| Summary |
The purpose of this study is to show that the monuments and statues on North Carolina's Capitol Square in Raleigh are monuments not only to the "great" people that they memorialize but also to the eras in which they were built, the movements that created them, and the emotions that they have generated. In order to explain how and why the monuments were erected and what subsequent impact they had upon the people who viewed them, this paper utilizes a host of interdisciplinary topics ranging from art and education to American history and historiography, from social values and women's rights to transportation, economics, and politics. Each monument is discussed, chapter by chapter, in the order of its creation. The disciplines selected are those which are most effective in telling the story of the particular monument and on which the greatest amount of documentation exists, including, especially, correspondence, newspaper articles, minutes and reports, government documents, and various published works. Thus, the story of the George Washington statue illustrates the early attempts at both having statuary on the square and fulfilling the patriotic needs of the new nation. The chapter on the Confederate Monument uncovers the potent forces of Civil War memories versus educational development. The chapter on the Zebulon Vance statue probes 'X early attempts at procuring a statue to the memory of a dead leader and the poor reception that the completed work received. The efforts to raise money for the Worth Bagley statue illustrate a movement which arose directly from war's fanaticism. The chapter on the Charles Mclver statue delves into the meaning of the statue in the mind of its sculptor. The Henry L. Wyatt statue highlights the interconnection of historiography and statuary as a means to legitimizing statuary. The Women of the Confederacy statues emphasize the merger of women's wartime contribution with women's rights and the resultant attempts to create a memorial to those women. The chapter about the attempts to erect a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh on the Capitol Square illustrates a quarter of a century-long, unsuccessful effort to memorialize a near mythical figure. The Charles B. Aycock statue illustrates the difficulties of fund raising for statue building in the midst of war and its aftermath as well as the relations of monument committee with the sculptor. The monument of the three United States presidents from North Carolina exemplifies the most recent efforts at keeping the institution of statue building alive in a changing world. The chapter on the smaller monuments and markers relates to the influence of automobiles and highways, as well as of a state memorials commission, upon the creation of alternative forms of monument building. |
