and genocide, and have recently begun to explore the monument’s capacity to aggregate and deploy deep wells of emotion. Running through all of this is an awareness that, if we listen closely, monuments can speak volumes about the intent of their makers. They usually tell us more, in fact, about the people who made them than whatever it is that they commemorate.

The monuments and memorials we are concerned with, then, are expressions of public memory. They are born of individuals whose personal memories get bound up by some common interest within some common corner of some community’s collective memory. The process whereby this confluence of individual memories is vetted and repackaged for public consumption is what we refer to as commemoration. Commemoration itself can be an event, such as is the case with some parades, festivals, and even the preservation of old buildings. What we witness in those instances is a process whereby individuals are instructed—both by watching and by participating—in the performance of fealty to a shared set of ideas about the past: the war was noble, our ancestors were great, remembering is patriotic. These are powerful lessons, so much so that commemoration tends to obscure the possibility of believing otherwise.

The terms that we use to describe the products of commemoration, words such as “monument” and “memorial,” may vary in purpose. “Monument,” for instance, usually refers to a commemorative structure or edifice, whereas “memorial” applies to almost anything—including buildings, books, roads, stadiums—that recalls the dead or the experience of profound loss. The Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C., is also a monument, because the structure itself functions as a well of national regard for Lincoln’s sacrifice and vision. Across town, however, only sports fans likely consider the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium a monument. Its tribute to Kennedy’s memory is in name alone. The rules are neither hard nor fast. The National Park Service, for instance, applies the designation “monument” to any unit—whether or not it foregrounds commemoration—that is established by executive order. More significant than these shades of meanings is the ubiquity of words such as “monument” and “memorial” in our daily lives. Language reveals the extent to which memory surrounds us everywhere and always.

A Brief History of Commemoration in the United States

There is nothing that obligates Americans to remember in the ways that they do. Indeed, the nation’s founders railed against the excesses of memory. In their eyes, the corrosive influence of ancient traditions—such as those that sustained Britain’s monarchy and its landed aristocracy—was precisely what prompted the American Revolution. So how then did commemoration end up being so prevalent in the United States?

Two common explanations deploy two different histories: one deep, the other more recent. In the first case, the American preoccupation with commemoration, and especially the mingling of objects and memory, reaches all the way back to medieval Europe. The early Christian church, as the story goes, sought by the ninth century to entice converts by deploying an array of sacred objects, the so-called cult of saints’ relics. The appeal of these relics—bits of hair, bone, and other vestiges of bygone saints—resided in their power to connect worshipers to the divine, literally, through touch or by mere proximity. Elaborate rituals of belief grew up around these objects and the reliquaries that contained them. Increasingly their power mingled, in early modern Europe, with secular objects of curiosity gathered by explorers and exhibited alongside relics in cathedrals, princely chambers, and curiosity cabinets. Mastery of worlds, human and divine, might be had by whomever could amass the largest collection. Even mystics and clerics got in on the game, imagining elaborate memory theaters from within which one might see, and thus learn to recall, knowledge of all times and places. The ways of knowing associated with these practices, as has been shown by Stephen Greenblatt and cleverly illustrated by Lawrence Weschler, penetrated western culture so deeply that they travelled along with Europeans into North America. Modern-day museums thus recall the ancient impulse to venerate remarkable objects, as do memorials and monuments where visitors might commune with the past by bringing themselves near to all manner of markers and cenotaphs.

In the other case, made by historians such as Alfred Young and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, American commemorative preoccupations are associated with a sense of historical discontinuity that seems to have originated by the 1770s, during the “Age of Revolution,” and which reached a fevered pitch by at least 1900. This story explains why, though the founding generation distrusted monuments, the deaths of its most prominent leaders—first George Washington and, later, Thomas Jefferson—prompted an early wave of commemorative activity by the 1820s. The Civil War, of course, exacerbated this sense of historical rupture and set into motion a commemorative spree that has not yet abated. By the end of the nineteenth century, Americans erected obelisks, collected old things—clothes, quilts, furniture, tools, and more—opened museums, founded historical societies, preserved old homes, and staged fetes and festivals all in hopes of staving off their nagging concern that something had been lost amid the ravages of modernity. Their efforts, especially during the years spanning the World Wars, were so expansive that much of the commemorative infrastructure they built remains today.

Since World War II, Americans have experimented with new commemorative forms. During the postwar years, named municipal buildings and commemorative highways replaced a previous generation’s fondness for granite soldiers and obelisks. Monuments to shared loss have also become increasingly common. Inspired by Maya Lin’s widely influential 1982 Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, modern monuments often feature abstract forms and reflective surfaces in place of the figurative literalism preferred a century ago. Impermanent or impromptu memorials have also become a staple of modern commemorative practice. Mounds of stuffed animals, ghost-white bicycles, roadside shrines with hard-hats and t-shirts, car windows airbrushed with sentimental tributes, tattoos, and scores of commemorative websites all reveal our own era’s concern to mourn publicly. It is a shift, as Erika Doss argues, that signals a new period in our commemorative history, one wherein national belonging is reckoned emotionally in acts of public feeling.

The Contours of Memory

Commemorative trends notwithstanding, memorials and monuments are endlessly diverse insomuch as acts of public memory always reflect the particularities of time and place. An uneasy grid of concrete slabs recalls the Holocaust at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Germany. The “Door of No Return”—part of the Maison des Esclaves on Senegal’s Gorée Island—commemorates the terrors of the Atlantic slave trade. And a commemorative complex in Vietnam’s Quảng Ngãi Province testifies to the rape and slaughter of civilians by U.S. Army soldiers in a place Americans remember as My Lai. These monuments demonstrate that commemoration need not always seek resolution. Indeed, commemorating sites of shame offers an important corrective to triumphant portrayals of the past that inevitably obscure historical complexity. Monuments like these, that are indelibly bound up with American history abroad, also remind us that memory is not confined to national borders. The circulation for centuries of people, capital, and ideas has ensured that all of our memories are entwined within deep networks of global remembrance.

Some monuments and memorials seek to redress lapses in what is presented as “official” public memory. The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Colorado, for instance, now insists—after more than a century of white Coloradans deliberately mischaracterizing the massacre as a battle—that the Arapaho and Cheyenne be reinscribed onto our national memory of westward expansion, which for generations has either omitted Native Americans or dismissed them as mere obstacles to progress. Such is the function of so-called counter monuments. Counter monuments, as James Young suggests, demand a reappraisal of collective memory by demonstrating awareness of their own contrivance. They do so, in some cases, by insisting on the inclusion of people—and, sometimes, entire segments of American society—that have been persistently absented from public memory. In 2017, Philadelphians honored Octavius V. Catto with a statue, the first ever in Philadelphia to commemorate an individual of African descent. Elsewhere, counter monuments do their work by modifying extant monuments or presenting them in a different light. Artist Krzysztof Wodiczko complicated our understanding of the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown, Massachusetts, for instance, with a temporary 1998 installation that projected onto its sides towering videos of mothers torn by the loss of children to neighborhood street violence.

Removing or relocating monuments and memorials can also reveal the deep intensity of contested memory. Beginning in 2015, in response to a mass shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, cities across the United States—including New Orleans, Baltimore, and Los Angeles—opted to remove monuments valorizing the Confederacy and white supremacy from courthouses and parks. Scores of these monuments had been erected throughout the twentieth century to legitimize white supremacy and otherwise shift Americans’ commemorative gaze away from the degradations of slavery. The removal campaign turned violent in August 2017 when white supremacists and their supporters rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, ostensibly in defense of a monument portraying Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Clashes with counter-protesters resulted in one death and multiple injuries, and appeared to many Americans as a metaphor for the heated debates about race and citizenship that consumed the nation during the presidential election of 2016.

Tomorrow’s Monuments and Memorials

Removal debates remind us that commemoration is always political. Even the most benign monuments are products of choices made about how to remember, what to remember, and how to pay for it all. Faced with this certainty, then, how might we create monuments today that speak beyond our immediate concerns, and to audiences who may not remember in the same ways that we do? History shows us that a good first step is to engage as many constituencies as possible in the commemorative process. Commemoration grows from conversation, and as such should include as many voices as possible. Archiving the conversations that produce monuments is another important step. By preserving a record of our deliberations over public memory, we leave for future generations an indication of what is at stake in our commemorative aspirations. Above all, we must remember that monuments and memorials are neither silent nor innocent. The harder we think about their meanings today, the more likely they are to speak with clarity tomorrow.

Essay on Taj Mahal for Students and Children

500+ words essay on taj mahal.

Essay on Taj Mahal: Taj Mahal needs no introduction. This monument is on the list of the Seven Wonders of the World . No wonder people swarm in flies all year round to witness the magnificence of his beauty. This monument is located in India in the city of Agra in Uttar Pradesh. In other words, Taj Mahal marks the excellence of Mughal architecture.

Taj Mahal is one of the main reasons why India is famous. Many people even associate India with Taj Mahal. However, to me, more than the splendid architecture, it is the story behind it that appeals to me the most. This magnificent beauty stands strong as a symbol of the love of a husband to his wife. Moreover, it reminds us of the power of love and how it can set an example for generations to come.

Taj Maha – A Symbol of Love

The renowned Taj Mahal was brought to life by the vision of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan . He got this monument built for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal after she passed away.

To honor the memory of his loving wife, Shah Jahan ordered the finest artisans from all over the world to build it. He wanted to make something that had never been done before for anyone. The emperor wished to give the last gift to his wife whom he loved very much.

Even till date, people sing praises about Shah Jahan’s grand gesture. It makes you believe in love and appreciate it like never before. We also see how under the tomb lies the body of the eternal lovers. Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal are buried next to each other and even after death, they remained side by side.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Making of Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal was declared as a Heritage Site by UNSECO in 1983. What makes this monument so special? Why do people come from all walks of life to witness its magnificence? Taj Mahal is made from white marble. Subsequently, this marble was exported from various countries from all over the world.

Taj Mahal involves a lot of smart architecture. The four pillars that stand in the corners are inclined a little. This was done to prevent the monument from any kind of natural disaster. Shah Jahan spent a hefty amount of money in the making of Taj Mahal.

In addition, we see how the building of this structure required 20,000 workers approximately to get the work completed. Moreover, the architecture of Taj Mahal was inspired by several architecture styles like India, Turkish, Persian and more.

Furthermore, you will see a beautiful fountain in front of the Taj Mahal with water channels. The reflection of the Taj in the water just makes for a mesmerizing view. It looks nothing short of a fairyland. In conclusion, every Indian takes pride in the beauty of the Taj Mahal and its heritage. This monument is famous all over the world. Around 2 to 4 million people come to visit the Taj Mahal every year. The beauty and history of the monument attract people the most and makes it famous all over the world.

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How Monuments Help Us Remember—Or Not Remember—the Past

Andrew shanken on the origins and meanings of central park’s memorials.

Memorials are a tired topic, “dead,” a well-intentioned colleague told me in 2006, a Freudian slip of a word to use for objects or sites that so often bring the living into contact with the dead. I would be better off with a different research topic, she thought.

