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Design a Historic Monument: Civil War Era Project

$5.00 Regular Price
$3.00Sale Price

War memorials usually honor generals, battles, and soldiers. This project asks who else deserves a monument, such as the writers, activists, and people who resisted injustice. Students pick a figure from 1848-1865 and design a memorial that explains why their story still matters today.


What’s inside

  • A starter list of figures and groups: Mexican and Indigenous people affected by the Mexican Cession, Black people taken under the Fugitive Slave Act, Charles Sumner, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dred Scott, John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Henry David Thoreau, and freedmen (students can choose anyone from the era)

  • Project steps: research beyond the basics, then design a monument with a title, key visual elements (symbols, materials, setting), and an inscription or quote

  • Format choice: students can draw, create digitally, or sculpt

  • A 2-3 paragraph Designer Statement covering why they chose this person, what the monument represents, and how its symbols connect to the person’s legacy

  • A fully worked example using the Lincoln Memorial


Details: PDF, 4 pages

Also part of the Unit 5: Civil War & Reconstruction plan.

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