Whose History Gets Set In Stone? A Closer Look At Monuments In Vermont

A Weekend Edition segment on VPR, with Mary Engisch and Professor Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio

Aired on Nov. 7, 2020, link to archived episode and podcast here

Helmstutler Di Dio recalls street squares filled with monuments dedicated to Civil War generals in her Virginia hometown. She pointed out that Vermont made out well in the late 19th century, providing granite during that period's "monument boom."

Now as a European sculpture specialist, Helmstutler Di Dio studies whose stories sculptures tell. The Samuel de Champlain sculpture in Isle La Motte, for instance, shows de Champlain as a European white man standing tall and fully clothed while a mostly naked Abenaki person crouches in a canoe at his feet.