On the surface, she was right. Scholarship on memorials is a crowded field. With new titles published every year, it has become increasingly difficult to gain a meaningful purchase on the topic. Even the wider public could be excused for tiring of the latest round of memorial proposals. A pandemic memorial, anyone? The Atlantic Monthly is already there, as is Forbes , NBC News, and NPR. Apparently, anticipating memorials is clickbait.

Indeed, we hear quite a lot about those honorific structures, statues, sculptures, plaques, and other objects that serve as memorials, an oddity for a period so willing to forget. Memorials are also commonly encountered as sites of political contestation, places where people go to raise awareness—or to raise hell. The Robert E. Lee equestrian statue in Richmond is a terrific example of the first, while the Lee equestrian statue in Charlottesville is a sad reminder of the second. Both are now gone. Damnatio memoriae can backfire and become an aide memoire .

While memorials are well understood in these two roles—as commemorative and political devices—most of the time they are neither. Most often they are just there, in the way, turned off, or enveloped by the quotidian. Birds rest on generals’ heads. Teens cavort on their steps. Rush hour commuters race around them like any obstacle separating them from their appointments.

Frank O’Hara’s poem “Music” (1954) bares this reality: “If I rest for a moment near The Equestrian / pausing for a liver sausage sandwich in the Mayflower Shoppe, / that angel seems to be leading the horse into Bergdorf’s / and I am naked as a table cloth, my nerves humming.” It is neither the anonymous equestrian, nor the surging angel that sets the narrator’s nerves atwitter. These remain generic, deprived of proper name, in spite of the fame of both subject (General Sherman) and sculptor (Augustus Saint Gaudens). But the Mayflower Shoppe and Bergdorf’s! These O’Hara names. It is the urban scene that grabs him; the memorial is foil. It is a scene, moreover, of bathos born of contrast, of solemn high culture brought low (and adoringly so) by commerce, while the narrator eats the most common of fast foods at the feet of an eternal golden angel.

What city dwellers have not, amid the bustle of urban life, plopped down at a memorial and not bothered to query its identity? Or worse, read the inscription with only dim recognition of the person’s identity or event’s meaning? We are no guiltier of amnesia than those who first erected modern memorials in great numbers in the late 19th century. Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, one of the most astute architectural critics of the period, wrote: “If a work of art is agreeable to look upon, we may be glad to possess it even if it commemorates a well-meaning nobody.” She grouped Saint-Gaudens’s Sherman with the American panther in Central Park and, more surprisingly, the monuments at Gettysburg. They belonged together because they were all, in essence, public art. So much for sacred memory or politics.

Art, however, is no less fraught. On aesthetic grounds, memorials met with savage criticism from the moment they began to embellish modern cities. In the mid-19th century Thomas Carlyle called the new population of statues “poor wretches, gradually rusting in the sooty rain; black and dismal.” They “sanction and consecrate artistic botching” and “pretentious futility… No soul looks upon them… without damage, all the deadlier the less he knows of it.” This attitude extended to their sites. What Van Resselaer called “right placing” was a purely aesthetic matter: “A beautiful statue may be shorn of half its effect if badly stationed.” To some critics, places needed protection from memorials. Edgar Degas proposed walling off parks to defend them against the incursion of monuments.

This is one reason why Sherman is poised at the edge of Central Park, rather than being led through it. Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the originators of Central Park, plumped for parks entirely free of memorials. These detracted, he believed, from the pure encounter with nature. He rejected monuments and other intrusions on the natural aspect of his parks, which he called “townlike things.”

The artfulness of the first parks—their pretense of imitating unadulterated nature—attempted to counter the corrupt culture of the city with nature as a place ostensibly free of culture. Olmsted’s position was widely adopted, however ineffectually, across the United States. John McLaren, who served as the Superintendent for Golden Gate Park in San Francisco for over fifty years, famously hid statues behind plantings. To this day, many of them can be seen fighting with foliage. As memorials invaded parks, they populated a landscape intended explicitly as an escape from those associations conjured up by memorials.

Olmsted and his followers obviously fought a losing battle. Memorials are fixtures in parks. They failed to concede to the reality that parks immediately came under immense pressure to serve many purposes. There were precious few civic spaces to absorb the increasingly complex needs of modern urban life. Olmsted’s insistence on unadulterated landscape met great resistance, not least of all from pragmatic reformers who saw the park as open land that could be put to use as a place of “cultural enlightenment,” where they could inculcate values to the masses. Olmsted’s purism surrendered to “museums and conservatories, aquariums, observatories, and zoos,” and other institutions. Playgrounds and monuments further broadened the urban park’s use and meaning.

Central Park bears the marks of these debates. Statuary lines the Mall. Again, Van Renssalear tells us why: “It should be remembered…, as a monument is a palpably artificial thing, the best place for it is where other artificial objects are conspicuous.” She thus supported the Mall in Central Park as a place for monuments because its formality openly acknowledged its artifice, whereas those parts of the park that pretended to naturalness were unsuitable. A bronze faun or a statue of Pomona could appearance in a glade or an orchard, but where parks looked natural, memorials were undesirable.

This explains why so many memorials were pushed to the edge of the park. The Columbus monument stands (for the time being) at the southwest corner, a pendant to Sherman. Other memorials line the edge, in the view of landscape architect George Burnap, turning them into a screen of the park and preventing them from becoming the dominant note. Sherman is a quintessential example and it set a pattern.

The 107th United States Infantry memorial (1927) on the eastern side of the park exemplifies this approach. An ensemble of World War I soldiers advance from the wooded thicket bordering Central Park, as if mounting a charge. The vignette is acutely cut off by Fifth Avenue. Three traffic lights and multiple lanes of traffic thwart their charge down 67th Street. Apparently, the anomalous collision of war and city was less upsetting than a memorial in the park. Behind the soldiers lies a playground, its slides, rocks, and water elements, all obscured from the memorial by the low wall of Central Park, a green buffer between the park and the urban wall of buildings, a curtain to help visitors suspend disbelief.

In The Everyday Life of Memorials , I write about these boundaries, the way people frequently disregard them, the meaning of where we put memorials, and what we do at them. O’Hara had it right: The liver-sausage sandwich means nothing without Sherman, which is incoherent without Central Park or Bergdorf’s or the teaming masses gawking, flirting, littering, and now texting as they move through the scene. They’re all part of the total meaning of this urban fragment, which flows into other cultural landscapes that give it meaning. Sherman and his golden angel epitomize the formal. Placed by elites and official committees in a formally landscaped entrance to Central Park, they play the didactic role of keepers of memory, arbiters of culture, reminders of American hierarchies. They are symbols of authority, stand-ins for the powers that placed them there.

Yet all of this breaks down in O’Hara’s poem—and in real life. The everyday is not just the spaces in between and the neglected buildings, people, and processes in them, but the entire mixed-up scene. It turns out that the formal ain’t so formal, and the everyday is constantly under pressure to straighten up and tuck in its shirt. The formal Sherman and its formal setting, planned from above and gilded with high-minded allegory, are part of everyday urbanism.

As the geographer Richard Walker has written, largely to prod devotees of the everyday out of their purism: “The city and its monuments are an unending procession of spectacle, high drama, low farce, and play of representations upon the rude stones—fraud on the grandest scale—from classical Athens to Islamic Cairo or from Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s Paris to Frank Gehry’s Los Angeles.”

__________________________________

The Everyday Life of Memorials by Andrew Shanken is available from Zone Books.

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Indian Monuments

With their elaborate superfluities and wonderful architecture, Indian monuments represent one of the most outstanding facets of the multi-faceted Indian culture. An architectural feat in itself, each Indian monument is a remarkably splendid sample of unbelievable artistry, covering a sense of mystery, deception and romance. Be it the marvel in white marble, the spellbinding Taj Mahal; or the red stone splendor, the magnificent Red Fort; or the magnificence of temple art of Khajuraho, Konark and Hampi , there is evident the master craftsmanship and elegance, that brings to the forefront the splendor of the bygone era. Monuments are witnesses of India's past; the monuments of India are also the guardian pillars of India's cultural heritage. The monuments of India have become an inspiration for the future generations.

Buland Darwaza Buland Darwaza or the loft gateway was built by the great Mughal emperor, Akbar in 1601 A.D. at Fatehpur Sikri. Akbar built the Buland Darwaza to commemorate his victory over Gujarat. The Buland Darwaza is approached by 42 steps. The Buland Darwaza is 53.63m high and 35 meters wide. Char Minar The Charminar in Hyderabad was constructed in 1591 by Mohammed Quli Qutab Shah. He built the Charminar to mark the end of plague in the Hyderabad city. Since the construction of the Charminar, the Hyderabad city has almost become synonymous with the monument. The Charminar is a massive and impressive structure with four minarets.

Gateway of India One of the grand and magnificent landmarks of Mumbai, the Gateway of India was built to commemorate the visit of the British Monarch, King George V and Queen Mary. The Gateway of India is one of the hot spots of Mumbai city. The Gateway of India is a massive archway on the Apollo Bunder. Gol Gumbad Gol Gumbad situated in Bijapur district of Karnataka is the second largest dome in the world. The Gol Gumbad is second in size only to St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. The Gol Gumbad is 124 feet in diameter. The architecture of Gol Gumbad is unique in the sense that the four minarets themselves are the staircases, leading to the top dome. Statue of Gomateswara The colossal monolithic statue of Gomateswara is situated at Sravanbelgola, 158 km away from Bangalore. This gigantic statue of lord Gomateswara, the Jain saint, is carved out of a single block of granite and stands majestically on top of a hill. For centuries, Sravanabelagola has remained a great Jain center and thousands of pilgrims flock to see the magnificent, gigantic statue of the Jain saint, Lord Gomateswara.

Hampi Hampi was the capital of Vijayanagar Empire, the last great Hindu Kingdom. Under the Vijayanagar rulers Hampi grew fabulously. The princes of Vijayanagar built numerous Dravidian temples and palaces. The records of foreign travelers between 14th and 16th century bear testimony to the grandeur of Hampi. Humayun Tomb After wandering in wilderness for 25 years, Humayun reoccupied Delhi in the year 1555 AD but he was not destined to rule any longer and died barely six months of his arrival, from a fall in his library, Sher Mandal. Humayun's tomb was built by his widow, Hajji Begum around 1565 AD. India Gate India Gate, situated on the Raj Path in New Delhi, was built to memorialize the 70,000 Indian soldiers who lost their lives during the First World War, fighting for the British army. The India Gate also bears the name of 13,516 British and Indian soldiers killed during the third Afghanistan war, 1919. The foundation stone of India Gate was laid down by the Duke of Connaught in the year 1921 and was designed by the famous British architect, Edward Lutyens.

Jama Masjid Delhi Jama Masjid of Delhi is the largest mosque in India. The Jama Masjid stands across the road in front of the Red Fort. Built between 1644 and 1658, Jama Masjid is one of the last architectural works of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. The spacious courtyard of the Jama Masjid holds thousands of faithful. Khajuraho Temples Known for their breathtaking sculptors and elegance, the magnificent Khajuraho temples present aesthetics at its best. The beauty and elegance of the Khajuraho temples is beyond words and imagination. After visiting the Khajuraho temples one is left wondering about the advancement of Indian art and sculpture as back as the 10th century.

