Video
The Lives of Monuments - History and Park Response to Graffiti - Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier
Transcript
[A woman on a video call.] EMMA SILVERMAN: So I know I've been talking for a while.
I want to get us underway into this great discussion that's already going on in the chat.
So I'm going to invite Bill to kick us off.
Bill, can you tell us about Independence National Historical Park's response to the graffiti in terms both of a removal but also the way that you are interpreting the history of the monument and the history of George Washington?
[Bill Caughlan loads a presentation.]
BILL CAUGHLAN: All right. I'm going to be share-- trying to share my screen. Hi, everybody. Thanks for coming. Bear with me.
[His image now in the upper right hand corner. A Park Ranger hat as the wallpaper. In a video window, a statue of George Washington.]
[Text: Independence National Historic Park.]
[The Lives of Monuments: Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier, Thursday, June 17, 2021, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM.]
BILL CAUGHLAN: OK. Can folks see the screen? OK.
[Inscription behind the statue of George Washington and the eternal flame: "Freedom is a light for which many men have died in darkness in unmarked graves."]
[Within this square lie thousands of unknown soldiers of Washington's Army who died of wounds and sickness during the Revolutionary War. "The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint efforts of common dangers sufferings and success." Washington's Farewell Address, 1796.]
[Images of ceremonies over the years.]
BILL CAUGHLAN: Yeah, for decades, everyone, the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War soldier has often been a place of veneration, a place where local officials, veterans groups, visitors have come to pay their respects to those who sacrificed to bring about independence and the creation of the Republic that is the United States of America.
But that changed in the late spring of 2020 while Black Lives Matter protests were going on throughout the city.
At that point, the memorial was defaced.
On it was spray-painted the words, "committed genocide."
[The words "Committed GENOCIDE" spray painted on the monument. A barrier of metal fences, each with a sign.]
On a physical level, this act presented great challenges to the National Park Service staff in charge of the preservation of the resources at Independence National Historical Park.
But this act, also widely and sometimes vehemently condemned, caused the staff at Independence to look inward and to think again about how we interpret the resources and our care.
Resources that help to tell the story of the founding of the United States, which is a big part of this Park's mission.
[A map of Washington Square displays the location of several historical buildings.]
A little background.
The Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier is located within Washington Square. I don't know if this laser pointer thing works.
But it's a 6.5-acre plot of land located in the Southwest corner of Independence National Historical Park, cater-cornered from Independence Square. So here you can see Independence Hall, Washington Square's cater-corner. There you can see the tomb right in the middle of that spot.
[The cursor moves to a location on a faded paper map of Philadelphia.]
Washington Square itself is as old as the City of Philadelphia, originally called Southeast Square due to its location.
It was one of five open spaces that Pennsylvania founder William Penn wanted to include in his plans for a Green Country Town as he called it. For more than 100 years, it primarily served as pasture land and as a Potter's Field or burial ground for those Philadelphians considered undesirable i.e. the poor, suicide victims, executed criminals, Catholics, Native American Indians, and both free and enslaved Africans.
During the War for Independence, it served as a burial ground for soldiers, both American and British, who had perished as a result of the battles of Princeton, Trenton, Brandywine, and Germantown. And, again, during the British occupation of Philadelphia the winter of '77, '78.
[On another map of the area the cursor highlights Southeast Square next to 6th Street.]
The last bodies to be buried in Southeast Square were the victims of Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic of 1794.
Burials ceased as it was reported, quote, "there were so many burials in Potter's Field that no more could be made without disturbing the remains of those previously interred." It's a lot of people. But I will say no one knows the exact number of burials in this square. It's in the thousands.
But soon after 1794, Southeast Square became a public park and promenade.
In 1816, it was proposed in Philadelphia City Council that all of the city squares be renamed in honor of prominent citizens.
[Another map features Washington Square near the center.]
It was at that time that Southeast Square became Washington Square, named for Philadelphia's temporary resident, George Washington, who, you may know, lived in this city while serving as the nation's first President.
[A fountain, flags at both sides of a walkway, and monument in a black and white. Illustration. Text: Study of Memorial to Unknown Soldiers in the Continental Army, Washington Square, Philadelphia.]
And now we fast forward to the 1950s. As a part of a redesign of Washington Square, a group of local businessmen decided to fund a memorial to the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier.
It was also decided at that time to include a long planned monument to George Washington...
