How We Remember Together: Public Memorials

For several years I have been interested in public memorials and how an artist, working with a community, implements his or her vision to permanently honor a specific person or event. On this Memorial Day 2012, I offer a few links, paragraphs, and photos of public memorials.

Franklin Roosevelt Memorial in Washington DC

“They (who) seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers… call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.”

Depression-era Memorial, Bread Line. Located in the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C. 

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." -FDR

Naval Aviation Monument Park in Virginia Beach, Virginia

Korean War Memorial, Washington, DC

Designed by Frank Gaylord,[4] each larger than life-size, between 7 feet 3 inches (2.21 m) and 7 feet 6 inches (2.29 m) tall; each weighs nearly 1,000 pounds (500 kg). The figures represent a squad on patrol, drawn from each branch of the armed forces; fourteen of the figures are from the U.S. Army, three are from the Marine Corps, one is a Navy Corpsman, and one is an Air Force Forward Air Observer. They are dressed in full combat gear, dispersed among strips of granite and juniper bushes which represent the rugged terrain of Korea.[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War_Veterans_Memorial

Great Hunger Memorial, Westchester, New York

The Great Hunger Memorial was unveiled on June 24, 2001 at V.E. Macy Park in Ardsley to commemorate the suffering of millions of Irish peasants who died from the potato famine or were forced to leave their country.

The monument’s sculptor was Eamonn O’Doherty of Ireland.

http://parks.westchestergov.com/v-e-macy-park/great-hunger-memorial

Figures of Grief and History on the Peace Monument, Washington, DC

http://www.aoc.gov/cc/grounds/art_arch/peace_2.cfm

“The Nurse” by Roger Brodin, purchased by the Wisconsin Chapters of the Vietnam Veterans of America. The Highground, Neillsville, WI

http://www.thehighground.org/index.html

Here is a link to a beautiful stone wall (I love stone walls) created by Tom Hendrix just south of the Tennessee-Alabama border. It is a memorial to his great-great-grandmother Te-lah-nay, a Native American evicted from her homeland at age 14 in The Trail of Tears.

http://armchairtravelogue.blogspot.com/2010/06/wichahpi-stone-wall-unique-memorial-to.html

National Japanese American Memorial Foundation

http://njamf.com/index.php/virtual-tour-of-the-memorial

Japanese Crane Monument at the National Japanese American Memorial (Washington, D. C.), a bronze sculpture by Nina Akamu

(Note: I just finished reading “Buddha in the Attic” by Julie Otsuka. I think it is a wonderful literary memorial to those Japanese Americans interned during WWII.)

Here is the “Manila American Cemetery and Memorial” There are 17,206 military dead in the cemetery there. There are 2 hemicycles containing 24 pairs of fin walls. On the faces are inscribed the 36,279 missing in action military personnel. 

http://www.harleycam.com/WW-II/Manila_WWII_Memorial/manila_wwii_memorial.html

American Battle Monuments Commission

http://www.abmc.gov/home.php

The Women of World War Two Memorial stands next to the Cenotaph in Whitehall and was sculpted by John Mills who was also responsible for the fire fighters memorial outside of St Paul's Cathedral. The memorial deliberately does not depict any individual women and is a tribute to all seven million who contributed to the war effort.  

The Sculpture of Love and Anguish: Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach by Kenneth Treister, dedicated Feb. 1990

http://www.holocaustmmb.org/

A slideshow of Holocaust Memorials from around the world.

http://www.slideshare.net/amir/holocaust-memorials-from-around-the-world

Help build the Military Working dog Teams National Monument: Saluting dogs who have served since WWII. http://www.jbmf.us/

Whistler’s Mother memorial in Pennsylvania. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2195

Between Oct. 1939 and August 1941, 70,273 German and Austrian physically or mentally impaired patients were killed under Adolf Hitler’s orders (Action T4)

http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007683

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_T4

A plaque set in the pavement at No 4 Tiergartenstrasse commemorates the victims of the Nazi "euthanasia" program. Photo by w:en:User:Adam Carr, May 2006

For the above and the Pennhurst Memorial below, this photograph from those the Nazis killed says it all and represents a memorial of sorts as well.

Worth thinking about: The Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance

http://www.preservepennhurst.com/default.aspx?pg=7

Fundraising campaign for the Harvey Pekar (author of “American Splendor”) memorial at the Cleveland Heights library.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1844705603/harvey-pekar-library-statue-comics-as-art-and-lite

Appeal to the Great Spirit, outside of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin, 1909.

Fallen Astronaut is an 8.5 cm (slightly over 3") aluminium sculpture of an astronaut in a spacesuit which commemorates astronauts and cosmonauts who died in the advancement of space exploration. It is currently at Hadley Rille on the Moon, having been placed there by the crew of Apollo 15 on August 1, 1971.

The Gardener

Depth 5m, MUSA Collection, Punta Nizuc, Mexico.

Jason de Caires Taylor is the creator of the world's first underwater sculpture park located in Moilinere Bay, Grenada. The sculptures are located in a clear shallow waterway providing ideal access for divers, snorkelers and glass bottom boats.

His sculptures have created artificial reefs, and explore the relationship between modern art and the environment. http://www.underwatersculpture.com/

Additional memorials at "How We Remember Together: Public Memorials, Part Two."