Mahabalipuram Rathas Famous as temple town, Mahabalipuram is situated along the shores of the Bay of Bengal about 60 km from the south of Chennai. Mahabalipuram is home to one of the architectural wonders of the world, the Ratha temples. It was the Pallava king Narsimha, who built the magnificent 'Ratha' cave temples of Mahabalipuram in the 7th century. Nalanda Nalanda was a great center of Buddhist learning in ancient times. A large number of Buddhist students thronged the Nalanda University to study Buddhism. According to the Chinese traveler Hieun Tsang, the place owed its name to a Naga, who resided in a local tank. Lord Vardhamana Mahavir. Qutub Minar Qutub Minar is the highest stone tower in India. The construction of the Qutub Minar was started by Qutub-ud-Din Aibak in 1199 and it was finished by his successor and son-in-law, Iltutmish. The Qutub Minar was named after the Sufi saint, Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki.

Safdarjung Tomb Safdarjung's tomb was built by Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah, the son of Safdarjung. Safdarjung was the governor of Awadh and later became the Prime Minister of Muhammad Shah, the Mughal emperor. Built in 1753-1754, the Safdarjung tomb lies at the Lodi road, New Delhi. Safdarjung's tomb is set in the middle of a garden Sanchi Stupa Sanchi is famous for outstanding specimen of Buddhist art and architecture, belonging to the period between the third century BC and the twelfth century AD. The most important of all the Sanchi monuments is the Sanchi Stupa. Stupas are large hemispherical domes, containing a central chamber, in which the relics of the Buddha were placed.

Dhamekh Stupa Dhamekh Stupa at Sarnath is one of the prominent Buddhist structures in India. Dhamekh Stupa was constructed by the great Mauryan king, Ashoka. The Dhamekh Stupa is cylindrical in shape and about 34 m high and 28.3 m in diameter. The lower portion of the Stupa is covered completely with beautifully carved stones. Taj Mahal Famous as one of the wonders, the Taj Mahal at Agra, India, is epitome of true love. Taj Mahal was built by the famous Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his beloved wife, Mumtaj Mahal. The architectural beauty and magnificence of the Taj Mahal has never been surpassed. Victoria Memorial The Victoria Memorial was built to commemorate the peak of the British Empire in India. The Victoria Memorial, conceived by Lord Curzon, represents the architectural climax of Kolkata city. Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy specified its classical style but the actual plan of Victoria Memorial was laid down by the well-known architect, Sir William Emerson.

Cellular Jail The one name that sends chills down the spine even today is that of Kala Pani Jail, located in Andaman. The jail still has the fear element in the air and anyone visiting the place can sense the pain the inmates went through back during the time this jail was functional. Hawa Mahal Jaipur is synonymous with Hawa Mahal. This beautiful monument of India was built by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh in the year 1799. Also known as the Palace of Winds, this beautiful monument is the landmark of Jaipur. The monument is five stories high and the front of the monument is delicately carved with beautiful motifs. Leh Palace Leh Palace of Ladakh, though in a dilapidated condition continues to lure tourists from far and wide. Located in the Himalayas, the adventurous journey one has to undertake to reach the palace is what makes it even more special. Leh palace was built in the 17th century by King Singe Namgyal as the royal residence.

Mattancherry Palace Located at a distance of 10 kilometers from Ernakulam city, Cochin, Mattancherry Palace is a storehouse of ancient paintings and art forms. The Mattancherry Palace came to be known as the Dutch Palace after the Dutch carried out some renovation and extension work. Mysore Palace One of the largest palaces in India, Mysore Palace of Karnataka is a fine example of unique blend of different styles of architecture. The Mysore Palace is one of the most attractive and gorgeous monuments in Karnataka. It is also known by the name of Amba Vilas and was the residence of Wodeyar Maharaja.

Vivekananda Rock Located in the midst of the ocean, just 400 meters from Kanyakumari, is the magnificent Vivekananda Rock Memorial. This colossal structure was built in the year 1970, under the guidance of Shri Eknath Ranade. The Vivekananda rock temple is dedicated to one of the greatest spiritual philosophers of India, Swami Vivekananda.

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Why Do Monuments Matter?

By Ruth Steinhardt

From the National Mall outward, Washington, D.C., can feel like a 68-square-mile museum, packed with stone and metal tributes to towering figures in history and the allegorical ideals they represent. But for artist, historian and curator Paul Farber, this year’s William Wilson Corcoran Visiting Professor of Community Engagement at the George Washington University Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, it’s equally important to look at the things and people absent from the monumental stage.

“History lives—not just as something that so-called history buffs reenact, or that we keep behind museum glass, but as a living force that artists help us interpret and that guides the way we think about our current moment,” said Dr. Farber, director and cofounder of nonprofit public art and history organization Monument Lab . “And I’m particularly interested in the way that history lives in public spaces.”

He’ll deliver a virtual lecture on his work’s central question, “What Is a Monument?” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13.

Dr. Farber said American monuments exist in part “to create a usable past” for this relatively young country—to tell an easier story than America’s inconvenient, often contradictory history. “Monuments elevate figures and stories without the deeper work of reckoning with the past,” he said. “I think in order to move forward, we have to have a new relationship with our past, to face it directly in order to foster healing and repair.”

In Washington, D.C., where Dr. Farber lived as a doctoral student, he saw firsthand how what we choose to commemorate illustrates what we find socially useful—and obscures historical truths we find dangerous or subversive. While writing his dissertation on American artists and the Berlin Wall, for instance, Dr. Farber found himself encountering pieces of his subject all over the city. The environments in which these fragments were placed implied veneration and historic significance: a fist-sized chunk at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, a graffiti-covered replica at the International Spy Museum.

What Dr. Farber didn’t find in museums was the history of Washington, D.C., as a living city. The 1968 civil unrest after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., for instance, lived vividly in the memories of D.C. artists and writers Dr. Farber spoke to. But Dr. Farber could find just one officially sanctioned site of memory acknowledging those four days of turmoil: a small historical placard near U St., NW. These events were “living in the consciousness of the city” but were not given the official imprimatur of monumental objects, despite the ongoing “heavy burden of history and healing” they represented in residents’ memories, Dr. Farber said. Meanwhile, the Berlin Wall seemed to be everywhere.

That was understandable, given the wall’s narrative significance as a symbol of communist repression and the District’s symbolic position as a stand-in for Western democracy. (One section of the wall, now standing in a courtyard outside the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, is commemorated in a plaque as “a reminder that freedom can never be taken for granted.”) But the number of concrete fragments from a distant European city was also telling in contrast the absence of public memory spaces dedicated to the on-the-ground history of D.C. itself.

“If these ‘monumental’ pieces of history are installed across the nation's capital, not to mention other places across the country that I was encountering on research trips, what are the histories not being represented in those places?” Dr. Farber said. “It brought home to me that monuments are about representing and drawing attention to significant moments in our history, but also they were vantage points to assess these huge gaps and occlusions.”

More recently, Dr. Farber saw these gaps as co-director of the National Monument Audit , conducted by Monument Lab in partnership with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Since there is no nationwide agency overseeing the creation and maintenance of historic monuments, the audit’s research team scoured thousands of registers from federal, state, local, tribal, institutional and public sources, focusing its most in-depth investigations on a study set of about 50,000 “conventional monuments” from across the United States.

The audit’s results reflect America’s systemic inequities , Dr. Farber said. Of the top 50 most memorialized historical figures, just three are women (Joan of Arc, Sacagawea and Harriet Tubman) and three are Black or indigenous men (Dr. King, Frederick Douglass and Tecumseh). None of the top 50 are openly LGBTQ+. Of monuments in the study set, there are more than 10 times as many depictions of mermaids (22) than of congresswomen (two). And despite heightened conversation around demands to remove statues of controversial or offensive figures, the audit found that such removals represent only 0.6 percent of the country’s existing monuments.

The report has already had an impact on policymakers. Pennsylvania State Rep. Chris Rabb (D) cited it in a recent proposed bill replacing the Columbus Day state holiday with one for Election Day.

Dr. Farber said the bill is an example of the ways that meaningful systemic change is linked to, but not identical with, changing what we see on public pedestals.

“Statues are highly visible and important places of organizing, and they’re also indications of existing systems that have to be addressed,” he said.

Dr. Farber’s students are colleagues and collaborators in the quest for understanding. His current class, “What Is a Monument?” has both graduate and undergraduate members from across a range of disciplines, and their fieldwork doesn’t stop at the doors of the classroom. They’ve held sessions on the National Mall and other local sites, and Dr. Farber said the opportunity to bring the class into the city—“not just to point off into the distance, but actually proceed out of the building”—is an opportunity he treasures.

“It’s a real full-circle moment for me,” he said.

Paul Farber's virtual lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m., What is a Monument? , is open to the public. In addition, an installation about the National Monument Audit is in the Corcoran's Flagg Building atrium (500 17th St., NW) and is open to the GW community from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every weekday through the fall semester.

Visual Essay: Holocaust Memorials and Monuments

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At a Glance

Civics & Citizenship
Social Studies
The Holocaust
Human & Civil Rights

How do we keep history alive in our communities? Which events and people are worth remembering, and why? Memorials and monuments reflect, in part, the ways that communities and individuals have answered these questions. The gallery of images below exhibits a variety of memorials and monuments that have been constructed to remember the Holocaust. The introduction that follows explores the complex questions that memorials raise about how we choose to remember history.

Holocaust Memorials and Monuments

Explore images of memorials and monuments to the Holocaust located in Europe and the United States.

Introduction to the Visual Essay

Across Europe, and even around the globe, people have built memorials to commemorate the Holocaust. Each tries to preserve the collective memory of the generation that built the memorial and to shape the memories of generations to come. This visual essay explores several examples of memorials and monuments to the Holocaust and other histories of mass violence. We use the terms monuments and memorials more or less interchangeably. Some people distinguish between the two, saying that memorials are a response to loss and death and that monuments are more commemorative and celebratory in nature. However, when considering traditional memorials and monuments, there are so many exceptions to these definitions that here we will use the terms more loosely.

Memorials raise complex questions about which history we choose to remember. If a memorial cannot tell the whole story, then what part of the story, or whose story, does it tell? Whose memories, whose point of view, and whose values and perspectives will be represented? Memorials must also respond to the question, “Why should we remember?” Writing of memorials in Germany, Ian Buruma distinguishes between a Denkmal , a monument built to glorify a leader, an event, or the nation as a whole, and a Mahnmal , a “monument of warning.” Holocaust memorials, he says, are “monuments of warning.” 1

Memorial makers must also decide how to express complex ideas in the visual vocabulary available to them. Shape, mass, material, imagery, location, and perhaps some words, names, or dates can communicate a memorial’s message. Legal scholar Martha Minow asks,

Should such memorials be literal or abstract? Should they honor the dead or disturb the very possibility of honor in atrocity? Should they be monumental, or instead disavow the monumental image, itself so associated with Nazism? Preserve memories or challenge as pretense the notion that memories ever exist outside the process of constructing them? 2

Some observers wonder if memorials might have unintended consequences, undermining the memories that they are meant to preserve. Critic James Young has said of memorials, “It’s a big rock telling people what to think; it’s a big form that pretends to have a meaning, that sustains itself for eternity, that never changes over time, never evolves—it fixes history, it embalms or somehow stultifies it.” 3 Young has suggested that memorials might actually let viewers become more passive and forgetful, because they “do our memory work for us.” 4 Can monuments suggest closure when none exists and consequently insulate us from history or anesthetize us rather than engaging and challenging us?