[Green trees behind the memorial and statue.]
...designed by architect G. Edwin Brumbaugh and dedicated in 1957. The memorial consists of a bronze replica of Jean-Antoine Houdon's standing figure of Washington placed on top of a granite pedestal.
Beneath that is a marble sarcophagus that holds the remains of an unknown Revolutionary War soldier exhumed from the Square.
The lid of the sarcophagus is inscribed with the words, "Beneath this stone rests the soldier of Washington's army, who died to give you liberty."
All of this is backed by a limestone wall with numerous inscriptions. The most prominent being, "Freedom is a light for which many men have died in darkness."
A propane-fueled eternal flame was dedicated in 1976 for the bicentennial.
And then another part of the memorial is two rows of flagpoles that flank the Bluestone Walk leading up to the monument itself. Each pole flies a battle flag. A flag from each of the original 13 states, as well as the first American flag.
[Scenes from various ceremonies.]
Throughout the years, the monument's been a place of commemoration. Wreath-laying ceremonies occur on Memorial Day, typically, Veterans Day, and Washington's birthday. That was from last year's commemoration. Though Washington's birthday is the only ceremony that actually honors George Washington, the rest-- For the most part, as the memorial suggests, the focus is mainly on the Unknown Soldier and the sacrifice that he and others made to help bring about a nation free and independent.
[The black and white illustration of the memorial.]
This memorial, like many in the 1950s, is very celebratory.
It was created at the height of the Cold War, when we as a nation were trying to illuminate the ideological contrast between American democracy and communism. And even now, with the Cold War being all but over, it still is a place that many come to contemplate the sacrifices made in the name of freedom.
[The image of the words "Committed GENOCIDE" on the Memorial.]
But as the graffiti suggests, not all agree that these freedoms in the United States are shared. Not everyone shares in the celebratory telling of this nation's founding. But we do not know exactly to whom the vandal is referring when they spray-painted "committed genocide," we can assume that it was directed at George Washington and not the Unknown Soldier.
Figuring out what group that Washington allegedly committed genocide against, it's a bit difficult to decipher. Though we can assume that it was either against Africans-- after all it was vandalized during Black Lives Matter unrest --- or Native Americans. Considering the fact that Washington oversaw the enslavement of over 570 Africans at his home at Mount Vernon from the time he took possession of the property until his death and that he refused to use his influence to bring about the end of slavery during his lifetime. As well as the fact that during his life, he participated in and sometimes spearheaded the removal of Native Americans from their tribal homelands as far back as the French and Indian War, all the way up through his Presidency.
It then might be easy for someone to come to the conclusion that Washington engaged in practices that led to the destruction of nations, cultures, and ethnicities. Even if this was not his intention, his actions have led some to accuse George Washington of engaging in genocide. With this in mind, and granted some of it is speculative, the staff at Independence had to face some questions and challenges in terms of upholding our mission of preservation.
[The graffiti.]
First, there's deciding what to do about the defacement of the memorial itself. Cultural resource management, they're the division that takes care of preserving the physical items within the park, had to document the vandalism. Then they needed to figure out how to remove the graffiti.
[Next to the graffiti on the ladder, a worker in a yellow vest.]
We had lots of offers from people to come and clean it off, but this required the work of professional conservators. The wall of the memorial is made a very soft, porous limestone. Some of the paint became embedded and needed special solvent that would sink into the stone.
[The paint, partially removed.]
It took many weeks, but the graffiti is virtually gone now.
[The memorial without the graffiti.]
While we understand the anger that some people felt about this act of vandalism, we also know that for some time, huge chunks of our nation's history has been left out of National Park Service interpretation. For the National Park Service interpretation is preservation.
Our job is to interpret these sites to inspire people to want to support the mission of preservation that the NPS is engaged in. In order to do this, we need the American public to know why these places, these memorials, and these stories they tell are important.
But if we don't tell the whole story, then we won't get the whole of the American people to support us.
That and it's the right thing to do.
We as a park and an agency have expanded many of the stories we tell to include people of different genders, sexual orientations, races, religions, and nationalities. But I know from personal experience, we have a lot more work to do.
We're not there yet, but I think we're headed in the right direction.
Description
Bill Caughlan, Park Ranger at Independence National Historical Park, relates the history of the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier and describes the park’s response to the graffiti painted in June of 2021.
Duration
13 minutes, 46 seconds
Date Created
06/17/2021
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