In the wake of the racist murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol tore down a statue of Edward Colston, a prominent 17th Century slave trader. Protesters rolled the statue through the street and pushed it into Bristol Harbor — the same harbor where Colston’s Royal African Company ships that forcibly carried 80,000 people from Africa to the Americas used to dock.
In this episode, we examine the relationship of statues and museums. Why do so many call for statues of people like Colston to end up in a museum instead of at the bottom of a harbor? Looking at examples from Dr. Lyra Montero’s Washington's Next! project in the United States, American Hall of Honor museums for college football teams, and statues of Lenin and Stalin in Eastern Europe, we discuss the town-square-to-museum pipeline for statues.
Image: CC Keir Gravil (https://www.flickr.com/photos/ksagphotos/49984347227/in/photolist-2j9WR18-2jazCE1-2cbCsz3-XD7Js5-UGSVnw-2jaMmP1-YJQ5tD-bnShow-YJQ5vc-YJQ5uv-bnSgD5-bnShdd-2ja9Hsz-YtCdDN-YJQ5vH-Gp9V5R-n2dXrg-6VsrMU-PDvmUa-KCcbg9-2cbCszU-2jaQiZc-FJGAe4-2ja1X1Y-2ddat65-2ddat7s-2cbCsBY-Lo4Y6-ckDyvJ-FtWJaQ-2df5dZR-ayEzVH-TjJrC9-2j9zUv2-25qrmQH-UyYa9n-2jb5YPJ-ckDxPy-ckDwBJ-ckDxeb-8ago8j-9Tub44-2ddat4b-ckDzh5-j83Vog-T9ws1o-YDcBwm-25RX15G-UyYacZ-27oTt6N)- Black Lives Matter Protest, Bristol, UK
Topics and Notes
00:00 Intro
00:15 Tim Tebow Statue at the University of Florida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jldkfqP8Ug)
00:50 Football Hall of Honor Museums
02:02 Tearing Down Edward Colston’s Statue in Bristol (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-53034050?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/england/bristol&link_location=live-reporting-story)
02:44 Dr. Lyra Monteiro (https://sasn.rutgers.edu/about-us/faculty-staff/lyra-d-monteiro)
03:00 Episode 77. Washington's Next! (https://www.museumarchipelago.com/77)
03:12 The “Slippery Slope” Argument
04:56 Dr. Sadiah Qureshi (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/history/qureshi-sadiah.aspx)
05:33 Should Colston’s Statue End Up in a Museum?
05:58 Episode 5. Stalinworld (https://www.museumarchipelago.com/5)
06:42 Grūtas Park (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grūtas_Park)
07:32 Episode 25. Museum of Socialist Art (https://www.museumarchipelago.com/25)
08:20 Museums of Bristol Website (https://museums.bristol.gov.uk/narratives.php?irn=2374)
08:40 Number of Confederate Statues in the United States (https://www.splcenter.org/data-projects/whose-heritage)
09:55 Archipelago at the Movies : National Treasure is Now Free for Everyone (https://www.patreon.com/posts/archipelago-at-31845538)
10:25 Outro | Join Club Archipelago (https://www.patreon.com/museumarchipelago)
Museum Archipelago is a tiny show guiding you through the rocky landscape of museums. Subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcasts (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/museum-archipelago/id1182755184), Google Podcasts (https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubXVzZXVtYXJjaGlwZWxhZ28uY29tL3Jzcw==), Overcast (https://overcast.fm/itunes1182755184/museum-archipelago), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/5ImpDQJqEypxGNslnImXZE), or even email (https://museum.substack.com/) to never miss an episode.

Unlock Club Archipelago ?️


If you like episodes like this one, you’ll love Club Archipelago. It offers exclusive access to Museum Archipelago extras. It’s also a great way to support the show directly.

Join the Club for just $2/month.
Your Club Archipelago membership includes:
Access to a private podcast that guides you further behind the scenes of museums. Hear interviews, observations, and reviews that don’t make it into the main show;
Archipelago at the Movies ?️, a bonus bad-movie podcast exclusively featuring movies that take place at museums;
Logo stickers, pins and other extras, mailed straight to your door;
A warm feeling knowing you’re supporting the podcast.




Transcript
Below is a transcript of Museum Archipelago episode 82. Museum Archipelago is produced for the e