With these concerns in mind, some artists have created “counter-memorials” that are designed to change over time, to create an awareness of something that is missing, or even to disappear, provoking viewers to question, think, and connect more actively. In Kassel, Germany, artist Horst Hoheisel created a counter-memorial on the site of a majestic, pyramid-shaped fountain that had been given to the city by a Jewish entrepreneur; the original fountain was demolished by the Nazis in 1939. Rather than restore it, Hoheisel created an underground fountain that is the mirror image of the one the Nazis destroyed. Hoheisel explained:

I have designed the new fountain as a mirror image of the old one, sunk beneath the old place in order to rescue the history of this place as a wound and as an open question, to penetrate the consciousness of the Kassel citizens so that such things never happen again . . . The sunken fountain is not the memorial at all. It is only history turned into a pedestal, an invitation to passersby who stand upon it to search for the memorial in their own heads. For only there is the memorial to be found. 5

Connection Questions

As you explore the images in the visual essay, consider what message each memorial conveys. Who created and authorized the memorial? Who is the audience for this message? How is the message conveyed? Whose story is the memorial telling? What might the memorial be leaving out?
What are some key differences among the memorials pictured in the gallery above? What do they have in common? Which one speaks to you most strongly?
Memorials have many different kinds of goals, including telling an accurate story of the past, expressing nationalist ideas, honoring life, confronting evil, and encouraging reconciliation. Do you see any of these goals reflected in the memorials in the visual essay? What other goals might these memorials reflect?
What are James Young’s criticisms of memorials? Do any of the memorials in this visual essay reflect his concerns?
What memorials and monuments do you pass in your daily life? Do they have an impact on you? Why or why not?
1 Ian Buruma, The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994), 202.
2 Martha Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1998), 141.
4 James E. Young, “ Memory and Counter-Memory ,” Harvard Design Magazine , Fall 1999, accessed June 3, 2016.
5 Quoted in James E. Young, “ Memory and Counter-Memory ,” Harvard Design Magazine , Fall 1999, accessed June 3, 2016.

How to Cite This Reading

Facing History & Ourselves, " Visual Essay: Holocaust Memorials and Monuments ," last updated August 2, 2016.

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History, Memory, and Monuments: An Overview of the Scholarly Literature on Commemoration

Kirk Savage, University of Pittsburgh

“Monuments are good for nothing,” a North Carolina Congressman declared in 1800. In the founding years of the United States, many argued that democracy and the spread of literacy had made commemorative rituals and monuments obsolete, a leftover from the days of monarchy and superstition. Reflecting on Congress’s reluctance to fund a monument to George Washington, John Quincy Adams famously observed that “democracy has no monuments.” “True memory,” many Americans liked to claim, lay not in a pile of dead stones but in the living hearts of the people.

Since those early days of the Republic, democracy has changed its tune. Commemoration has become utterly commonplace, deeply rooted in the cultural practices of the nation. Not only did Americans come to embrace traditional forms of commemoration, but they pioneered new practices, particularly in the remembrance of war dead. Today American commemorative practices have multiplied and spread in ways no one could have imagined, extending now even into the solar system (with a monument to the fallen Columbia crew on Mars).

While commemorative practices have been expanding for nearly two centuries, the academic literature on commemoration has mushroomed in the past twenty years. So many scholars from such a variety of disciplines have joined the “memory boom” that mapping the field has become effectively impossible. Moreover, scholars often talk at cross purposes with one another or simply in ignorance of each other’s work. This essay, while by necessity impressionistic, will try to pinpoint key questions, debates, findings, and trends.

The first key question might be, what is commemoration? Dictionary definitions tell us that to commemorate is to “call to remembrance,” to mark an event or a person or a group by a ceremony or an observance or a monument of some kind. Commemorations might be ephemeral or permanent ; the key point is that they prod collective memory in some conspicuous way.

French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs ushered in the modern academic study of collective memory with his book The Social Frameworks of Memory (1925) in which he argued that all memory – even personal memory – is a social process, shaped by the various groups (family, religious, geographical, etc.) to which individuals belong. In an even more influential posthumous essay, “Historical Memory and Collective Memory” (1950), published after his death in a Nazi concentration camp, Halbwachs insisted on a distinction between history and collective memory: history aims for a universal, objective truth severed from the psychology of social groups while “every collective memory requires the support of a group delimited in space and time.” Thus our view of the past does not come primarily from professional historical scholarship but from a much more complicated and interwoven set of relationships to mass media, tourist sites, family tradition, and the spaces of our upbringing with all their regional, ethnic, and class diversity – to name just a few factors. Just as personal memory is now understood to be a highly selective, adaptive process of reconstructing the past, shaped by present needs and contexts, so collective memory is a product of social groups and their ever evolving character and interests. Hence the now commonplace notion that collective memory is “constructed,” amidst a perpetual political battleground. Almost everyone now agrees with American historian Michael Kammen’s assertion, made in his magisterial volume Mystic Chords of Memory (1991) that “societies in fact reconstruct their pasts rather than faithfully record them, and that they do so with the needs of contemporary culture clearly in mind – manipulating the past in order to mold the present.”

Yet even when collective memory is qualified in this way, many scholars remain skeptical of the notion. In a 2001 essay on “ The Memory Boom in Contemporary Historical Studies” social historian Jay Winter asserted that we need “a more rigorous and tightly argued set of propositions about what exactly memory is, and what it has been in the past.” Some scholars even question the existence of collective memory. The very idea of collective memory seems to assume a unity of purpose – as if many different people somehow share a common mind – that belies the reality of even the smallest family group, let alone a diverse nation like the U.S. James Wertsch has argued in Voices of Collective Remembering (2002) that collective memory is not a thing in itself but many different acts of remembering, shaped by overarching social forces and cognitive frameworks such as narrative. Susan Sontag in her final book Regarding the Pain of Others (2002) went even further and argued that there isn’t a collective memory at all but there is “collective instruction,” a complex process – left mostly unexplained in her book – by which certain ideas and images become more important than others.

“We speak so much of memory because there is so little of it left,” French scholar Pierre Nora has famously argued ( Realms of Memory , orig. 1984). Nora claimed that modern societies invest so heavily in “lieux de memoire” [memory sites, such as monuments, museums, archives, and historic places] because these have replaced “real environments of memory,” the living memory that was once nourished spontaneously in premodern societies. Nora’s claim echoes the anti-monument rhetoric of early American republicans. Like the republicans before him, Nora suspected that modern commemorations were invented to make up for a lack of organic unity within modern nations and societies. David Lowenthal’s book The Past Is a Foreign Country (1985) made a similar point, arguing that modern societies try desperately to resurrect the past because it has already disappeared from living culture. While this core insight has been productive – modernity does indeed disrupt old patterns of collective memory – it is also reductive, failing to take into account not only the importance of commemoration in premodern societies but also the persistence of the past and “spontaneous” practices of memory in modern societies such as the U.S.

Nora’s attention to sites of memory and the politics surrounding them has had a profound influence on American scholarship, but many scholars who cite him simply ignore or overlook the assumptions that underpin his work. Whatever their theoretical allegiances, scholars keep circling around the same basic questions. Who guides the process of remembering and towards what ends? Why do specific commemorative projects take particular forms? How do commemorative practices actually shape social relations and cultural beliefs (rather than simply reflecting them)? Inevitably this last question raises the key issue of how conspicuous acts of commemoration like public ceremonies and monument building relate to the more everyday practices of schooling, reminiscing, and unconscious habit that carry knowledge and tradition from one generation to another. This question is the least directly addressed issue, probably because it is the hardest to research, though it haunts much of the scholarship on memory.

In the U.S. the “memory boom” seems to have been inspired largely by two phenomena: the coming to grips with the Holocaust, which began in earnest in the 1970s, and the unexpected success of Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, dedicated in 1982. While the literature on Holocaust memory is now vast and intricate, James E. Young’s book The Texture of Memory (1993) has become indispensable. Focusing on the unique problems posed by the trauma of the Holocaust, Young surveyed a range of memorial solutions in Europe and the U.S. from traditional heroic figurative monuments to avant-garde installations that deliberately undermined the very premise that monuments are permanent. Throughout the book Young argued that monument building is a living process, in some sense always unfinished; no matter how much a monument may pretend to be eternal and unchanging, its meaning always evolves as its viewers bring new concerns and understandings to it. Since the Holocaust was so clearly an event to be pondered rather than celebrated, monuments could never hope to fix its meaning for all time.

The phenomenal power and popularity of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial almost immediately revived scholarly interest in the subject of public monuments. Traditionally, public monuments had been the most prestigious forms of commemoration because they were designed as permanent showcases of public memory, to last for the ages. But in the twentieth century, scholars came to consider the public monument a dead form. Lewis Mumford wrote in The Culture of Cities (1938) that “the notion of a modern monument is a veritable contradiction in terms.” While public monuments did continue to be erected in the mid-20 th century, scholars paid little attention until Maya Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial offered a new, distinctly contemporary memorial format, an open solution – to follow James Young’s suggestion – that deliberately encouraged multiple meanings and uses. This spawned an immense literature on the monument itself and a renewed interest in how monuments and other public practices of commemoration work in modern society.

Fittingly, one of the most frequently cited books on American public memory, John Bodnar’s Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (1992), began with a discussion of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Bodnar, an eminent social historian of ethnic and immigrant communities, was dissatisfied with the all too frequent assumption that commemorations were top-down affairs imposed by ruling elites on a passive populace. The success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial demonstrated to him that commemoration interwove what he called “official” and “vernacular” memory, official memory driven by the need of the state to mythologize itself and maintain the loyalty of its citizens and vernacular memory driven by the need of ordinary people to pursue their social and political concerns in their local communities. Surveying a broad range of local commemorations including monuments and anniversaries, Bodnar argued that national patriotism worked to “mediate” or reconcile the competing interests of official and vernacular memories. While Bodnar’s distinction between official and vernacular can break down in practice, his book has helped establish that commemoration “involves a struggle for supremacy between advocates of various political ideas and sentiments.”

An interesting example that complicates Bodnar’s framework is Melissa Dabakis’s book, Monuments Of Manliness : Visualizing Labor In American Sculpture, 1880-1935 (1998), which studied various intersections of class, gender, and politics in the generally elite form of monumental sculpture. Her investigation of the competing monuments to the Haymarket protest in Chicago in 1886 – one to the police, one to the anarchists – demonstrated that the “struggle for supremacy” was not only a conflict over which version of events would become officially enshrined in public space but also a shifting political conflict between left-wing and right-wing groups. Ironically the official police monument had a more “realistic” vernacular form and definite vernacular appeal, at least among police recruits, while the anarchist monument had a more elite form laden with art-historical associations.

