Trip to Indiana & Ohio in 2009 by Edward W. Lollis August 2009

During a car trip from Knoxville, TN, to Pentwater, MI, and return in late July/early August 2009, Schera and I visited six peace monuments ranging in age from 1913 to 2010. Each monument was very interesting and instructive in its own way. Please see my peace monuments website for photos, hot links, and other specific information about these and other peace monuments. The various pages of the website places monuments in their thematic, geographic, and temporal contexts. Here are some additional, more personal notes about each of the six monuments (plus the new National Peace Academy).

By no means do these sites contain all of the peace monuments on our route. At the bottom of this webpage are interactive links to an additional 34 peace monuments which we knowingly by-passed on this trip in order to see these six monuments, which we had not previously visited.

1913 - Peace Monument, Adams County Courthouse, Decatur, Northeastern Indiana.
(See Indiana, 1910-1914, Civil War, Statues, Fountains, Women, Mulligan.)

A very interesting example of the fine line which sometimes exists between war and peace monuments. In this case, an entire county (2000 population 33,625) seemingly wanted only to honor its many veterans of the Civil War and relatively few veterans of the recent Spanish-American War. Built at a cost of $6,400, the monument is huge, and its entire circumference is a stone bench, presumably provided for "old soldiers" to congregate and reminisce. (I assume that this feature is virtually unused today and thus serves as just another reminder that every monument sends coded messages from past to future generations.)

Designed by Charles T. Mulligan [1866-1916] who also make sculptures of Abraham Lincoln in Pana, Illinois (1903) and of the "Indian Mother" in Lincoln, Illinois (1906).

But somebody (Mulligan in Chicago?) decided to devote the monument's symbolism (and name) to peace, not war. The word "peace" appears nowhere on the monument, and its only obvious symbol of peace is the female gender and ground-length gown of its dominate 12-foot figure. But a 1973 newspaper article (which I obtained at the nearby county library) quotes a 1913 source as pointint out that there's a laurel twig in the lady's right hand, that her huge sword is scheathed, that her shield is resting on the ground, and that the flags behind her are furled -- all of which are symbols of peace -- or at least of the end of war-time vigilence.

The memorial's timing is very interesting: It was created just after a trio of other Civil War peace monuments: Vicksburg 1907, Lookout Mountain 1910, and Atlanta 1911. (I assume that sculptors are aware of each other's work and of their patron's changing tastes.) And it was dedicated just eight months before the start of World War I. (Apparently Mullgan's memorial exhausted the citizens of Adams County, since the county built no monument after World War I.)

According to the newspaper article, the artist's model was "said to be Chicago's most perfectly formed woman." This is an apparent reference to a contest conducted by Bernarr Macfadden [1868-1955], a shameless promoter of physical beauty (including his own) who alleged learned his craft by copying that of Prussian/British muscleman Eugen Sandow [1867-1925] at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. In 1921, another monument (Statue of "Victory With Peace," Freedom Square, Myrtle & Willoughby Avenues, Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City) was modeled on a movie star friend of Gloria Swanson.)

The back side of the Adams County monument is something completely different: A bas relief sculpture of a nurse bandaging a wounded soldier, above a fountain (waterfall) behind which was originally mounted a fragment of the USS Maine (sunk in Cuba on February 15, 1898). Its inscription reads (in its entirety), "To the women of our nation, as a tribute to their courage, devotion and sacrifice." It's not unusual for the creators of a "masculine" war monument to update their creation to acknowledge the contributions of the other sex (e.g. at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC), but this addition appears to have been part of the original design, as does the incorporation of a fragment of the highly symbolic wreck of the UUS Maine extracted from its watery grave in Havana Harbor.

According to Louise Wolpert, whom I met at the library, the fragment of the USS Maine has been saved, and it -- and the water which orignally flowed out of the monument just under the tribute to women and plunged over the fragment -- may be restored in time for the monument's centennial in 2013. I certainly hope so.

1975 - Peace Resource Center (PRC), Wilmington College of Ohio, Wilmington, Southwestern Ohio.
(See Ohio, 1975, 2008, Quakers, Hiroshima, Hiroshima Abroad, Peace Cranes, US/Japan, Reynolds, Museums for Peace.)

Occupying "Peace House" just inside the front gate of the 60-acre campus of a small four-year Quaker college (1,192 students), PRC is simultaneourly a museum, an archive, a library, a meeting place, and space for workshops, counseling, student services, outreach, and changing exhibitions.

