From Portraits to Puddles: New York Memorails from the Civil War to the World Trade Center Memorial (Reflecting Absence)

By Dianne L. Durante

Surely we can offer the victims of 9/11 a better tribute than Reflecting Absence, a gloomy piece of landscape architecture with lists of names. But what makes an effective tribute? What makes a memorable memorial? The sculptures in nearby Battery Park provide excellent examples of memorials dedicated over the past hundred years. This essay point

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dianne L. Durante
• Release date: Jul 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088207222

Dianne L. Durante

At age five, I won my first writing award: a three-foot-long fire truck with an ear-splitting siren. I've been addicted to writing ever since. Today I'm an independent researcher, freelance writer, and lecturer. The challenge of figuring out how ideas and facts fit together, and then sharing what I know with others, clearly and concisely - that's what makes me leap out of bed in the morning. Janson's *History of Art*, lent to me by a high-school art teacher, was my first clue that art was more than the rock-star posters and garden gnomes that I saw in Catawissa, Pennsylvania, and that history wasn't just a series of names, dates, and statistics. Soon afterwards I read Ayn Rand's fiction and nonfiction works, and discovered that art and history - as well as politics, ethics, science, and all fields of human knowledge - are integrated by philosophy. My approach to studying art is based on Rand's *The Romantic Manifesto*. (See my review of it on Amazon.) As an art historian I'm a passionate amateur, and I write for other passionate amateurs. I love looking at art, and thinking about art, and helping other people have a blast looking at it, too. *Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide* (New York University Press, 2007), which includes 54 sculptures, was described by Sam Roberts in the *New York Times* as "a perfect walking-tour accompaniment to help New Yorkers and visitors find, identify and better appreciate statues famous and obscure" (1/28/2007). Every week I issue four art-related recommendations to my supporters, which have been collected in *Starry Solitudes* (poetry) and *Sunny Sundays* (painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, and more). For more of my works, see https://diannedurantewriter.com/books-essays .

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Copyright, License, Description

Copyright

Copyright © 2012 Dianne L. Durante. All rights reserved.

This edition issued July 9, 2023.

www.DianneDuranteWriter.com

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Photographs

All are copyright © 2018 Dianne L. Durante, except where noted otherwise.

Cover photo of World Trade Center Memorial (Reflecting Absence): Cadiomals / Wikipedia (cropped). Cover design: Allegra Durante (AllegraDurante.com/contact)

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This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. It may not be re-sold or given away to others. You may share it in accordance with the terms of the Kindle Book Lending Program. Otherwise, please purchase an additional copy for each person you would like to share it with.

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks to all those who gave me feedback during the walking-tour version of From Portraits to Puddles. Special thanks to my sister Jan Robinson, whose meticulous proofreading and editing have made this a better book.

Table of Contents

Copyright, License, Description

Introduction

Chapter 1: John Ericsson

Chapter 2: Dewey Memorial

Chapter 3: Coast Guard Memorial

Chapter 4: East Coast Memorial

Chapter 5: Korean War Memorial

Chapter 6: American Merchant Mariners’ Memorial

Chapter 7: Progression of War Memorials, including New York Police Memorial and New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Chapter 8: Reflecting Absence (World Trade Center Memorial)

Appendix 1: Contact Information for Government Officials and Agencies in New York

Appendix 2: Memorials in Manhattan, by War Commemorated

About the Author, Dianne L. Durante

Introduction

NOTE: A map of the sculptures in Battery Park and all the memorials discussed in this book is available on Google Maps .

I find Reflecting Absence, the memorial on the site of the World Trade Center, profoundly unsatisfying. If you do, too, this essay will help you understand why landscape architecture and a list of names don’t make for a memorable memorial.

World Trade Center Memorial. Photos: Brewbboks and government employee / Wikipedia

Today most of us remember vividly the events of 9/11, and we are deeply moved when we stand at the site of the terrorist attacks. But a hundred years from now, no one alive will remember the smiles of loved ones setting out to work on that bright September day in 2001. No one standing at the site will remember what he or she was doing when the Towers fell, and the world changed.

What will Reflecting Absence say then? What will the pools, trees, and lists of names tell our great-grandchildren about how we want to remember the people who died that day? Surely we can offer the victims of 9/11 a better tribute than a gloomy park that lingers like a scar in the business district of one of the world’s great cities.

But what makes an effective tribute? What makes a memorable memorial?

One easy