- Features:
- Essays The essays presented here provide insights from historians, art historians, geographers, and students on the Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina. Taken together, these essays offer an introduction to the layers of meaning that all commemorative landscapes, including those in North Carolina, possess.
- Virtual Tours These virtual tours of significant sites in the state explore how the experience of visiting these sites has changed over the past century and a half. Some of the changes to commemorative sites have been the result of evolving ideas about commemoration, preservation, and interpretation. Other changes have been the result of changes in the surrounding environment. Through the use of maps, images, and analysis, these tours enable us to explore more fully landscapes that we may take for granted or that may no longer exist.
- The Nathanael Greene Monument
at Guilford CourthouseThis feature enables us to analyze closely the Nathanael Greene Monument at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, one of the most impressive and symbolically rich commemorative sculptures in North Carolina. With the aid of art historian Tania String, we can tour the monument and get a fuller understanding of the symbols and artistry that the sculptor and creators used to convey its meaning.
Or we can closely analyze the monument on our own with Photosynth, by moving around and zooming in on or out from the image.
- Monument Timemap The "Monument Timemap" feature combines temporal (timeline) and spatial (mapping) tools to help users visualize how the North Carolina commemorative landscape has been developed over time. By scrolling along the interactive timeline, pins will appear where monuments have been built during the corresponding time period. By default, only items in the visible range of the timeline are displayed on the map.
- North Carolina Commemorative Timeline
By scrolling along this interactive time line, we can see peaks and valleys in the construction of monuments. These peaks and valleys reveal that the impulse to commemorate the past is not constant. Scrolling through the timeline demonstrates that the timing of the erection of monuments in North Carolina defies simple or obvious patterns. The timeline prompts us to reflect on the shifting ambitions of commemorators that may explain the ebb and flow in monuments over the past two centuries.
"Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina" includes several features that demonstrate the rich history of commemoration in the Tar Heel State. Several of the features are interactive, while others offer scholarly commentary to add depth to the material collected and presented here. Scroll over a feature to see a brief description or click through to explore more.