As an archive, PRC claims to be "the world's largest collection (outside of Japan) of reference materials related to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." As a museum, PRC's rooms have long been decorated with photos and other momemtos of Barbara Leonard Reynolds [1915-1990] -- including a framed arrangement of miniature origami peace cranes. And a new poster exhibition (entitled "Stories of Hope") was added on August 6, 2008. Its four "stories" are Barbara Reynolds, Sadako Sasaki [1943-1955], the Hiroshima Maidens, and Dr. Takashi Nagai [1908-1951], said to be "the first published writer of the A-Bomb experience." PRC staff is now preparing an exhibition for next year of origianl dolls which American missionary Sidney Gulick [1860-1945] exchanged between the US and Japan in 1927.

PRC was created in 1975 when Barbara Reynolds contributed books and other materials which she had collected during the 15 years she lived in Japan. In 1965, Ms. Reynolds founded the World Friendship Center (WFC) which still operates in Hiroshima independent of the PRC. (I was told that the WFC is working to bring about the creation of a new monument honoring Barbara Reynolds near the monument to Norman Cousins in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park.)

PRC is both a physical and permanent representation of peace -- and is therefore a "peace monument" in its own right But -- unlike "static" monuments -- it's a living institution with programs, personnel, budgets, stakeholders of various kinds, and changing circumstances. And it's therefore far more exciting than any inanimate monument which is a mere relic of the past.

I talked to secretary Charlotte Pack and to director Jim Boland who is also a professor of education. Pack gave me a little tour of the PRC and mentioned that, despite the many materials in its collection, PRC's displays downplay the horrors of the two atomic bombs because American students and public have only limited appetite for seeing such displays over and over again. I asked Pack if she was aware that people in Hiroshima and New York have given some thought to creating a "atomic bomb museum" of some sort in the United States. She said no. I said that it would be natural for any new museum to work in coopertion with the PRC because of the latter's years of experience.

Boland asked me if I'd heard of the National Peace Academy (NPA), and I confessed my ignorance. He had attended a three-day organizatinal meeting last March at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and was quite enthusiastic about the academy's prospects. I promised to look it up on the Internet. See below.

Comment: PRC does not market itself as a musuem, but it's already a "museum for peace" without knowing it. Too bad "museum for peace" has not yet become a "brand" anywhere (as "peace museum" has in Europe and Japan). Because the PRC is connected to Hiroshima and is so close to the only real peace museum in the US today (the Dayton International Peace Museum), the staff of PRC is very well aware of the "peace museum" brand but may not know how rare peace museums are outside Europe and Japan and may not know about INMP's decision in 2005 to represent "musuems for peace" as well as "peace museums."

1986 - "Clarke Peace Memorial," University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Northern Indiana.
(See Indiana, 1986, Fountains, Stonehenge, Spheres, Burgee, Johnson.)

Astride crosswalks linking the university's original spires to the windowless 210-foot tower of the Hesburgh Library, the "Clarke Peace Memorial" is a central feature of the recently rebuilt Notre Dame campus. The library has a famous 13-story religious mural on its south side. The mural is called "Touchdown Jesus" because of Christ's upraised arms and is visible to sports fans inside the Notre Dame football stadium. But it's the totally featureless west side of this library which faces the peace monument.

The monument consists of eight immense, rough hewn monoliths capped by four lintels, one of which is inscribed "Pro Patria et Pace." Except for this obscure inscription -- and a plaque quoting Father Theodore Hesburgh's dedicatory remark about world peace -- it's very hard to find any symbols of "peace" -- or symbols of anything else.

Inscription on one plaque: "War Memorial Fountain erected through the generosity of Maude C. and John W. Clarke Chicago, Illinois. In memory of the Notre Dame men who gave their lives in World War II, Korea, Vietnam. May they rest in peace."

Inscription on another plaque: "About 500 Notre Dame alumni gave their lives for their country and peace in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. In memorializing them, we join our prayers to their supreme sacrifice as we inscribe this column Pro Patria et Pace. For Our Country and Peace. This is our prayer that all living Notre Dame men and women dedicate themselves to the service of their country and world peace. -- Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., President, University of Notre Dame, 1986 A.D."

There's a lot of confusion over the name of the memorial. A live on-line webcam calls it the "Clarke Memorial Fountain." Other websites call it the "Clarke Peace Memorial." Campus maps call it the "War Memorial Fountain," as does one of the plaques quoted in full above. But, except for the plaque, the memorial bears no names of alumni who gave their lives in war. Nor does it have any other features commonly associated with a war memorial. So -- in my opinion -- it fails as a war memorial. Peace memorial or war memorial? Again, an example of the fine line which sometimes exists between war and peace monuments.

