From China’s Forbidden City to Versailles Palace, history-rich places and monuments exist all around us and should be preserved, interpreted, and shared with the wider community.
Scholars from different fields are becoming more engaged with these sites; such as geographers, historians of landscape and art history, anthropologists, and ethnographers.
Acropolis of Athens
The Acropolis was at the core of Athens cultural and political life for nearly 3,000 years, and is still visited today; though sometimes overshadowed by scaffolding for restoration efforts.
At the foot of this rocky outcrop were temples and sanctuaries dedicated to honoring various gods and heroes; over time these also served as venues where Athenian citizens could come celebrate themselves and their city.
At the center of Acropolis was the Parthenon, an enormous doric temple featuring an iconic statue of Athena atop its frieze. On its east and south sides there were mythological scenes while on its north side were battle scenes.
On September 26th 1687, Venetian cannon fire bombarded the Acropolis in a failed effort to seize Athens’ powder munitions, leaving temples like Parthenon severely damaged with sculptures being left vulnerable to looters and vandals. Later on in 1801, Earl of Elgin obtained permission from Turkish occupying authorities for some of these statues to be removed from Acropolis and sold off to British Museum – Greeks consider Elgin Marbles national treasures, so their return would be welcomed back with open arms!
Easter Island
Easter Island, located off of Chile’s mainland in the South Pacific Ocean, is famous for its nearly 900 large stone statues known as moai, which stand on platform structures known as ahu and are believed to represent spirits of ancestors and powerful chiefs.
But our understanding of their function, and the means by which the moai were built, remains fragmented. UCLA geographer Jared Diamond suggests in his book Collapse that overexploitation of limited island resources–especially trees–led to tribal warfare between rival tribes that eventually brought on cultural collapse.
Other scholars have theorized that Easter Island statues’ mysterious poses–with their backs facing towards the sea–signified an enigmatic link between heaven and earth, or maybe even as a form of communication among faraway communities. Although Easter Island lies far off shore, its remote location makes it an invaluable location for studying Polynesia; WMF has worked since 1960s to preserve Easter Island’s archeological heritage by helping restore two ahu and conducting topographical mapping system surveys across its shores.
World Trade Center
World Trade Center was completed in 1973, featuring twin skyscrapers that stood among the tallest skyscrapers of their day. However, these towers were destroyed on September 11, 2001 due to a terrorist attack, leading to other nearby structures being compromised as well.
Students will examine the iconic legacy of these buildings for both New York City and America as a whole, using visual aids, photographs, and articles as sources for analysis.
Whitney Plantation
The Whitney Plantation stands apart in both its region and country as one of only two plantations museums dedicated to showing visitors life, labor, and culture of its slave population. Visitors from around the globe come here to learn about slavery culture while paying homage at one of America’s most accurate plantation museums.
Beginning their tour of the grounds at a church, visitors witness life-size statues by Ohio artist Woodrow Nash representing slave children at their time of emancipation. A nearby Wall of Honor records names of those enslaved on the plantation as discovered by Senegalese historian Ibrahima Seck – its academic director at this site.
On the grounds, Whitney offers seven original slave cabins as well as the Field of Angels to remember 2,200 slave infants who perished due to malnutrition or disease during slavery. Although other antebellum plantations have begun including displays on slavery as part of their visitor experience, Whitney stands alone by designing the entire visitor experience around it.
