Start Date
4-9-2021 9:00 AM
End Date
4-9-2021 10:15 AM
Disciplines
United States History | Women's History
Subjects
Memorialization -- Social aspects -- Case studies, Women -- Idaho -- Treasure Valley -- Monuments, Monuments -- Idaho -- History
Description
Abstract: In this paper, I research the public commemoration of women in the Treasure Valley and Southwest Idaho. Public memorials were sought out, visited, and photographed. A map was created of the locations and added to a website I made as part of this project, www.idahowomeninhistory.com. In order to make an argument for more statuary and monuments to women in Idaho there needed to be an explanation for the omission. I begin with the glaring absence of women in the public sphere and popular history (written and dominated by men), which explains their lack of celebration in public spaces. They were invisible. Society honored what it valued the most, men and their contributions. As women’s equality movements waxed, the trend of public statuary to individuals waned. Event and group commemoration, abstract art, and dedicated spaces became the norm. I categorize the types of commemoration as Compensatory, Contributory, Construction, and Challenging. I then place Southwest Idaho’s women’s monuments into those categories. Statues simply in female form do not count if they are the embodiments of ideas like Justice, Liberty, or mythical beings like mermaids and angels. I discuss the arguments against adding statues, and the push to achieve equal representation by subtraction. Ultimately, I side with increasing women’s commemoration in Southwest Idaho.
PART OF SESSION 1C. PUBLIC COMMEMORATION
Comment: Larry Cebula, Eastern Washington University
Chair: Bradley Franco, University of Portland
Shaina Lynch, Boise State University, undergraduate student
“The No-Color of Women: Women and Commemoration in the Treasure Valley of Idaho”
Liza J. Schade, Portland State University, graduate student
“Finding a Community Niche: Rethinking Historic House Museums in Oregon”
Emma Williams, University of Idaho, undergraduate student
“Portraiture, Patriotism, and Politicking: The Political Effect of Visual Histories”
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35249
Included in
The No-Color of Women: Women and Commemoration in the Treasure Valley of Idaho
Abstract: In this paper, I research the public commemoration of women in the Treasure Valley and Southwest Idaho. Public memorials were sought out, visited, and photographed. A map was created of the locations and added to a website I made as part of this project, www.idahowomeninhistory.com. In order to make an argument for more statuary and monuments to women in Idaho there needed to be an explanation for the omission. I begin with the glaring absence of women in the public sphere and popular history (written and dominated by men), which explains their lack of celebration in public spaces. They were invisible. Society honored what it valued the most, men and their contributions. As women’s equality movements waxed, the trend of public statuary to individuals waned. Event and group commemoration, abstract art, and dedicated spaces became the norm. I categorize the types of commemoration as Compensatory, Contributory, Construction, and Challenging. I then place Southwest Idaho’s women’s monuments into those categories. Statues simply in female form do not count if they are the embodiments of ideas like Justice, Liberty, or mythical beings like mermaids and angels. I discuss the arguments against adding statues, and the push to achieve equal representation by subtraction. Ultimately, I side with increasing women’s commemoration in Southwest Idaho.
PART OF SESSION 1C. PUBLIC COMMEMORATION
Comment: Larry Cebula, Eastern Washington University
Chair: Bradley Franco, University of Portland
Shaina Lynch, Boise State University, undergraduate student
“The No-Color of Women: Women and Commemoration in the Treasure Valley of Idaho”
Liza J. Schade, Portland State University, graduate student
“Finding a Community Niche: Rethinking Historic House Museums in Oregon”
Emma Williams, University of Idaho, undergraduate student
“Portraiture, Patriotism, and Politicking: The Political Effect of Visual Histories”