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"When Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb? Is More Than a Trivia Question",,"In the summer of 2006, my best friend and I stumbled upon a book called, Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb. The book summarizes the post-presidential lives of the American Presidents, details their passing and funerals, and finishes with a commentary on each. After reviewing how close many of them were to our apartment in Virginia, we decided to embark on a pilgrimage to the burial sites. What followed has been a decade plus journey throughout the country to the biggest of big cities, New York, to the smallest of small towns, Plymouth Notch, to visit these final resting places.
Each site, like the president memorialized is unique in its own way. Some presidents, like Lincoln, have giant memorials that match their legacies where others, like Coolidge, are the definition of unpretentious. Some, like Washington, are on sprawling plantations. Others, like Van Buren, are in rural cemeteries. This is a testament to the impact that power and privilege play even in death.
Traipsing through countless cemeteries, I have often reflected on the role that memory and memorialization play in our lives. Mixed in with some presidents are people whose stories have long been forgotten or, perhaps worse, were never even told. I wonder: Who are these people? Why are they buried here? What was their life like? Thankfully public historians are actively seeking to rectify this.
When I mention my macabre hobby I inevitably get asked, ""Why?"" The easy answer is that it blends my interest in the presidency and my love of travel. The more philosophical answer? I suppose there is a particular unexpectedness of observing the humanities in a cemetery, yet what is more universally human then death? For it is on these trips with my best friend, other friends, family, and my wife that I have felt the greatest connection to people. Be it laughing with friends on a car trip, eating and connecting with the local townspeople, or meeting and reflecting with other history aficionados.
So who is buried in Grant's tomb? Well, not even Ulysses Grant as he is interred above ground.","Brian Lamb","Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb?: A Tour of Presidential Gravesites",,"Summer 2006","Bradley T. Swain, 38, Social Studies Teacher at West Springfield High School",,,,,,buried-grant-tomb-more-than-trivia-question,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Professional Development ","Discovery,Equality,Gravestones,History,Memorials,Presidents of the United States,Public Spaces",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/527/veteran-1885567_640.jpg,Text,Educators,1,0
"Chicano Park",,"I had been in San Diego for less than a week and was still unsure of bus routes. Having successfully navigated the trolley-to-bus transfer from La Mesa to the Gaslight District downtown, I figured I was close enough to walk. If it were a different day I would welcome any unexpected detours as a result of getting on the wrong bus, but today I was headed somewhere specific.
It was July, Saturday, and sunny. I walked southwest from downtown heading toward Barrio Logan. A historically working class Mexican and Mexican American neighborhood in the city, Barrio Logan is home to Chicano Park. Chicano Park is located under the Coronado Bridge and contains over 70 outdoor murals that decorate the pillars that support the bridge.
Chicano Park came into existence in April 1970 when neighborhood activists occupied the then vacant space under the bridge. The bridge was built around three years earlier, displacing thousands of residents in the process. Though the vacant space under the bridge was originally set to be the site of a highway patrol station, community activists instead demanded that the site be turned into a public park. After months of struggle, the city ceded to the community activists’ demands and designated the site a park. Soon thereafter local residents began calling the space Chicano Park. The name Chicano Park reflected not only how Barrio Logan was a predominantly Mexican and Mexican American neighborhood, but also how those involved with the takeover supported El Movimiento, the civil rights movement in the U.S. that focused on those of Mexican descent. Activists who participated in El Movimiento regularly identified themselves as Chicanas and Chicanos.
Since the 1970s artists like Victor Ochoa, Yolanda Lopez, and Salvador Torres have painted murals dedicated to Mexican and Mexican American culture and history on the bridge’s bare pillars. Popular murals painted in the 1970s include Historical Mural, Quetzalcóatl, and Birth of La Raza. Much like the name of the park, artists found inspiration in El Movimiento’s goals of eradicating ethnoracial discrimination and used the bridge’s pillars to present positive renderings of those of Mexican descent. Also starting in the 1970s, a festival, or Chicano Park Day, is held each April commemorating the day community residents occupied the land under the bridge, reinforcing the park’s continued importance to the local community.
