- August 13, 2024
Looking at Public Monuments with Historian and Author Susan Wilson, Monday, October 7 at 11 AM
In recent years, controversy has erupted nationwide over who should or should not be honored in public monuments and memorials. There have been moves nationwide to create newer, more inclusive portrait statues … as well as moves to remove and even melt down others. In this fascinating PowerPoint lecture, historian Susan Wilson explores that controversy while tracing a selection of public statues in Boston that honor famous individuals from the nineteenth century to the modern day. Among the topics explored are: who are the heroes of any given era? how are these statuary subjects chosen? what messages do they relay? whose voices are they representing? And what happens when they are deemed offensive or obsolete?
About Susan Wilson
Susan Wilson is a professional photographer, writer, and public historian. She is the official House Historian of the Omni Parker House in Boston, an Affiliate Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, and an Honorary Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. After receiving a B.A. and M.A. in history from Tufts University, Susan taught history at both the secondary school and college levels before moving into a career in journalism and photojournalism. Her writing and photography regularly appeared in the Boston Globe between 1978 and 1996. Since 1994 she has been writing books on Boston history, including Heaven, By Hotel Standards: The History of the Omni Parker House; Boston Sites and Insights; The Literary Trail of Greater Boston; and Garden of Memories: A Guide to Historic Forest Hills. Her brand-new book, Women and Children First