Degree Year

2010

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

History

Advisor(s)

Clayton Koppes

Keywords

Oberlin, Soldiers Monument, News-Tribune

Abstract

Oberlin's Soldiers Monument stands in Wright Park, at the corner of Main and Vine Streets. While the Monument, established in 1942, commemorates a hundred and twenty-seven Oberlin men who have died in all the wars since Oberlin's founding, its main feature is four plaques that bear the name of ninety-six men who died in the Civil War. The Monument inherited these plaques from an 1870 Civil War Memorial that stood at the corner of College and Professor Streets, where the Conservatory stands today. It was created not only to remember the fallen Oberlin men, but to commemorate the Oberlin community's ideological victory in the Civil War. Even though the Soldiers Monument began as a Civil War memorial, it was also established Oberlin's principal site for Memorial Day celebrations throughout the years. As a result, the meaning of the Monument for the people of Oberlin also changed over time. The original Civil War-era meaning for the Monument was overwritten by Oberlin's community use, which is emphasized by the modern Monument's focus on soldiers from all wars.

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