The Nation's First Monument and the Origins of the American Memorial Tradition

'In recent decades, art historians have increasingly recognized the crucial roles played by visual, material, and public cultures in the evolution of national identity. Sally Webster significantly contributes to this discourse with her story of America's first monument , a Revolutionary War memorial authorized by the Continental Congress in 1776, dedicated to General Richard Montgomery, and installed in New York's St. Paul's Church in 1787. Deftly weaving biography, history, and iconography with accounts of transatlantic exchange, colonial painting, military battles, and Enlightenment era allegory, Webster demonstrates how commemoration has been a core American concern since the earliest days of the republic.' Erika Doss, University of Notre Dame, USA The commemorative tradition in early American art is given sustained consideration for the first time in Sally Webster's fascinating study of public monuments and the construction of an American patronymic tradition.It is an original contribution to historical scholarship in fields ranging from early American art, sculpture, New York history, and the Revolutionary era. Enfilade This book will be of great interest to scholars of early American visual culture and cultural nationalism. Webster has assembled an impressive array of primary sources in order to demonstrate the Montgomery Monument's significance during the war years and in the era of the early Republic. Her chapters explore the early American monument tradition, persuasively demonstrating that colonial Americans thirsted for memorials to heroic deeds long before independent nationhood became a reality. Panorama