"Ark of Return": The Permanent Memorial at the United Nations in Honour of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade (New York City)]]> Antislavery movements--United States
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Middle Passage
Northeastern United States
Public art
Public sculpture]]>
Commemorative sculpture]]> The Art of Return asks visitors to reflect upon the legacy of the slave trade and the persistent problems of racism and bigotry. The ark includes three principal design elements.

According to the artist:

“The first element is a three-dimensional map inscribed on the interior of the memorial. This map highlights the African continent at its center and graphically depicts the global scale, complexity and impact of the triangular slave trade in "acknowledgment of the tragedy.

The second element is a full-scale human figure lying horizontally in front of a wall inscribed with images of the interior of a slave ship. This is meant to communicate and educate visitors on the physical conditions endured by the millions of African people transported under extreme conditions during the middle passage. The visitors are provided the opportunity to seriously "consider the legacy" of slavery's impact upon humanity.

The third element is a triangular reflecting pool which introduces water in a meditative, ritualistic and spiritual manner. Visitors are invited to pour libations or say a prayer in memory of the millions of souls that were lost "lest we forget" this monumental and historic tragedy.”]]>
here.]]> Rodney Leon Architects. Accessed April 11, 2019, http://www.rodneyleon.com/the-ark-of-return]]>
African Burial Ground National Monument (New York City)]]> Subject (Topic)
African Americans--New York
Cemeteries--New York
New York City--History
Northeastern United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Slave trade
Slavery--New York (State)

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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The memorial sits on .35 acres and includes seven distinct design features: Wall of Remembrance, Ancestral Re-Interment Grove, Memorial Wall, The Ancestral Chamber, Circle of the Diaspora, Spiral Processional Ramp, and The Ancestral Libation Court.

The visitor is invited to walk through the monumental triangular structure known as “The Ancestral Chamber,” which represents the Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean. After passing through the chamber, the visitor encounters a spiral memorial wall featuring twenty religious symbols including a number of Adinkra symbols (Akan peoples, Ghana). The floor of the monument includes a world map centered on the West African coast with sun rays radiating towards North America, Brazil, Europe, and the Caribbean Islands.

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https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?pg=3570929&id=19CBA11C-155D-451F-67AA7B78DDDCB3A4]]> Description of the seven elements from Rodney Leon, “The Ancestral Libation Chamber: Memorial on the African Burial Ground National Memorial,” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/afbg/learn/historyculture/upload/Rodney-Leon-Memorial.pdf.

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Wall of Remembrance
As one happens by the north wall facing Duane Street you are immediately struck by the scale and detail of a highly polished wall of granite inscribed with following libation text.

For all those who were lost
For all those who were stolen
For all those who were left behind
For all those who were not forgotten

The Wall of Remembrance is intended to draw a person in, and thus begin the process of enlightenment and education.

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Ancestral Re-interment Grove
A path extends itself north to south from Duane Street. Along this path are seven burial mounds marking the locations of the seven large sarcophagi containing the remains of the 419 African descendants that were re-interred in October of 2003. In addition, a grove of seven trees create a natural buffer and shelter between the re-interment zone and adjacent building. The burial mounds serve as markers and the trees as guardians for the entrance to the Libation Chamber. It is appropriate to place flowers and other offerings along the path in front of the burial mounds.

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Memorial Wall
The Southern wall of the Libation Chamber shall be engraved with a map containing images and text describing the components of the African Burial Ground National Monument site in context of the burial ground's actual boundaries in lower Manhattan. This map will allow people to understand the extent and scope of the burial ground's actual size which extends significantly beyond the boundaries of the memorial site.

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The Ancestral Chamber
The Ancestral Chamber is intended to reflect African cultural, spiritual and ancestral essence. This spiritual form rises out of the ground like an ancestral pillar and represents the soaring African spirit embracing and comforting all those who enter. The Ancestral Chamber is oriented towards the east and open to the sky above, allowing natural light to penetrate and illuminate the interior space. The interior of The Ancestral Chamber provides a sacred space for individual contemplation, reflection, meditation and prayer.

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Circle of the Diaspora
Signs, symbols and images of the African Diaspora are engraved around the perimeter wall encircling the Libation Court. These symbols come from different areas and cultures throughout the Diaspora, especially Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Symbolic meaning is described below the image. As one circumambulates around the perimeter of the court and spirals down the processional ramp, these symbols present themselves as a reminder of the complexity and diversity of African culture's manifestation. They all come together to form a communal place and a reminder of the Burial Ground being an international center of gathering. For a complete list of the symbols, see https://www.nps.gov/afbg/learn/historyculture/adinkra-symbols.htm.

