Near the empty pedestals of Confederate figures that used to tower over Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, a new type of historical marker now stands. The markers have most of the trappings of a state-erected historical plaque—but these are rogue markers erected by a group of anonymous historians called History is Illuminating.
History is Illuminating decided to use historical markers as a medium to talk about the Black history taking place while those statues were erected as monuments to white supremacy.
In this episode, an anonymous member of History is Illuminating discusses the ubiquity of the Lost Cause narrative, the reasons for being anonymous and going rogue, and the means of historical marker production.
Topics and Notes
00:00 Intro
00:15 Historical Markers in the U.S. South
01:00 History is Illuminating (https://www.instagram.com/historyisilluminating/)
01:20 Rogue Historians
02:10 Lost Cause Narrative
03:13 Monument Avenue (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Avenue)
05:15 The Origins of History is Illuminating
06:10 Studio Two Three (https://studiotwothree.org)
06:20 Naming History is Illuminating
08:10 Constructing the Historical Markers
08:30 Episode 42. Freddi Williams Evans and Luther Gray Are Erecting Historic Markers on the Slave Trade in New Orleans (https://www.museumarchipelago.com/42)
09:05 The Markers
09:45 John Mitchell Jr. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mitchell_Jr.)
10:30 Going Rogue
11:00 Means of Historical Marker Production
12:35 Learn More and Donate to History is Illuminating (https://studiotwothree.org/checkout/donate?donatePageId=5f00889cd470c94c5556557c)
13:05 SPONSOR: Pigeon by SRISYS ? (https://pigeon.srisys.com/museums/)
13:52 Outro | Join Club Archipelago ? (https://www.patreon.com/museumarchipelago)
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Sponsor: Pigeon by SRISYS ?
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Transcript
Below is a transcript of Museum Archipelago episode 84. Museum Archipelago is produced for the ear and the only the audio of the episode is canonical. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, refer to the links above.



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[Intro]

Over the past few weeks, near the empty pedestals of confederate figures that used to stand on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, a new type of historical marker started appearing. The markers have most of the trappings of a state-erected historical marker--etched letters and an iconic shape.

But