A Neoclassical Monument to Stephen A Douglas

A video recounts the story of the design, construction and ongoing controversy about the monumental tomb of Illinois politician Stephen A. Douglas, the infamous defender of slavery in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, that still stands in Chicago.  In this video, Northwestern undergraduate Arieyanna Davis presents the story of its design and construction soon after Douglas’s death in 1861 as well as efforts to address whether it should have any place at all in today’s Chicago’s landscape.  A new monument to celebrate Black activist and humanitarian Ida B Wells, for example, clearly rejects that style (images of that monument appear in the video).   This Douglas memorial monument is a good example of how classicizing styles were sometimes relied upon as a way to elevate the memory of a man associated with a tradition of racist politics and to assert the nobility of a pernicious tradition. Tracking the capacity of these styles to signify in multiple ways in various settings is among the objects of this ATLAS site.

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *