It’s funny the impact a memorial can have on you. Sometimes you see one portrayed in a book or TV show or film and, perhaps because of the context within which it was shown, and because it looks cool, it leaves a real impression in your mind. Then you forget all about it until, maybe years later, you see the memorial in person from a particular angle or in a particular way, and the mediated memories come flooding back.
FDR was one of America’s greatest presidents, and also one of the most controversial. I’d known that for a long time. What I hadn’t known for quite so long was the extent to which that controversy extended into the bedroom. I was reminded about that quite forcefully when I visited the president’s family home at Hyde Park, New York.
Fifty years on from its end, many of the wounds from the Vietnam War have finally started to heal. Perhaps surprisingly, given its early controversy, the memorial wall has helped that healing process along.
It’s hard to overstate how much difference a good interpretive guide can make to your experience of a historic monument. I’ve had visits to great monuments spoiled by poor interpreters and visits to less well-known sites really brought alive by inspired historical interpretation. Longfellow House is a happy example of the latter category.
I used to be a big fan of “The West Wing” on TV, and the term has become synonymous with the presidency. But there are West Wings and West Wings. The one that is attached to Independence Hall in Philadelphia isn’t as famous or as deserving of fame as the one stuck to the Executive Mansion. But it is a bit of a hidden gem in terms of what it contains inside.
One of the most beautiful old buildings in Philadelphia’s historic district is a former bank with a lot of history behind it that’s now used as an art gallery. This is the Second Bank of the United States. It’s still called that, even though it hasn’t been used as a working bank for more than 180 years. It’s a hidden treasure. Really.
One of the less well-advertised walking tours available at Independence National Historical Park takes visitors to a section of Philadelphia’s Old City loved by local residents but usually overlooked by visitors on their way to see Independence Hall or the Liberty Bell. This is a Philadelphia city park, just yards away from these more famous sites, that combines a quiet, shady respite from city hustle with an intriguing historical monument to the dead of the Revolutionary War.
Fort Sumter in South Carolina is a good example of how times change in historical commemoration. Just as surely as the Confederate bombardment of the Union fort marked the start of that war on April 12, 1861, the calendar marked Sumter’s position at the leading edge of profound changes in Civil War centennial commemorations between 1961 and the sesquicentennial in 2011.
Dougie Does Monuments 