Monumental Mobility: The Memory Work of Massasoit

Cyrus Dallin's statue, Massasoit, was installed in 1921 to commemorate the landing of the Pilgrims. However, the statue began to move and proliferate in ways that were not expected of stationary monuments. The plaster model was donated to Utah and displayed in the state capitol, but was caught up in a fraud case. Versions of the statue now stand on Brigham Young University's campus, in Kansas City, and in countless homes around the world. This book explores the story of the statue, revealing the process of creating, commodifying, and reinforcing the historical memory of Indigenous people in American memorial culture.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 30 March 2019
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

Cyrus Dallin's statue, "Massasoit," was installed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1921 to commemorate the tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrims. The statue was intended to memorialize the Pokanoket Massasoit as a welcoming diplomat and participant in the mythical first Thanksgiving. However, after the statue's unveiling, Massasoit began to move and proliferate in ways that one would not expect of generally stationary monuments tethered to place. The plaster model of the statue was donated to the artist's home state of Utah and prominently displayed in the state capitol. Half a century later, it was caught up in a surprising case of fraud in the fine arts market.

Versions of the statue now stand on Brigham Young University's campus, at an urban intersection in Kansas City, Missouri, and in countless homes around the world in the form of souvenir statuettes.

As Lisa Blee and Jean M. O'Brien show in this thought-provoking book, the surprising story of this monumental statue reveals much about the process of creating, commodifying, and reinforcing the historical memory of Indigenous people. Dallin's statue, set alongside the historical memory of the actual Massasoit and his mythic collaboration with the Pilgrims, shows otherwise hidden dimensions of American memorial culture: an elasticity of historical imagination, a tight-knit relationship between consumption and commemoration, and the twin impulses to sanitize and grapple with the meaning of settler-colonialism.

Weight: 454g
Dimension: 158 x 233 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781469648408