How should monuments in our community help us understand the past? Your feedback will help us develop tools to enrich public understanding of Washington history.

Our community conversation moderated by Sarah Pharaon, will focus on the Firsts Monument erected by the Washington State Historical Society by Officers Row in the Vancouver Historic Reserve.

About the Project:

In 2022 the Washington State Historical Society (WSHS) received a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services for a project called Dialogue in Place, a process of examining and addressing 42 monuments placed by our agency around the state between 1900 and 1950. When they were erected, these monuments were intended to celebrate individuals and events related to settlement on the land that became Washington State. We now recognize that the presence of these monuments, with their lack of historical context and erasure of the experiences of Tribal Nations, bring harm to Indigenous communities and limit the public’s access to information that fully represents the complexities of the past.

WSHS has initiated government-to-government consultation with Tribes to help determine the future of these monuments. In addition to Tribal consultation, our process involves hosting community conversations around the state to consider the role these objects of public history play in our collective understanding of the past. Feedback from community members will inform our government-to-government dialogue with Tribal Nations and help us develop tools to enrich public understanding of Washington State history.

RSVP HERE