Public Monuments Dbq

People from all around the world have seen or at least heard of public monuments. Public monuments do an amazing job at displaying history and also showing us how important some places/things are. After reading through the articles we were given there were a few that stood out to me. Those were: Source B “Waiting for Crazy Horse”, Source D “ Preserving Memory: National Holocaust Memorial Museum Controversy”, and Source E “Obscure Monument to Lobsterdom: Washington, DC”. Public monuments should be built because of how they commemorate people and places.

Source B “Waiting for Crazy Horse” really made me think about how important monuments really are. Yes Mount Rushmore might of been a bad idea putting it where they did, but it shows respect for some of our nation's leaders. It just might of been too close to the Crazy Horse carvings. The Crazy Horse Memorial was special because it “depicted a proud man who was never captured in a photograph or drawn from life” (Downes). The Crazy Horse Monument is an amazing example of how well monuments show respect for people of importance. These two public monuments are great examples of monuments that show respect for some of our greatest leaders.

Source D “Preserving Memory: National Holocaust Memorial Museum Controversy” is a good example on why monuments are a great way of commemorating events from the past.

The holocaust is important because we need to remember what happened so history doesn’t repeat itself. Building the Holocaust Memorial Museum on The Mall would “enhance The Mall’s already diverse stories” (Musser). Adding this kind of diversity to The Mall is a touchy subject just because of the entire Holocaust. People need places like this to remember what happened and how life would be if something like this was ever to happen again. It also allows people become more familiar with the entire thing. This monument is another example on how well public monuments show respect for places and

events.
Source E “Obscure Monument to Lobsterdom: Washington, DC” was a funny story to say the least, but it did make me think about how important every monument is even if it’s for a lobsterman. Creating the sculpture wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. There wasn’t enough money to cast it in bronze, so the artist made a plaster sculpture and covered it in bronze paint. Eventually the sculpture was fully cast in bronze after Elroy Johnson died. The sculpture now lies in Washington, DC. This shows how much one monument can mean to someone or multiple people. Nobody took the sculpture of some lobsterman from Maine seriously. Not until he died did they fully cast the artwork. All monuments have meaning and are there for a reason. The lobsterman monument shows us that any monument has potential when it has meaning.
Overall after reading through these three articles I realized how important every monument out there really is. Everything from monuments in Washington, DC to monuments that may be in your hometown. Every monument has a backstory and a reason it was created. Either to show parts of history or to show respect for someone or something. The monuments talked about above all do an amazing job at showing respect for either people, places, or actions made in the past. Every monument has a purpose, and they are all built for a reason.