About
OVERVIEW
WORDS ARE MONUMENTS is a multi-year public history and socially-engaged art project that brings visibility, context, and support to community efforts to transform the names of streets, neighborhoods, landmarks, and other places across the country.
Through essays, videos, panel discussions, virtual exhibits, and public art, Words Are Monuments examines how naming has been used to seize land and erase worlds—and how it can be mobilized as a tool for resistance, cultural resurgence, and collective repair.
The project began alongside the landmark Words Are Monuments report, a system-scale analysis of racist and harmful place-names in U.S. National Parks. Building on that research, this project offers tools, resources, and historical context to help people understand and engage in renaming efforts within and beyond the United States.
By bringing these stories together, this site serves as a platform for liberatory perspectives on place-names, amplifying the movements working to reshape the commemorative landscape.
PRODUCED BY
The Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum leverages the power of history, museums, monuments, and movements to change narratives, build alliances, educate the public and drive civic engagement in support of community-led movements for climate and environmental justice.
Through award-winning exhibits and films, programming, advocacy campaigns, and public scholarship, NHM collaborates with frontline communities, artists, scientists, and scholars to create new narratives about our shared history and future.
IN COLLABORATION WITH
We extend special thanks to the Coalition for Outdoor Renaming & Education, National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, The Wilderness Society, Evergreen State College Native American and Indigenous Programs, and the Tribal leaders, community organizers, knowledge holders, historians, cultural geographers, artists, and agency officials whose guidance and collaboration have shaped this project. We also thank Bonnie McGill, PhD, lead author of the 2022 Words Are Monuments report, for inspiring this project and contributing content to the map on the homepage of this site.
This project is made possible with support from Mellon Foundation and 4Culture.
