Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
9-2019
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Art History
Advisor
Harriet F. Senie
Committee Members
Rosemarie Haag Bletter
Sally Webster
Kirk Savage
Subject Categories
American Art and Architecture | American Material Culture | American Politics | American Studies | Architectural History and Criticism | Architecture | Art and Design | Fine Arts | Historic Preservation and Conservation | History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology | Modern Art and Architecture | Museum Studies | Political Science | Public History | Sculpture | United States History
Keywords
public art, memorial museums, memorials, memory, communication and the arts, war museums
Abstract
This dissertation discusses 20th-century war memorials in the United States that were the subject of campaigns to build interpretive additions decades after their construction. It establishes the added interpretive center at a U.S. war memorial as an emerging memorial paradigm that does not easily fit into existing categories of spaces of mourning, war museums, or memorial museums. I argue that interpretive centers redirect the rhetorical experience of the war memorial site away from remembrance and toward reinforcement of U.S. cultural myths on war participation and military dominance. This dissertation is the first scholarly work to address interpretive centers built after their war memorials.
A series of case studies on the National World War I Museum at the Liberty Memorial (Kansas City, Missouri), the Virginia War Memorial Galanti Education Center (Richmond, Virginia), and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Education Center project (National Mall, Washington, D.C.) analyzes the campaigns to build the interpretive centers and their didactic contents against the campaigns to build the original war memorials to demonstrate this rhetorical shift. In contrast to the war memorials, which hold the potential to prompt reflection on the purpose of war and frequently feature the names of the deceased, interpretive centers explicitly engage with the facts of war to emphasize a legacy of U.S. military power while minimizing discussions of human losses. This effect is realized through interpretive displays such as immersive multimedia installations, historical objects of war including weaponry, and timelines of war that avoid consideration of difficult political topics. To establish this memorial paradigm I take an interdisciplinary approach incorporating memorial studies, museum studies, and memory studies.
Recommended Citation
Favorite, Jennifer K., "Added Interpretive Centers at U.S. War Memorials and the Reframing of National History" (2019). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3409
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Included in
American Art and Architecture Commons, American Material Culture Commons, American Politics Commons, Architectural History and Criticism Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Museum Studies Commons, Public History Commons, Sculpture Commons, United States History Commons