The other day Andy Hall challenged the common assumption that the Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery contains a black Confederate soldier. I encourage you to read Andy’s thoughtful analysis. You will find images of this monument on countless websites along with colorful interpretations that seem to confirm the existence of these men. While Andy [...]
Arlington House
I am working to finish up an essay on Robert E. Lee’s Arlington House for a collection of essays on Southern Tourism edited by Karen Cox. The tentative title is, “The Robert E. Lee Memorial: A Conflict of Interpretation”. My research on this subject has taken a couple of turns since I agreed to be [...]
Given my current work on public history at Arlington House I thought I might share this upcoming event in connection with the Civil War Sesquicentennial. On October 10 the National Park Service will present a program on John Brown’s Raid that features Fergus Bordewich, author of Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War [...]
Here is another postcard of Arlington House, which is dated 1928. Notice the similarities with the last image I posted, especially the children positioned in the center. Postcards are wonderful little cultural artifacts that tell us quite a bit about how a historic site is interpreted/remembered and by whom. The image of the front of [...]
I am just beginning the writing stage of my project on Southern Tourism and Arlington House for a book of essays that is being edited by Karen Cox. The research is fascinating and I am learning quite a bit about the history of how both the home and the surrounding landscape have been interpreted. I [...]
As part of a search for information on Robert E. Lee and Arlington House I came across teaching materials that I assume are to be used for home schooling purposes. It includes a multiple choice test. Let’s see how well you do and remember that some of the questions have more than one answer. Good [...]
I get a kick out of the editorials and short essays by Calvin Johnson, which you can find at such places as Lew Rockwell and the Conservative Free Press. Given the last few posts on the mythology of black Confederates I thought it might be nice to share another little story. Yes, I am beating [...]
The following is an abstract for an essay that I am contributing to an edited collection on tourism in the American South, which is being edited by Karen Cox. Your feedback and questions are strongly encouraged. In recent years Civil War landscapes (especially battlefields) have come under increasing pressure from various interest groups to broaden [...]