After around a half hour of walking toward the park, colorful pillars broke into view. I entered the park and saw people walking among the pillars taking photos of the murals and reading the walls. People sat on steps of the green, red, and white painted kiosko situated near the center of the park. As I walked around taking my own photos a man in his mid-20s approached me and we began to talk. Learning that I was not a local, he began running through aspects of the park’s history. While I would later tell him that I was writing about Chicano Park in my dissertation, I initially kept this information to myself. I was more interested in hearing about how he spoke of the park. As he talked he braided the park’s history and importance to the community with the park’s significance in his own life. We stayed in the park and talked for hours while he guided me from pillar to pillar discussing the murals.
My “Humanities Moment” is therefore the confluence of walking to the park, seeing the pillars for the first time, and listening to a man – now a friend – talk about the importance of Chicano Park in his life and to the community. Chicano Park is representative of Mexican and Mexican American activism, culture, and history in the U.S. and reveals the power of community to determine the shape of its immediate surroundings. As my friend also demonstrated, Chicano Park is deeply personal and holds layers of meaning for community residents and those who visit the park. ",,"My visit to Chicano Park in San Diego, California ",,2017,"Sean Ettinger, 28, PhD Candidate in History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign",,,,,,chicano-park,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"During the National Humanities Center VGSSR2020","Activism,Artists,Communication,Community,Cultural History,History,Public Spaces,San Diego, California",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/17/401/73849b6c02430c12b5db2964049f4acb.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2020",1,0
"""The Town that Freedom Built"": Preserving Zora Neale Hurston's Eatonville",,"This plaque, and several others, are sprinkled throughout Eatonville, Florida to guide a walking tour of America's first legally established self-governing all-African American municipality. Eatonville was established in 1887. The town gained popularity from its depiction in Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), and her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942).
Sadly, 100 acres of Historic Eatonville has been lost due to expansion of the Greater Orlando area and Interstate 4. However, The Historic District of Eatonville was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 3, 1998. The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community has been working to make Eatonville an internationally recognized tourism destination, to enhance the resources of the town, and to educate the public of its cultural significance and the community's heritage.
I came to Eatonville because of my research and love for Zora Neale Hurston. Inspired by scholars such as Alice Walker, who worked to find and mark Hurston's final resting place, I too am aspired to keep Hurston's legacy from disappearing. The dilapidated plaques that are supposed to guide and educate the public about the importance of Eatonville are impossible to read.
The sight of these plaques awakened a call-to-action inside of me. Since this moment, I have been working to digitally preserve Zora Neale Huston's Eatonville through geospatial technology and augmented and virtual reality technology. This technology has the capability to tell these stories in ways that are immersive and accessible. By digitally preserving these stories, future curious minds will be able to explore and share the experience.",,"Eatonville Walking Tour Plaques",,"February 2014","Valerie Rose Kelco, UNC-Greensboro, Literature",,,,,,zora-neale-hurston-eatonville,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston","Dust Tracks on a Road,Eatonville, Florida,Geographic Information Systems (GIS),Historical Markers,History,Hurston, Zora Neale,Memory,Public Spaces,Their Eyes Were Watching God",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/15/317/Eatonville_Plaque.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Summer Residents 2019",1,0
"From Los Angeles to Guadalajara",,"Craig Watson, former director of the California Arts Council, reflects on the storytelling aspect of the humanities and the time he spent as a teenager in Guadalajara exploring public spaces painted with murals. He notes how people in the humanities help translate and open our eyes to what’s magical and unique about a place.
To celebrate its 40th year anniversary of grant making, programming, and partnerships that connect Californians to each other, California Humanities invited a group of 40 prominent Californians to explore what the humanities mean to them. For more information visit California Humanities: We Are the Humanities.","Orozco, José Clemente; Rivera, Diego","Painted murals by José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera","California Humanities",,"Craig Watson, former director of the California Arts Council","Standard YouTube License",,,,,craig-watson-from-la-to-guadalajara,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Fathers & Sons,Guadalajara, Mexico,Mural Painting & Decoration,Orozco, José Clemente,Public Spaces,Rivera, Diego,Storytelling",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/5/52/rivera-history-mexico-900.jpg,"Moving Image","California Humanities: “We Are the Humanities”",1,0