Art historians like Dabakis, trained to study both the patronage and the reception of works of art, have realized for decades that monumental works become especially contested arenas, precisely because the work has a high public profile. One of the earliest and best studies of U.S. monuments was Michele Bogart’s Public Sculpture and the Civic Ideal in New York City, 1890-1930 (1989). Bogart’s book centered on the golden age of the public monument, a time when sculptural monuments proliferated not only in New York but throughout cities across the continent. Her book traced the rise of an unabashedly elite genre of edifying commemoration at the end of the nineteenth century, supplied by well-known artists and their powerful political patrons. But the story concluded with a fascinating account of how this elite consensus unraveled in the early twentieth century, as various groups – such as newly enfranchised women – began to acquire a voice in the process and to challenge the dominant sculptural language. Since then that story has been extended by scholars such as Andrew Shanken, whose 2002 essay in Art Bulletin focused on the mid-twentieth century movement to replace sculptural monuments with “living memorials” (utilitarian memorials such as highways, parks, and concert halls). Throughout the twentieth century memorials increasingly transformed from mere sculptural objects into more complex spaces, often with museum or archival functions. Benjamin Hufbauer’s book Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory (2005) has shown how gargantuan Presidential libraries have become a dominant type, overshadowing or even supplanting the older hero-on-a-pedestal that had once been the preferred type of monument to a great leader.

As noted above, however, traditional public monuments never disappeared, and they continued to be a powerful form of commemoration even as they lost their appeal to cultural elites. Karal Ann Marling and John Wetenhall’s Iwo Jima: Monuments, Memories, and the American Hero (1991) is a study of one such monument, the Marine Corps War Memorial erected in Arlington, Virginia in 1954. Their book embedded the monument within popular culture, where the iconic image originally came from (a wartime newspaper photo) and where it continues to live and thrive. The phenomenon in which particular monuments have become icons of the nation has been studied in books such as Marvin Trachtenberg’s Statue of Liberty (1976), Rex Alan Smith’s Carving of Mount Rushmore (1985), Christopher A. Thomas’s The Lincoln Memorial and American Life (2002), and most recently Nicolaus Mills’s Their Last Battle: The Fight for the National World War II Memorial (2004). Albert Boime in The Unveiling of the National Icons: A Plea for Patriotic Iconoclasm in a Nationalist Era (1998) demonstrated the authoritarian and exclusionary character of many of these icons, although he did not fully take into account what Bodnar might call the vernacular attachment to iconic forms of commemorative art.

Washington, D.C. has received a great deal of attention because it is the commemorative heart of the nation. The role of the Capitol building in commemorating the western expansion of the nation, and the defeat of Indians who stood in the way, has been examined in Vivien Fryd, Art And Empire : The Politics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815-1860 (1992). Other aspects of the Capitol’s commemorative program have been explored in American Pantheon : Sculptural and Artistic Decoration of the United States Capitol , a collection of essays edited By Donald R. Kennon and Thomas P. Somma (2004). The development of the “monumental core” of the capital city has been much studied, but the single best volume on the national Mall as a commemorative landscape remains The Mall in Washington, 1791-1991 , edited by Richard Longstreth (1991). Countless specialized studies on commemorative practices in the capital have been produced – on parades, ceremonies, cemeteries, city plans, outdoor sculpture – but surprisingly few serious synthetic studies of how the city has worked as a commemorative landscape.

More scholarly work in this direction is likely as the collective memory field continues to expand beyond its traditional base in sociology, history, and art history and embraces the work of geographers, landscape historians, ethnographers, archaeologists, and other academic practitioners. Richard Handler and Eric Gable’s enthnographic study of America’s most famous living museum, The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg (1997), is an excellent example, investigating how the historical lessons of this site are continuously reshaped or even ignored as they are put into practice by reenactors and consumed by tourists. Much of the newer work is in essay form. Geographer Derek Alderman, for example, has investigated the issue of commemorative street naming focusing on Martin Luther King, Jr., in a series of articles in professional geography journals. Some recent work has been collected in anthologies, such as Myth, Memory, and the Making of the American Landscape (2001), edited by archaeologist Paul A. Shackel; Social Memory and History: Anthropological Perspectives (2002), edited by Jacob J. Climo and Maria G. Cattell; and Places of Commemoration : Search for Identity and Landscape Design (2001), edited by Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn. What all this work tends to have in common is an effort to map individual commemorative sites within larger contexts of remembrance – landscapes, geographic and administrative units, and social networks created by tourism, professions, and other factors.

This should remind us that commemoration entails not only building, naming, or shaping physical sites. Commemoration as a practice also involves ritual acts in and occupations of public space as well as other kinds of performance and consumption that may leave no lasting trace on the landscape. W. Lloyd Warner’s classic study The Living and the Dead: A Study of the Symbolic Life of Americans (1959) was an early examination of the role of patriotic parades and other symbolic observances in civic life. David Glassberg’s American Historical Pageantry : The Uses of Tradition in the Early Twentieth Century (1990) examined the craze for commemorative pageants in the beginning of the past century, but this phenomenon has a long history in the U.S. David Waldstreicher’s In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes : The Making of American Nationalism, 1776-1820 (1997) and Sarah J. Purcell’s Sealed with Blood: War, Sacrifice, and Memory in Revolutionary America (2002) both showed that in the early national period, festivals and anniversaries helped overcome partisan and class divisions and cement a national identity. In our own time, new electronic media have greatly expanded and altered the terrain of commemoration. Marita Sturken’s Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering (1997) has made a pioneering contribution in this area; her study examined commemoration across many different media, by charting the ways in which memories of the victims of national crises circulated throughout American culture in films, monuments, medical practices, and domestic grieving turned public. Yet George Lipsitz’s Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture (1990) has argued that even in age dominated by television and commercial culture, popular traditions of storytelling and festivity among disenfranchised groups, such as working-class blacks in New Orleans, have still played a part in upholding their own versions of the past.

All these diverse commemorative practices come together most powerfully around the remembrance of war. It is no surprise that much of the literature on commemoration in the U.S. deals with war and its aftermath. G. Kurt Piehler’s Remembering War the American Way (1995) has remained a useful synthetic study, but the literature has grown to the point where synthesis now seems quixotic. The memory of the Civil War has stood out as a particularly fertile topic. In recent years a great deal of work has been done on memory and race, as scholars from numerous angles have shown how the commemoration of the Civil War helped to shape new racial relations within American society – removing African American soldiers from mainstream public memory, defeating the dream of racial equality, and advancing the cause of white supremacy. David W. Blight’s ambitious synthesis Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (2001) has become the indispensable reference for this argument. The book surveys an enormous range of commemorative practices from oratory to pageantry to monuments and beyond. More specialized studies of the racial relations of war memory include Kirk Savage, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America (1997), Paul A. Shackel, Memory in Black and White: Race, Commemoration, and the Post-Bellum Landscape (2003), and Mitch Kachun, Festivals of Freedom : Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808-1915 (2003). Recent studies have made ever more nuanced analyses that interweave the issue of race with gender, class, and region. Exemplary collections along these lines include Where These Memories Grow : History, Memory, and Southern Identity (2000), edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage, and Monuments to the Lost Cause : Women, Art, and the Landscapes of Southern Memory (2003), edited by Cynthia Mills and Pamela H. Simpson.

In addition to reshaping racial relations and beliefs, the scale of the Civil War dramatically changed and expanded commemorative practices, creating a new cult of the veteran and new modes and technologies of remembering the war dead – innovations that preceded comparable developments in Europe by years or even decades. For the first time, photographers shot images of battlefield corpses, a profound shift in the understanding and memorialization of warfare analyzed in studies such as Timothy Sweet, Traces of War : Poetry, Photography, and the Crisis of the Union (1990) and Alan Trachtenberg, Reading American Photographs : Images as History, Mathew Brady to Walker Evans (1989). The emergence of veterans organizations and their role in promoting the memory of the common soldier have been explored in Stuart McConnell’s Glorious Contentment : the Grand Army of the Republic, 1865-1900 (1992) and in Cecilia Elizabeth O'Leary’s To Die For : The Paradox of American Patriotism (1999). Kirk Savage in Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves has examined the resulting democratization of war memorials, and the phenomenal spread of a new type of ordinary-soldier monument. Another innovation, the creation of national soldier cemeteries such as Gettysburg, was briefly examined as a precedent for twentieth-century European practices by historian George Mosse’s Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars (1990). Since then this line of research has been extended by others such as Susan-Mary Grant in a series of essays, most recently in the journal Nations and Nationalism (2005).

Battlefields too have been witness to dramatically changing patterns of commemoration, and thus have posed intricate problems for their stewards, most notably the National Park Service. Edward T. Linenthal in Sacred Ground: Americans and their Battlefields (1991) examined the ways in which battlefields from the Revolution to WWII have been transformed into “sacred” landscapes which various groups fight to protect from political or racial or commercial defilement. Any commemorative narratives that stray from the narrowly defined script of military heroism become suspect. For instance the National Park Service’s efforts to expand the historical significance of Civil War battlefields beyond military history into social and political issues such as slavery have encountered resistance both inside and outside the agency, as Paul Shackel has shown in his case study of Manassas ( Memory in Black and White ). More recently Jim Weeks in Gettysburg : Memory, Market, and an American Shrine (2003) has called into question the notion of the sacred by arguing that tourism and the marketplace have profoundly shaped even the most revered battlefield from its very inception. He has shown that, as cultural norms have changed, the standards of appropriate commemorative behaviors have also changed – sometimes in surprising ways. For example, battle reenactments originated as commercial entertainments that elites discouraged as frivolous, but in the past two decades have grown into a wildly popular participatory sport, with ever more stringent standards of authenticity. Ironically, the hundreds of regimental and officer monuments that were once the heart of the commemorative landscape have now become intrusions into the “authentic” experience of the past!

Besides battlefield reenactments, another major new participatory phenomenon of memorialization is the spontaneous offering of personal mementos at national memorials, which began in the early 1980s at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Kristin Ann Hass has examined the roots and meanings of this phenomenon in Carried to the Wall: American Memory and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1998). At the same time recovery efforts and reverence for the bodies of the war dead have reached new extremes of emotional and financial cost, as Thomas M. Hawley has recently investigated in The Remains of War : Bodies, Politics, and the Search for American Soldiers Unaccounted for in Southeast Asia (2005). All of these developments indicate an extension and transformation of the popular sphere of memory practices of the late nineteenth century. Ordinary citizens increasingly have become the subject and the actor in commemorative initiatives, even as the power and cost of the “military-industrial complex” have grown mightily.

In recent times the remembrance of war has become connected almost inextricably with the issue of trauma. Once again the Holocaust and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial have served as the key landmarks in this process. Young’s Texture of Memory and Sturken’s Tangled Memories have shed light on the new importance of victimization within commemorative practices. Geographer Kenneth E. Foote’s study Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy (1997) examined how Americans have dealt with landscapes marked by war, mass murder, and other traumatic events. In a related development, the remembering and forgetting of Indian removal, confinement, and extermination have become increasingly important subjects in studies of national historic sites such as Dispossessing the Wilderness : Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks (1999) by Mark David Spence, and The Politics of Hallowed Ground : Wounded Knee and the Struggle for Indian Sovereignty (1999) by Mario Gonzalez and Elizabeth Cook-Lynn. Edward Linenthal has created the most extensive body of work on trauma and commemoration, in a series of meticulously researched books on subjects spanning from the late nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first: Sacred Ground , Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America's Holocaust Museum (1995), and The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American Memory (2001). Since 9-11, the subject has become even more important, and numerous scholars have already entered the field. Two new examples include Savage’s study of the “therapeutic memorial” in an essay in the collection Terror, Culture, Politics: Rethinking 9/11 , edited by Daniel Sherman and Terry Nardin (2006), and Terry Smith’s examination of the contemporary struggle over iconic architecture in Architecture of Aftermath (2006).

