Monument Lab in partnership with The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has released The National Monument Audit, which assesses the current monument landscape across the United States. Monument Lab’s research team spent a year scouring almost a half million records of historic properties created and maintained by federal, state, local, tribal, institutional, and publicly assembled sources. The report predominately focuses on a study set of approximately 50,000 conventional monuments representing data collected from every U.S. state and territory. 

The National Monument Audit allows for a better understanding of the dynamics and trends that have shaped our monument landscape, to pose questions about common knowledge about monuments, and to debunk falsehoods and misperceptions within public memory. The National Monument Audit is meant to inform Mellon’s landmark Monuments Project, a $250 million investment designed to “transform the way our country’s histories are told in public spaces and ensure that future generations inherit a commemorative landscape that venerates and reflects the vast, rich complexity of the American story.”

Learn more about the audit:
National Monument Audit — Monument Lab

Watch a presentation about the audit by Monument Lab Co-Founder Dr. Paul Farber:
Monumental Conversations:  What We Found When We Analyzed America’s Monuments | The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation