Documenting the American South

Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina
Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina
Commemorative Landscapes banner

The Annotated Greene Monument

This narrated tour enables us to closely analyze the Nathanael Greene Monument at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, one of the most impressive and symbolically rich commemorative sculptures in North Carolina. At first glance, it may appear to be just another large and impressive but otherwise conventional "general on a horse" sculpture. But with the aid of art historian Tania String, we can tour the monument and better understand, for example, why the design includes a mythical Greek figure in front of Greene; how texts are used to convey the larger meaning of the monument; and the various artistic traditions that inform the sculpture’s design. Once we understand these choices, we can better grasp the meanings and lessons that the monument’s creators intended it to impart. We also can better understand why the artistic and symbolic vocabulary of some historic monuments continues to be evocative and provocative while the vocabulary of other monuments fails to speak to us. To start the tour, please press the PLAY button below.

The video content presented here requires JavaScript to be enabled and the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player. If you are using a browser with JavaScript disabled please enable it now. Otherwise, please update your version of the free Adobe Flash Player by downloading here.