While work on commemoration continues to multiply, and to examine ever more carefully how memory practices penetrate all facets of our collective life, much work remains to be done on the actual impact of all these practices. Few scholars have attempted to theorize the relationship between commemoration and tradition, what we might call the exterior and interior faces of historical consciousness. On the one hand are public sites and rituals of memory, and on the other hand are ingrained habits of thought and action that persist in individuals, families, and communities across long spans of time. While few scholars would agree with Nora that interior memory has disappeared, most scholars have focused on the exterior struggles to construct memory in one form rather than another. One of the only scholars to argue against this trend has been social scientist Barry Schwartz, who has written a series of articles and books on American Presidents in historical memory. In Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory (2000) Schwartz has argued that memory is not constructed anew in each new commemorative project; instead, he has asserted that in a democratic society historical facts have serious weight and help create “core elements” of memory that persist over long periods of time. Yet his belief in an authentic “core” memory led him, ironically, to downplay certain historical facts, such as the outright fraud and hucksterism involved in “assembling” the log cabin in which Lincoln was supposedly born. (For more on the log cabin story, see Dwight Pitcaithley’s meticulously researched essay in Shackel’s Myth, Memory, and the Making of the American Landscape .) In fact, historical errors and deliberate distortions abound in the landscape of commemoration, as James W. Loewen’s amazing study, Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong (1999), has so amply demonstrated. But Schwartz’s point remains well taken: scholars must take into account not only the changing politics of commemoration but also the stubborn persistence of traditions and beliefs – some of which persist even when they conflict with historical fact or common sense.

This perspective might have helped scholars prepare better for the emotionally charged controversy over the Smithsonian’s ill-fated Enola Gay exhibit, which was intended to mark the 50 th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima by putting the event in historical context. The controversy was a particularly dramatic example of how the work of historians, based on supposedly apolitical principles of evidence and analysis, came into conflict with powerful “memory constituencies,” whose long-cherished beliefs about the righteousness of the American military cemented their group identities as veterans and patriots. Edward T. Linenthal and Tom Englehardt’s History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past (1998) untangled this controversy and showed how the partisan politics and “culture wars” of the time helped fuel it. At the same time the book showed how the Enola Gay fiasco was not simply another episode in the “politics of commemoration.” The controversy transcended the politics of the moment and became a classic confrontation between history and collective memory – anticipated in Halbwachs’ original distinction – where history inevitably loses precisely because it lacks the unshakeable beliefs of psychically invested constituencies. Some of the contributors to History Wars asked whether the “patriotic” narratives of commemoration could be expanded and humanized to encompass the multiple realities of war, to bring the longstanding traditional stories of triumph into contact with more tragic stories of the human cost and moral ambiguity of warfare. The question has no easy answer.

One pioneering effort to integrate the various realms of internal and external memory, of invisible traditions and visible histories, is Martha Norkunas’s Monuments and Memory: History and Representation in Lowell, Massachusetts (2002). Her book traced the changing relationship between the public, mostly masculine face of memory in Lowell – in honorific monuments and historical sites – and the largely oral traditions, passed on by women, that preserved the memory of those who kept the community intact and functioning outside the public eye. While her study would benefit from more analysis of the interaction between these realms of memory, her book points in a useful direction. Likewise, Bodnar’s distinction between vernacular and official memory remains intuitively useful, but needs further refinement, retesting, and revision in order to understand better how these realms of memory interpenetrate one another. This might help explain, for example, the persistence and power of military commemoration. How does the inner/vernacular memory of women, ethnic groups, and other ordinary Americans help support the outer/ official memory of such a quintessentially top-down, masculine institution as the military? Pursuing questions like these would eventually help bridge the gap between the spectacular “politics of commemoration” and the more inconspicuous workings of tradition. How the past is produced, consumed, internalized, and acted upon will no doubt remain a rich and complex problem for scholars as they work further to extend and integrate the approaches outlined in this essay.

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Essay on a Visit to Historical Monument

Have you ever visited any of the historical monuments in India? I hope many of us have visited different historical monuments present in our nation. They are the monuments that give us the scenario of our past. It is a very important topic for the students preparing for the competitive exams. This topic is provided several times in the exams and students are asked to write an essay on this topic.

Short and Long Essay on A Visit to Historical Monument in English

I have provided a long essay describing my own experience of visiting a historical monument. I hope this will be a good way to get an idea about writing an essay or project on this topic. It might be helpful for the students preparing for different competitive exams.

10 Lines Essay on A Visit to Historical Monument (100-120 Words)

1) Since childhood I was very fascinated to visit the Taj Mahal.

2) Recently I visited the Taj Mahal, a historical monument with my family.

3) Taj Mahal is among the famous Seven Wonders of the World.

4) It took us about 7 hours to reach Agra by train.

5) The beauty of the Taj Mahal was so amazing that no one could take their eyes from it.

6) The white marble and perfect architecture of the Taj Mahal were very beautiful.

7) The beauty of this historical monument was enchanting.

8) We can find lots of tourists there from different places.

9) We clicked many pictures in front of the Taj Mahal.

10) We enjoyed visiting the Taj Mahal and then we came back to our home.

Long Essay on My Experience of Visiting a Historical Monument (1000 Words)

Introduction

India is a blessed country representing the amalgam of different cultures and traditions. The enormous ancient monuments and their tremendous beauty are the pride of our nation. They give us a clear picture of ancient India. The major point that attracts our attention is the way these monuments are designed. It is difficult to put always our eyes from seeing them either we see them in real or in books.

What are Historical Monuments?

Historical monuments as the name itself suggest refers to the monuments that were built during ancient times. These monuments are blessed with infinite beauty and legacy. They remind us about our rich Indian culture and heritage. Their amazing beauty of sculpture and art attracts people from different parts of India and the world. These monuments are the cultural heritage of the nation and therefore they are well protected and maintained by the government.

Historical monuments mark great significance in the history of India. These monuments are the reservoirs of our age-old tradition and culture. They give a clear picture of the ancient rulers and their dynasties. Some places of historical significance have different types of paintings and carvings. These carving and pictures give information about the people of the olden times and their way of living. People visit these places for enjoying the earnest beauty of these monuments and apart from this they also get various information related to the history of the nation.

My Experience of Visiting a Historical Monument

I had always seen great monuments like the Taj Mahal, Qutab Minar, Hawa Mahal, India Gate, etc. in my books or in television. There are different programs broadcasted on television that give us knowledge about our great cultural heritage and historical monuments. I was very curious to visit these places in reality and this came true last year.

We make plans for an outing every year but last year my father decided to take us to visit a historical monument. I was very happy to hear that we were going to visit Qutab Minar in New Delhi. Before visiting this great sculpture I had read about this in books only. It is very fascinating when you get a chance to see anything that you have read about. It was decided that this tour will be a small recreation as well as informative too. We left for Delhi and reached there in seven hours. I was eagerly waiting to reach that place.

Important Features of the Qutab Minar

Qutab Minar is a monument that depicts Islamic art and architecture. It is a minaret that is located in Mehrauli in New Delhi. It has the honor of being the tallest minaret built of brick in the world measuring 72.5 meters in height. The spiral stairs on this minaret consisting of 379 stairs make it an amazing structure.

Construction of the monument

The construction of this great monument dates back to 1199-1220 A.D. The credit for the initiation of the construction in 1199 goes to Qutb-ud-din Aibak and the construction was ended in 1220 under the supervision of Iltutmish. The design of the architecture of the minaret resembles the Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan. The minaret is of five storey building. Every storey consists of a balcony. Brackets are designed for supporting these structures in every storey building.

Red sandstone and marble have been used in the making of the minaret. The initial three storeys are built up by pale sandstone and marble, the fourth storey is totally made up of marble and the uppermost is made up of red sandstone and marble. This great tower has been provided with a base diameter of 14.3 meters with a peak diameter reducing to 2.7 meters. We can see the beauty of this historical monument from the outside. The entry inside the building of the tower is prohibited because of some accidents in past.

Specialties

It is such a grand tower that people appear very small like Lilliput’s in front of this building. The structure of bricks is clearly visible in the tower and gives it a beautiful look. The walls of the minar have some beautiful verses from Quran and the rich ancient history inscribed on it. Qutab Minar has a specialty that every door is alike. The Qutab complex of which Qutab Minar is a part is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are several other historical monuments present in the periphery of the minar. It includes the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, cupola that is the remaining part of a tower, Iron Pillar of Chandragupta-2 with inscription in Sanskrit, the Tomb of Iltutmish, Alai Minar, and Alai Darwaja. These all monuments with Qutab Minar form the Qutab complex.

Is Qutab Minar an Amazing Historical Monument to Visit?

Qutab Minar is only a single historical monument of its kind. It is a monument that depicts ancient culture and heritage. It has been a great tourist center for more than 700 years. Its unique architecture and significant features make it an interesting historical monument. It has been a center for tourist attraction for many years. Apart from tourist places, it is a great place for shooting movies and songs. The time for visiting this monument is between 7 am to 5 pm.

This monument regarded as the great monument of historical significance and piece of architectural talent was recognized in 1993 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Thus it is one of the best historical sites in India that can be visited. These places are the center of enjoyment as well as information.

We also visited different places in Delhi and were back to our home. It was a very beautiful experience to visit this popular historical monument. The memories of the beauty and uniqueness of this monument are still alive in my mind to date. We must be thankful to our rulers of the past for building such architectural glories that are the assets of Indian Heritage and culture.

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

Ans . It is located in Panchmahal district in Gujarat and is also a UNESCO World heritage site.

Ans . The Lotus Temple situated in Delhi is called as Bahai house of Worship.

Ans . It was built by Maharaja Jagat Singh of Udaipur.

Ans . The historical monument Jantar Mantar in Jaipur was declared as a National Monument in 1948.

Ans . Jama Masjid built by Shah Jahan is known as the largest mosque in India.

Ans . The four minarets in Charminar represent the first four Khalifas of Islam.

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A Visit to a Historical Place Essay [100, 120, 150, 250 Words]

A Visit to a Historical Place Essay: The historical places are much of educational and historical value. n this article, you are going to learn how to write an essay or a paragraph on a visit to a historical place. Here we’ve provided 4 short and long essays (100, 120, 150, and 250 words). These essays/paragraphs will be helpful for the students of all the classes (class 1 to class 12). So, let’s begin.

Table of Contents

A Visit to a Historical Place Essay: 100 Words

Recently our school organized an educational trip to the Taj Mahal, Agra. The Taj Mahal is the most beautiful monument built in the Mughal period. It is one of the wonders of the world. It was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

This gateway of Taj Mahal is built with the use of Red Sandstone. There is a beautiful garden that begins at the main gateway and ends at the base of the monument. The building is made of pure white marble. It took twenty thousand workmen and twenty years to build. The monument is built on the bank of the river Yamuna. It was the most beautiful building I had ever seen.