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Spiral Processional Ramp
The Spiral Processional Ramp descends down 4’ below street level thereby bringing the visitor physically, psychologically and spiritually closer to the ancestors and original interment level. The ramp and stairs serve as bridges between the living and the spiritual realm. They symbolize the process of transcendence from physical to spiritual and passage from profane to sacred. The process will evolve from the public “secular” space of the city to the spiritual space of the Libation Court and culminate in the sacred space of The Ancestral Chamber.

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Ancestral Libation Court
The Ancestral Libation Court is situated on axis with The Ancestral Chamber. It is located 4’ below street level, providing a physical and psychological separation from the public activity of the surrounding urban environment. The Libation Court is a communal gathering place where small to medium-scale public cultural ceremonies may occur. This spiritual space is where re- consecration of the African Burial Ground National Monument will continually take place during the libation or other ceremonial rituals. The sacred ceremonial ritual of “libation” is the act which will serve as an offering and an acknowledgement linking past, present and future generations in the spirit of Sankofa (an Adinkra symbol of West Africa meaning ‘learn from the past’).

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“African Burial Ground.” The New York Preservation Archive Project. Accessed April 11, 2019, http://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/african-burial-ground/.

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Frohne, Andrea E. The African Burial Ground in New York City: Memory, Spirituality, Space. New York: Syracuse University Press, 2015.

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"African Burial Ground : African Burial Ground National Monument, New York." Tourist Map, National Park Service, 2011. Accessed May 24, 2020, https://www.loc.gov/item/2011587283/.

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Frederick Douglass Memorial (New York City)]]> Subject (Topic)
Abolitionists--United States
Antislavery movements--United States
Public art
Public sculpture
New York--History
Northeastern United States
Slavery--New York (State)

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Subject (Name)
Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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Inscription on granite block 1:
Born Frederick Augustus Bailey, 1818, talbot county, Maryland.

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Inscription on granite block 2:
Married Anna Murray in 1838, who died in 1882.

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Inscription on granite block 3:
Married Helen Pitts in 1884.

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Inscription on granite block 4:
"Whatever may be said as to a division of duties and avocations, the rights of man and the rights of woman are one and inseparable, and stand upon the same indestructible basis." -1851

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Inscription on granite block 5:
"The flight was a bold and perilous one; but here I am, in the great city of new york, safe and sound, without the loss of blood or bone." -1855

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Inscription on granite block 6:
"Such is my detestation of slavery, that I would keep the merciless slaveholder profoundly ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the slave. he should be left to imagine himself surrounded by myriads of invisible tormentors..." -1855

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Inscription on granite block 7:
"Of my father I know nothing. Slavery had no recognition of fathers, as none of families." -1845

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Inscription on granite block 8:
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation...Want crops without plowing up the ground...They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters...Power concedes nothing without a demand." -1857

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Inscription on pavement:
"Right is of no sex - truth is of no color - god is the father of us all, and we are all brethren" -Masthead of the North Star

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Inscription on north end of fountain.
Frederick Douglass 
1818-1895

Born into slavery in Maryland, Frederick Bailey found the way to freedom along the underground railroad in 1838. Disguised as a sailor, he traveled to manhattan by ship, and found shelter at the house of abolitionist David Ruggles on Lispenard Street. There, he awaited the arrival of his fiancee, Anna Murray, a free black woman from Maryland. They married, and together continued bailey's freedom journey to Massachusetts, where he changed his name to Douglass. Lauded for his oration, he became a prominent abolitionist and purchased his legal freedom from slavery. Publisher of the abolitionist journal the north star, he championed freedom for all Americans and endorsed women's suffrage. Douglass later held posts as assistant secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission (1871), Marshall of the District of Columbia (1877-1881) and U.S. Minister to Haiti (1889-1891). Following the death of his wife in 1884, Douglass married Helen Pitts. He died in Washington, D.C. On February 20, 1895.

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Inscription on south end of fountain:
Gabriel Koren, sculptor 
Algernon Miller, site artist
December 2005

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Inscription across fountain with constellations:
"The types of mankind are various. They differ like the waves, but they are one like the sea."

". . . Under the flickering light of the north star behind some craggy hill or snow covered mountain, stood a doubtful freedom - half frozen - beckoning us to come and share its hospitality."

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"Frederick Douglass Memorial." Central Park, Monuments, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed October 31, 2019, https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/central-park/monuments/2098.

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"Harlem Focus: Public Monuments: Art in Collaboration with Landscape Design." Cooper Hewett, Smithsonian Design Museum, May 9, 2013. Accessed May 23, 2020, https://www.cooperhewitt.org/tag/algernon-miller/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=5K_LVkcVq-g&feature=emb_logo.

