In the fall semester 2022, I will be teaching “Introduction to Public History” to 20 undergraduate history majors. This will be my first time teaching this course. I have a good draft of a syllabus already done, and that includes a student project on historic monuments in Syracuse. Here is the way it is currently described in the syllabus:

” Syracuse is home to several historic monuments. Students will research a monument to answer questions of who erected it? Why? When? What does it mean to people in the area today? To answer the last question, students will conduct at least one on-site observation as well as interviews.”

Yes, this is as far as I’ve gotten. I think I would like to focus on this as a project for this semester. How can I more fully develop the project to get students really thinking historically about the context in which those monuments were constructed. That is key before we really get into the role they play today.

One of the biggest primary sources should be historic newspaper accounts that, hopefully, describe the unveiling of the monuments. I will also want to locate organization records concerning some of the monuments. For example, the Knights of Columbus and the Columbus statue that is currently a point of contention in the city.

My audience is my class for right now. Their audience will be the general public of Syracuse, but for my purposes in creating the basis of the assignment, I need to focus on my students and getting them to be able to tell the story of these monuments through historical thinking.