Also Read: Essay on a Visit to a Hill Station

A Visit to a Historical Place Essay: 120 Words

Last Sunday, we went to the Red Fort by a specially hired bus. Along the entrance two rows of shops selling various objects of art besides selling handicrafts. During the Mughal times, this was known as Meena Bazaar. After crossing the lawn, we reached the historic building known as ‘Naubat Khana’. Then we saw ‘Diwan-e-Aam’ or the Hall of Public Audience.

Then we went to the ’Rang Mahal’ which was a place of pleasures and richly inlaid with precious stones in the Mughal period. There is a ‘Khas Mahal’ beside the Rang Mahal. It has a beautiful marble screen. The Red Fort also has the War Memorial Museum where weapons used in the First World War are exhibited. We got to see many historical things that we read in our books. We enjoyed the trip very much.

Also Read: Essay on a Visit to a Book Fair

Essay on a Visit to a Historical Place: 150 Words

My dream came true when last month our history teacher arranged a trip to Agra for us. It was 24 October when we reached there. That very afternoon we went to see the famous Taj Mahal. It is a masterpiece of architecture-all in marble. We admired the four more mosques with tall slender minarets and the huge central dome. The surroundings lend beauty to it. The mausoleum stands in the center of a big garden with marble water channels, rows of fountains, and stately cypress trees.

The tombs of Shah Jahan and his wife lie beneath the dome. We went to see the Agra Fort too. When Shah Jahan was confined there, he spent his time gazing at the mausoleum of his creation from his prison window. We saw things that we had read about in our books-the Dewan-i-Am, the Diwan-i-Khas, the Pearl Mosque, and the Shish Mahal. A visit to a place of historical importance does make history real and interesting. It was a wonderful trip.

A Visit to a Historical Place Essay: 200-250 Words

A visit to a historical place is very educative. It instructs as well as entertains us. I am fond of visiting historical buildings. Last year, I went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. In the evening, we went to see the Taj Mahal. I had heard a lot about the beauty of the Taj Mahal. But reality surpassed the descriptions that had been given to me.

It is a wonder in marble, a specimen of Mughal art. Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in the sweet memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It was built about three hundred and fifty years ago. It stands on the right bank of the river Yamuna. The gateway which is made of red stone is very beautiful. The garden is very lovely. The tall dark cypress trees, smooth green lawns, and the beds of flowers are pleasing to the eyes. The fountains flow here and there.

The main building is made of white marble. It stands on a raised platform. At its four corners, there are four stately towers. Inside the tomb, Emperor Shah Jahan and his beloved Mumtaz Mahal lie buried side by side. This monument tells us about the expertise of the artists and craftsmen of that era. The visit to the Taj Mahal was a wonderful experience for us. It was both enjoyable and educational.

Read More: 1. A Visit to a Zoo Essay in English 2. A Journey by Train Essay 3. A Memorable Day in M y Life Essay

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Essay on Historical Places in India

Students are often asked to write an essay on Historical Places in India in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Historical Places in India

Introduction.

India, a country with a rich history, is dotted with numerous historical places. These sites offer a glimpse into the country’s ancient civilization, culture, and heritage.

The Taj Mahal

Qutub minar.

Qutub Minar, located in Delhi, is the world’s tallest brick minaret. It showcases the architectural brilliance of the Mughal era and is a popular tourist attraction.

These historical places in India not only attract tourists but also educate us about our rich past and cultural heritage.

250 Words Essay on Historical Places in India

The architectural grandeur of the mughal era.

Agra, home to the iconic Taj Mahal, is a testament to the architectural grandeur of the Mughal era. This white marble mausoleum, a symbol of eternal love, was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Similarly, Fatehpur Sikri, a city built by Emperor Akbar, showcases the synthesis of Hindu and Islamic architectural styles.

Legacy of the Mauryan Empire

The Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath, built by Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire, is a significant historical site. It represents India’s national emblem, the “Lion Capital,” symbolizing peace and goodwill.

Dravidian Architecture of South India

Moving towards South India, the Dravidian architecture exemplified by the Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is an embodiment of the Chola dynasty’s architectural prowess and their patronage towards arts.

These historical places in India offer a glimpse into the country’s rich past, showcasing the architectural brilliance, cultural diversity, and historical significance. They are not just structures of stone, but living testimonies of India’s glorious history, which continue to inspire and educate us about our heritage. As students, understanding the importance of these historical places can help us appreciate our past and envision a future that respects and preserves this rich heritage.

500 Words Essay on Historical Places in India

India, an ancient land with a history spanning over five millennia, is a treasure trove of historical places. These sites, scattered across the country, offer a glimpse into the nation’s rich cultural heritage and architectural grandeur. They stand as silent witnesses to the rise and fall of empires, the evolution of civilizations, and the cultural exchanges that have shaped India’s diverse identity.

The Majestic Monuments of the North

The Red Fort in Delhi, another magnificent Mughal creation, is a sprawling complex of palaces, gardens, and halls, showcasing a fusion of Persian, Timurid, and Hindu architectural styles. It served as the political center of the Mughals and is now a symbol of India’s Independence Day celebrations.

The Ancient Temples of the South

Southern India is renowned for its Dravidian style of architecture, prominently displayed in its ancient temples. The Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, built during the Chola dynasty, is a fine example. Its towering vimana (temple tower), intricate stone carvings, and the massive Nandi statue are awe-inspiring.

The ruins of Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, offer a peek into the grandeur of the Vijayanagara Empire. The stone chariot, the musical pillars of the Vittala Temple, and the monolithic statues are some of its unique features.

The Caves and Forts of the West

The forts of Rajasthan, such as the Amer Fort and the Mehrangarh Fort, exhibit the Rajputana grandeur. They are known for their ornate palaces, sprawling courtyards, and intricate jaali work, reflecting the valor and glory of the Rajput kings.

The Eastern Melange of Cultures

The historical places in India are not just architectural marvels but also repositories of the country’s diverse cultural and historical narratives. They provide a tangible link to our past, helping us understand the socio-political dynamics, religious practices, and artistic sensibilities of different periods. As we explore these sites, we are transported back in time, allowing us to appreciate the richness and complexity of India’s historical tapestry.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Happy studying!

The preservation and restoration of historical buildings and landmarks

Time flows. It keeps flowing and running constantly, and so does the community and the world along with it. There is this debate about what life and death are, and the intermediate catalyst is time, but the whole debate falls short of the hypothesis when it comes to architecture. Architecture – the walls built by the ancestors, the structures which were a refuge for many people, the institutions built to house communities , the tall columns and buttresses which connected the people to Thee, these spatial narratives keep living on and on and on. Architecture is a dead static element in space, the intervention of people is what gets life into it. Architecture at its best represents a balanced, symbiosis of aesthetic values peculiar to works of art and the material requirements of practical utility. To preserve its rich heritage and cultural inheritance becomes of utmost importance.

The preservation and restoration of historical buildings and landmarks - Sheet1

The Life and Death of Architecture

Over the years, monuments representing the ambitions, aspirations, and beliefs of people have been constructed by civilizations all over the world in a state-of-the-art level of extravagance and immovable scales. These structures are not only valuable in terms of architectural significance but also historical, artistic, and social importance. Many people have survived to the present day and are living proof of the lengthy timeline of human history as well as the numerous ways in which the past has contributed to the present. The survival of this timeless, cultural legacy is currently threatened more than ever before by economic and demographic developments of the world. The preservation and restoration of historical buildings and landmarks are crucial for safeguarding cultural heritage and ensuring the legacy to future generations for appreciation of their valour and grandeur and to learn from the past.

Humankind has always given significance to certain locations or constructions. Others connected them with a specific natural spirit or a divinity – leading to pagan practices and succeeding civilizations with impeccable and intricate architectural structures. There are several locations across the world that exhibit the same type of continuity. In contrast, the temples and long-forgotten empires which were forgotten and vanished later were discovered by archaeologists and unearthed their urns. Even though it would be ethical, it would not be possible to save all. Of the historical buildings. More development and change, as well as new requirements for the ever-growing population of people, would unavoidably eliminate much of the past glory. There may not be much of an aesthetic or historical loss. The choice, though, may be very challenging.

The preservation and restoration of historical buildings and landmarks - Sheet2

Although there have been fortunate exceptions, the rapid social and economic transformation of the 21 st century , particularly in urban areas, has generally proved to be too much for the communities. In order to ensure that adequate and long-term measures are taken nationally to guarantee the preservation of cultural heritage, nearly all countries have found it necessary to introduce legislation and establish institutions or organizations that are either run by the governing bodies or operate under governmental auspices.

The preservation and restoration of historical buildings and landmarks - Sheet3

Importance of the Life of Architecture – Living Structures

Cultural Heritage: Physical examples of cultural legacy include historical structures and landmarks . They reflect historical society ideals, workmanship, and different architectural styles. Preserving them allows a scope to comprehend and connect with history, customs and sense by preserving traditions and identity of structures.

The preservation and restoration of historical buildings and landmarks - Sheet4

Education and Research: For researchers, academics, and students, historical landmarks and buildings become a rich and wide source of information. They provide insights into a variety of historical facets, including social circumstances, stratification, economic conditions, engineering, architecture, politics and the arts. Preservation allows for ongoing research and educational possibilities.

The preservation and restoration of historical buildings and landmarks - Sheet5

Tourism and the Local Economy: Historical sites frequently draw visitors who support regional economies. The preservation and restoration of these sites can boost tourism, resulting in employment, more capital, income, and a boost to the local economy.

The preservation and restoration of historical buildings and landmarks - Sheet6

Community and Feeling of a Place: Historical structures and landmarks add to a community’s personality, character and sense of space. They act as anchor points and represent the pride and identity of the community. They provide continuity and communal cohesiveness when they are preserved.

The preservation and restoration of historical buildings and landmarks - Sheet7

The Current Scenario and A Plea for Change

But in contrast, historical buildings face various threats such as natural ageing, weathering, pollution, and lack of maintenance. Over time, these factors can lead o decay and deterioration. Securing funding and resources for the upkeep, repair, and conservation of historical buildings can pose significant challenges, especially for public or lesser-known structures. Adapting historical structures to meet modern safety and accessibility standards with respect to age, gender, sex and any factor that drives the 21st-century norms while preserving the landmark’s character can be a delicate balance. Finding solutions for this would indeed be a complex task.

Historically and artistically important buildings have been disappearing at an ever-increasing rate during the 21 st century. The natural processes that turn stone into gravel, sand, clay and soil; lumber into humans; and metals into oxides and salts are partially to blame for such damage or wear. Such materials deteriorate under the influence of geo – and climatological elements. Cataclysms have taken their toll. Floods, earthquakes , volcanic explosions, and violent storms have destroyed a few of the most important structures in the long history of human civilization. Regardless, the most serious threat to these important structures is humankind. Wars, the action of vandalism, negligence and recklessness towards the structures and their maintenance, have razed countless monuments; and economic and social factors pose the biggest challenge to the conservation of the existing material cultural heritage.

