Overview

Installed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1921 to commemorate the tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrims, Cyrus Dallin's statue Massasoit was intended to memorialize the Pokanoket Massasoit (leader) as a welcoming diplomat and participant in the mythical first Thanksgiving. But after the statue's unveiling, Massasoit began to move and proliferate in ways one would not expect of generally stationary monuments tethered to place. The plaster model 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.

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9781469648408

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The book documents the fascinating continental 'travels' of a statue of the Wampanoag leader Massasoit, installed in 1921 at Plymouth, Ma., to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Pilgrims' arrival . . . This is an object lesson in the commodification of Native American memory.--Choice Reviews

Art historians will find Monumental Mobility fascinating and rich in material for teaching courses on the ethics of museum practices and art reproduction, while public historians will find Blee and O'Brien's arguments solidly grounded in interpretive theory. . . a worthwhile read for both academics and the interested public--thanks to the indefatigable research conducted by Blee and O'Brien.--Journal of Early American History A welcome addition to the historiography of memory and a growing list of books focused on Indigenous monuments. Moreover, the authors' extensive work tracing the many lives of Massasoit exhibits how difficult it is to fix the meaning of an object even after it is rendered in stone.--Western Historical Quarterly The book documents the fascinating continental 'travels' of a statue of the Wampanoag leader Massasoit, installed in 1921 at Plymouth, Ma., to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Pilgrims' arrival . . . This is an object lesson in the commodification of Native American memory.--Choice Reviews

A welcome addition to the historiography of memory and a growing list of books focused on Indigenous monuments. Moreover, the authors' extensive work tracing the many lives of Massasoit exhibits how difficult it is to fix the meaning of an object even after it is rendered in stone.--Western Historical Quarterly The book documents the fascinating continental 'travels' of a statue of the Wampanoag leader Massasoit, installed in 1921 at Plymouth, Ma., to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Pilgrims' arrival . . . This is an object lesson in the commodification of Native American memory.--Choice Reviews

Author Information

Lisa Blee is associate professor of history at Wake Forest University. Jean M. O'Brien (White Earth Ojibwe) is the Distinguished McKnight University Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.

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