Why Now? A Historian Roundtable

We have attempted, on this blog, to explore the origins and meanings of the statues on Monument Avenue. In the process, we have seen the complexity of their original contexts and the transformation of their meanings over time.

On Monument Avenue | Beyond Dali and Sally: Monument Avenue at a Crossroads, 1965-1966

By John Coski, Historian

On Monument Avenue | When Sally Met Dali: Richmond Contemplates the Future of Monument Avenue

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney created the Monument Avenue Commission in June 2017 to provide context for the Confederate statues that he believes offer a distorted picture of Richmond’s history. Stoney asked the Commission to explain “the monuments that currently exist,” and “to look into and solicit public opinion on changing the face of Monument Avenue by adding new monuments that would reflect a broader, more inclusive story of our city.”

On Monument Avenue | "An Avenue for All People:" How Arthur Ashe Came to Monument Avenue

“Richmond is known as a city of monuments. And the marquee street for monuments is Monument Avenue,” declared Richmond sportswriter Paul Woody in a 1995 column. “But the unfortunate impression left on some by the statues is that the street is reserved for Confederate leaders and Matthew Fontaine Maury. This impression should be changed. What better way to bring about change than by having a statue of [Arthur] Ashe on the city’s grandest boulevard?”

November 2017 Document of the Month | Scrapbook clippings of Maury Monument

By John Coski
Historian

Eighty-eight years ago this month, on the 11^th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, Richmonders gathered to unveil Frederick W. Sievers’ statue of Matthew Fontaine Maury on Monument Avenue. Confederate Museum House Regent Susan Harrison dutifully clipped articles about the statue, labeled them, and pasted them into a scrapbook.

On Monument Avenue | Throbbing with Memories: Monument Avenue and Civic Life in Early 20th Century Richmond

On Monument Avenue | Monuments and the Paradox of Racial Violence in Virginia

On October 11, 1919, the day of the Stonewall Jackson statue unveiling at the corner of Monument Avenue and Boulevard, the Richmond Planet ran an anti-lynching editorial cartoonon its front page.

On Monument Avenue | A Confederate for the World

This is the last in a series of posts offering brief backstories on the Confederate statues on Monument Avenue.

Why is there a statue of a grizzled old man in a civilian suit sitting under a storm-swept globe on Monument Avenue? Presumably, he was a Confederate. But the statue doesn't look especially Confederate, and the inscription reads simply “MAURY / PATHFINDER OF THE SEAS.”

On Monument Avenue | "What mean ye by this monument?"

On Monument Avenue | "Killed at Chancellorsville"?: And Other Devils in the Details of the Stonewall Jackson Monument

When Lieutenant General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, he was not just the Confederacy’s military idol, but an international military celebrity. Immediately upon learning of his death, English friends of the Confederacy began raising funds for a statue to him.

Monument Avenue