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Frederick Douglass (New-York Historical Society)]]> Subject (Topic)
Abolitionists--United States
Anti-slavery movements--United States
Public art
Public sculpture
New York--History
Northeastern United States
Slavery--New York (State)

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Subject (Name)
Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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StudioEIS]]> https://www.studioeis.com/bronze-sculpture/xe37y3a83pko4kay2tmln13ps3urii]]> Frederick Douglass, Hear the New York Statues Talk]]> Dunlap, David, W. "No Debate: It’s Lincoln and Douglass." New York Times, November 1, 2011. Accessed October 31, 2019, https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/no-debate-its-lincoln-and-douglass/March.

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Saxena, Jaya. "Creating the Humanity in Bronze Statues." Behind the Scenes, New-York Historical Society, March 14, 2012. Accessed October 31, 2019, http://behindthescenes.nyhistory.org/creating-the-humanity-in-bronze-statues/.

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"Meet Michael, the Living Historian Behind Our Frederick Douglass Statue (Part I)." History Detectives, New-York Historical Society, February 5, 2018. Accessed, May 24, 2020, http://historydetectives.nyhistory.org/2018/02/meet-living-historian-behind-new-york-historicals-frederick-douglass-statue-part-1/.

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"Meet the Living Historian Behind Our Frederick Douglass Statue (Part II)." History Detectives, New-York Historical Society, February 26, 2018. Accessed, May 24, 2020, http://historydetectives.nyhistory.org/2018/02/meet-living-historian-behind-frederick-douglass-statue-part-ii/.

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Swing Low: Harriet Tubman Memorial (New York City)]]> Harriet Tubman Memorial; Harriet Tubman Triangle]]> Subject (Topic)
Abolitionists--United States
Anti-slavery movements--United States
New York--History
Northeastern United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Underground Railroad

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Subject (Name)
Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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“It’s My Park: Harriet Tubman Memorial,” NYC Parks, February 6, 2012]]> Inscripton on bronze plaque:
Harriet Tubman Memorial.
Alison Saar. Swing Low, 2007
Plaza Design in Collaboration with
Quennell Rothschild & Partners, LLP
Commissioned by the City of New York
Manhattan Borough President’s Office
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Percent for Art Program
NYC Department of Parks and Recreation
NYC Department of Transportation
NYC Department of Design and Construction

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Inscription on exterior granite wall:
“What a Beautiful Morning It Will Be! O Let My People Go.”

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Informational plaque:
Swing Low: Harriet Tubman Memorial
Harriet Tubman Triangle

This larger-than-life bronze sculpture depicts abolitionist organizer and Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman (c. 1822-1913), and stands at the crossroads of St. Nicholas Avenue, West 122nd Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem. Douglass once said of Tubman that except for John Brown, he knew of "no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people."

Born into slavery in Maryland around 1822, Tubman escaped in 1849 via the Underground Railroad, the network of places and people dedicated to helping slaves find their way to freedom in non-slaveholding communities. Settling first in Philadelphia, then Canada, Tubman spent ten years returning to Maryland at great personal risk, to guide scores of friends and family members to freedom. Determined to end slavery, she later served the Union Army as a scout, spy and nurse in the Civil War. Settling in Auburn, New York after the war, she continued campaigning for equal rights for women and African-Americans. Her humanitarian work, including caring for the sick, homeless and disabled of all races, resulted in the establishment of the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged in that community. She died in 1913 and was buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn with semi-military honors.

The memorial, commissioned through the Department of Cultural Affairs' Percent for Art program, was created by African-American sculptor Alison Saar. The artist has depicted Tubman "not as the conductor of the Underground Railroad but as the train itself, an unstoppable locomotive," the roots of slavery pulled up in her wake. Saar designed stylized portraits of "anonymous passengers" of the Underground Railroad in Tubman's skirt, some of which were inspired by West African "passport masks." Around the granite base of the monument are bronze tiles alternately depicting events in Tubman's life and traditional quilting patterns.

The multi-agency project included landscaping the formerly barren traffic triangle. Designed by Quennell Rothschild and constructed by URS, the renovated triangle features paving blocks and roughly hewn granite to create a natural setting. Plantings native to both New York and Tubman's home state of Maryland represent the woods and terrain traveled by Tubman and her Underground Railroad passengers, providing a contemplative space in which to consider Tubman's legacy.

City of New York Parks & Recreation
www.nyc.gov/parks
October 2013]]>
Monument and Myth: Commemorating Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad]]> Press Release. “Swing Low: Harriet Tubman Memorial Sculpture is Dedicated in Harlem.” NYC Parks. November 13, 2008. Accessed March 18, 2018, https://www.nycgovparks.org/news/press-releases?id=20772%20.

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“Percent for Art Interview: Alison Saar.” NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. Accessed March 18, 2018, https://percentforartnyc.tumblr.com/post/77305087355/percent-for-art-interview-alison-saar.

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