The preservation and restoration of historical buildings and landmarks - Sheet9

The protection of cultural heritage, encouragement of education and research, promotion of tourism and economic progress, and upkeep of a feeling of identity and community all depend on the preservation and conservation of historical structures and landmarks. Although there are obstacles, maintaining these systems is worthwhile for cultures all around the world since the advantages exceed the disadvantages. The vision in the coming days would be imagining, connecting, embracing and respecting the old and new fabric of the city and its architecture. Architects and archaeologists should strive to respect the environment and architecture in its existing beauty and amenities and provide hygienic surroundings, so as to afford and offer its citizens a healthy and active lifestyle.

Unesdoc.unesco.org. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000001105 (Accessed: 10 July 2023).
Preserving heritage: 10 restoration projects transforming historic … Available at: https://www.architectandinteriorsindia.com/projects/preserving-heritage-10-restoration-projects-transforming-historic-landmarks (Accessed: 10 July 2023).
Admin (2022) The importance of restoring historical monuments, IEREK. Available at: https://www.ierek.com/news/importance-restoring-historical-monuments/ (Accessed: 10 July 2023).
Garg, P. (2023) An overview of restoration of monuments in India, RTF | Rethinking The Future. Available at: https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/architectural-community/a8485-an-overview-of-restoration-of-monuments-in-india/ (Accessed: 10 July 2023).
Jayewardene-Pillai, S., Ranaweera, A. and Kaushalya, B. (2017) Geoffrey Manning Bawa: Decolonizing Architecture. Colombo: The National Trust Sri Lanka.
Radnić, J., Matešan, D. and Abaza, A. (2020) Restoration and strengthening of historical buildings: The example of Minceta Fortress in Dubrovnik, Advances in Civil Engineering. Available at: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ace/2020/8854397/ (Accessed: 10 July 2023).
Subcommittee, the W.H.P. (2023) Historic preservation  , WBDG. Available at: https://www.wbdg.org/design-objectives/historic-preservation (Accessed: 10 July 2023).
Ultimate Guide for Saving Historic Buildings (2021) Wolfe House & Building Movers. Available at: https://www.wolfehousebuildingmovers.com/historic-building-preservation-guide/ (Accessed: 10 July 2023).

Srivatsa Koduri is a fresh graduate as an architect from R.V. College of Architecture, Bangalore with a passion for storytelling in architecture and design. With a keen eye for detail and a deep appreciation for design, he delves into the intricacies and the untold stories of buildings - the symbolism and metaphors attached to them, exploring their historical significance and cultural impact concerning the metaphysical aspects of the design. Literature, different art forms, and his love for travel are vital to his architectural perceptions.

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Pro and Con: Historic Statue Removal in the United States

BALTIMORE, MD - AUGUST 16: People gather at the site where a statue dedicated to Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson stood August 16, 2017 in Baltimore, Maryland. The City of Baltimore removed four statues celebrating confederate heroes from city

To access extended pro and con arguments, sources, discussion questions, and ways to take action on the issue of whether historic statues should be taken down in the United States, go to ProCon.org .

While the debate whether Confederate statues should be taken down has been gaining momentum for years, the issue gained widespread attention after the June 17, 2015, mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The shooter was said to have glorified the Confederate South, posing in Facebook photos with the Battle Flag of the Northern Virginia Army (also known now as the “Confederate flag,” though it never represented the Confederate States) and touring historical Confederate locations before the shooting.

The issue rose to prominence again in 2017 after an Aug. 12 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned violent and deadly. The rally protested the proposed removal of statues of Confederate Army Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

The Virginia statues still stood amid the protests following the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, though they were tagged with graffiti. During the global Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, calls to take down the statues were met with citizens not only actively damaging or removing statues of Confederate figures, but targeting statues of slave-holding Founding Fathers in general, as well as historic monuments to Abraham Lincoln and abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass .

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), 59 Confederate statues and nine markers or plaques were removed from public land in 19 US states between June 17, 2015 and July 6, 2020. The SPLC reported at least 160 monuments were removed in 2020 after George Floyd’s death, more than the prior four years combined At last count, about 704 Confederate monuments remained on public land.

The statues misrepresent history, and glorify people who perpetuated slavery, attempted secession from United States, and lost the Civil War.
The statues are a painful reminder of past and present institutionalized racism in the United States.
There are many other people who could be represented by statues who would better represent the historical progress and diversity of the country.
The statues represent the country’s history, no matter how complicated. Taking them down is to censor, whitewash, and potentially forget that history.
Removing statues is a slippery slope that could lead to the brash removal of monuments to any slightly problematic person.
The statues do not cause racism and could be used to fight racism if put into historical context.

This article was published on January 20, 2022, at Britannica’s ProCon.org, a nonpartisan issue-information source. Go to ProCon.org to learn more.

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Essay on "Historical Monuments of India" Complete Essay for Class 10
Historical Monuments of India. Essay No. 01. Indian History is full of the rise and fall of many kingdoms and empires. Monuments, built y the kings and they perform of every period throw light on the past history of India. these monuments exhibit the glory of India and are part of our cultural heritage.
Essay on Monuments of India
India's monuments are a testament to the country's rich historical and cultural legacy. They embody the artistic genius, architectural prowess, and the cultural, religious, and social dynamics of different periods in Indian history. These architectural marvels, standing tall and proud, remind us of our roots and inspire us to value and ...
The Historian Scrutinizing Our Idea of Monuments
March 3, 2022. "I think monuments have the privilege of boredom," Erin L. Thompson says. "In one way they're easily understood, and in another way they're totally impenetrable ...
Essay on Historical Monuments
Students are often asked to write an essay on Historical Monuments in their schools and colleges. And if you're also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic. Let's take a look… 100 Words Essay on Historical Monuments Introduction. Historical monuments are precious remnants of our past.
Essay on Preservation of Historical Monuments
In conclusion, preserving historical monuments is a collective responsibility, crucial for keeping our rich heritage alive. 250 Words Essay on Preservation of Historical Monuments Introduction. Historical monuments are tangible embodiments of our collective past, offering insights into the cultural, social, and political narratives of bygone eras.
Why Preserving Historical Places and Sites Matters
That's why we see places that are important to the "enemy" being targeted in times of conflict, such as the Mostar Bridge. The destruction of the old place is tantamount to the destruction ...
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Monuments Essay. Monuments are the buildings or any infrastructural structures that were built-in history. They have archeological and social importance. Monuments are the cultural heritage of a particular place or region. Monuments are the structure that is built thousands of years ago. Monuments reflect the civilization or the particular ...
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Essay on Historical Monuments in Delhi under 350 Words. Delhi, the capital of India, is a city rich in history and culture. The city is home to several historical monuments that reflect the glorious past of India. These monuments are not just architectural marvels, but they also hold great significance in the Indian history and culture.
Memorials and Monuments
Making sense of our monument wars and their history is complicated by the variety of words that are used, often interchangeably, to describe them. Words such as "monument," "memorial," and "commemoration" all share in their deep history a root in another complicated word: "memory." Memory, of course, is as old as humankind, and ...
Essay on Monuments
250 Words Essay on Monuments Introduction. Monuments, as enduring symbols of history, culture, and heritage, play a pivotal role in society. They are not merely architectural marvels or artistic achievements, but are repositories of collective memories and shared experiences that shape our understanding of the past. The Importance of Monuments
Essay on Taj Mahal for Students and Children
500+ Words Essay on Taj Mahal. Essay on Taj Mahal: Taj Mahal needs no introduction. This monument is on the list of the Seven Wonders of the World. No wonder people swarm in flies all year round to witness the magnificence of his beauty. This monument is located in India in the city of Agra in Uttar Pradesh. In other words, Taj Mahal marks the ...
How Monuments Help Us Remember—Or Not Remember—the Past
October 18, 2022. Memorials are a tired topic, "dead," a well-intentioned colleague told me in 2006, a Freudian slip of a word to use for objects or sites that so often bring the living into contact with the dead. I would be better off with a different research topic, she thought. Article continues below.
Indian Monuments
The Mysore Palace is one of the most attractive and gorgeous monuments in Karnataka. It is also known by the name of Amba Vilas and was the residence of Wodeyar Maharaja. Vivekananda Rock. Located in the midst of the ocean, just 400 meters from Kanyakumari, is the magnificent Vivekananda Rock Memorial.
Why Do Monuments Matter?
Dr. Farber said American monuments exist in part "to create a usable past" for this relatively young country—to tell an easier story than America's inconvenient, often contradictory history. "Monuments elevate figures and stories without the deeper work of reckoning with the past," he said. "I think in order to move forward, we ...
The Importance of Monuments
A monument is anything that reminds us of a person, an event, or an idea from the past. A monument is a way in which society remembers its past and formulates its identity and future hopes. Communication, Education and Inspiration. Monuments communicate, much like books do. Everything in a monument is significant.
Why Visit Historical Places?
Historical places let us be voyeurs into the past. They give us the chance to time travel and pull back the curtain on a different age. They allow us to fantasize. We can live like the rich and famous (until the palace closes for the day). Wander in the gardens of kings.
Visual Essay: Holocaust Memorials and Monuments
Each tries to preserve the collective memory of the generation that built the memorial and to shape the memories of generations to come. This visual essay explores several examples of memorials and monuments to the Holocaust and other histories of mass violence. We use the terms monuments and memorials more or less interchangeably.
History, Memory, and Monuments: An Overview of the Scholarly Literature
History, Memory, and Monuments: An Overview of the Scholarly Literature on Commemoration Kirk Savage, University of Pittsburgh "Monuments are good for nothing," a North Carolina Congressman declared in 1800. In the founding years of the United States, many argued that democracy and the spread of literacy had made commemorative rituals and monuments obsolete, a leftover from the days of ...
Essay on a Visit to Historical Monument
10 Lines Essay on A Visit to Historical Monument (100-120 Words) 1) Since childhood I was very fascinated to visit the Taj Mahal. 2) Recently I visited the Taj Mahal, a historical monument with my family. 3) Taj Mahal is among the famous Seven Wonders of the World. 4) It took us about 7 hours to reach Agra by train.
A Visit to a Historical Place Essay [100, 120, 150, 250 Words]
A Visit to a Historical Place Essay: 100 Words. Recently our school organized an educational trip to the Taj Mahal, Agra. The Taj Mahal is the most beautiful monument built in the Mughal period. It is one of the wonders of the world. It was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
Essay on Historical Places in India
250 Words Essay on Historical Places in India Introduction. India, a nation with a rich cultural and historical heritage, offers a myriad of historical places that reflect its diverse and vibrant past. These historical places are not just monuments, but narratives which speak volumes about the eras they were built in and the dynasties that ruled.
The preservation and restoration of historical buildings and landmarks
Cultural Heritage: Physical examples of cultural legacy include historical structures and landmarks. They reflect historical society ideals, workmanship, and different architectural styles. Preserving them allows a scope to comprehend and connect with history, customs and sense by preserving traditions and identity of structures.
Pro and Con: Historic Statue Removal in the United States
The SPLC reported at least 160 monuments were removed in 2020 after George Floyd's death, more than the prior four years combined At last count, about 704 Confederate monuments remained on public land. Pro. The statues misrepresent history, and glorify people who perpetuated slavery, attempted secession from United States, and lost the Civil War.

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Essay on “Historical Monuments of India” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

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