Episode 2: Gettysburg: The Good, the Bad, and the Enigmatic
Hosted by Sara Potts
Release date: November 25, 2021
In this episode, producer Sara Potts investigates multiple overlapping histories at Gettysburg National Military Park: from the official account of the National Park Service to the long ignored African American presence at the site. Through a number of interviews, we reflect on the potential for memory and remembrance at a monument that comprises an entire landscape—the site of the most famous battle of the American Civil War. With Gettysburg continuing to be contested and negotiated in today’s political environment, how do we grapple with and represent conflicting histories in a way that is compelling and constructive?
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About this episode of Monument Biography
About the host:
Sara Potts is a second-year M.A. focusing on 20th century Mexican printmaking and institutional critique. Her master’s thesis examines the intersection between the prints Taller de Gráfica Popular and the Mexican feminist movement of the 1940s, revealing the lack of scholarship on female TGP artists and their socially conscious narratives. She received her B.A. in Art History from the University of Utah in 2018. Her work experience includes the prestigious Fox School of Business Board Fellowship program, a curatorial internship at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, and positions as Social Media Consultant for Brandywine Workshop and Archives and Visitor Experience Manager at the Leonardo Museum. Currently, she works as an educator at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
About the guests:
Christopher Gwinn is the Supervisory Park Ranger for the division of Interpretation and Education at the Gettysburg National Military Park. Gwinn has worked in the Park Service since 2006, holding positions at various battlefield sites such as Antietam National Battlefield and the Boston National Historical Park.
Jane Nutter is the President of the Gettysburg Black History Museum in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a local nonprofit dedicated to collecting and uplifting the stories of Black people in the county both during and after the Civil War.
Want to learn more about the topics covered in this episode?
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?” The Atlantic, November 30, 2011, The Civil War Issue edition.
Jennifer M. Murray, On a Great Battlefield: The Making, Management, and Memory of Gettysburg National Military Park, 1933-2013. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2014.
James M. Paradis, African Americans and the Gettysburg Campaign. Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2005.
Edward W. Said, “Invention, Memory, and Place.” In Landscape and Power, edited by W.J.T Mitchell. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Nolan Simmons, “As Monuments Are Toppled Nationwide, What Should Gettysburg Do with Its Confederate Statues?” Pennlive. June 25, 2020.
Music credits for this episode of Monument Biography:
Joe Biden Campaign Speech at Gettysburg, live streamed October 6, 2020, PBS Newshour
“Gettysburg Speech” from Remember the Titans (2000)
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address performed by Barack Obama
Taps Dancing by Jazzaria