The monument was designed by two world-class architects: Notre Dame trustee John Henry Burgee and Philip C. Johnson [1906-2005]. They obviously intended it to have the same sillouhette as the much taller Hesburgh Library. Otherwise it looks like a synthesis of Stonehenge and the Kaaba in Mecca -- quite something for a Catholic institution! I gather that students most often refer to the monument as "stonehenge." As such, it's one of at least six stonehenge "replicas" in the USA. See my stonehenge webpage.

Visible behind the eight monoliths is a large plain sphere said to represent the World. Why the world? Why so plain? Is the sphere necessary to put "world" in Father Hesburgh's reference to "world peace?" Is it there to say that Notre Dame men gave their lives in world wars for the betterment of humankind? In a monument practically devoid of any other symbolism (except for its resemblance to stonehenge), the sphere lacks context and therefore lacks any apparent meaning.

Of course the monument is also a fountain, and, unfortunately, the water was not turned on while I was there. Maybe the play of water brings the stones to life -- and gives them some meaning -- which I did not see. (Until I return, it's really rather hard to imagine stonehenge as a fountain.)

1991 - Peace Monument, Harrison County Courthouse, Corydon, Southern Indiana.
(See Indiana, 1991, Doves, Stones, Pacifism, Quotations.)

It's happend in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and probably elsewhere. The courthouse square fills up with war monuments. Then someone says, "Hey, wait a minute. We need to balance the war monuments with a monument to representing peace."

In Corydon's case, the courthouse of Harrison County (2000 population 34,325) is surrounded on three sides by no less than seven war monuments: One for the War of 1812, two for the Civil War (i.e. the Battle of Corydon on July 9, 1863), three for World War I (including two ugly German artillery pieces -- 77 mm and 150 mm), and one monument covering World War II, "Korean Conflict," and "Vietnam Conflict." (Ninty years after the war to end all wars, and a rural American county still fills prominent public spaces with German weapons of death and destuction!)

A corner was still vacant in 1991 when a local peace group, led by Mark Stein of Milltown, Indiana, took notice and filled the void with a peace monument. But how can different kinds of peace be represented with a single, inexpensive monument? Their solution was simple and elegant: A simple stone slab (obtained from the local tombstone company?) dedicated on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. The stone's only decoration is a dove of peace above the words "Dedicated to the Peaceful Resolution of Conflict" (just about the most all inclusive wish one could imagine).

The bottom half of the stone contains this quotation: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone, it is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower [1890-1969]."

On August 16, 2009, my church in Knoxville was visited by a lady reenacting Peace Pilgrim [1908-1981]. She said that the only document carried by Peace Pilgrim was a single sheet of paper with four quotations -- the foreging from Eisenhower, plus similar anti-war quotations from Douglas McArthur, Lyndon Banes Johnson, and one other.

1996 - "A Landmark for Peace," Martin Luther King, Jr., Park, Indianapolis, Central Indiana.
(See Indiana, 1996, Hands, Martin Luther King., Jr., Quotations, Weapons, Edwards.)

This is a truly wonderful monument -- beautiful, imaginative, rich in symbolism, historically significant, and relevant to its location -- which is a featureless lawn surrounded by a depressed and overwhelmingly Black residential area of Indianapolis' central city.

It marks the spot where presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy [1926-1968] announced on April 4, 1968, to a large, mostly Black audience that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-1968] had just been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. So far as I know, RFK and MLK never met in real life, but their destinies were converging in 1968. JFK was assassinated in 1963. MLK received the Nobel peace prize in 1964. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, and JFK was assassinated on June 6, 1968.

It's very interesting how the monument's sponsors and creators chose "peace" to represent RFK's chance appearance in Indianapolis and its meaning. All parts of the "Landmark" exist in pairs: Two symetrical curved paths converge at the monument causing pedestrians literally to pass through the monument and under the outstreched right arms of MLK and RFK. Two steel plates, busts of MLK and JFK, their outstretched right arms, and both arms' shadows cut out of the steel plates contribute to the sense of duality -- and impart a sense of motion. Now outsteatched toward each other, the two arms appear to have just been reaching down. To crowds of admirers? To disadvantaged minorities? To each man's life's work? The outreached hands never touch, as indeed they never did in life but seem increasingly to have approached each other during the civil rights movement, but of course will never actually touch due to to both men's martyrdom in the same Spring.

A stand-alone plaque replicates the text of JFK's short speech on April 4, 1968, a speech said to have contributed directly to the fact that Indianapolis remained calm in April 1968, whereas race riots occured in at least 110 other US cities. The speech is very much worth reading: It's uncannily like Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Another plaque says "Dedicated to the memory of Larry Conrad," but the plaque does not identify Conrad, and passers-by have no way of knowing today (and will have no way of knowing in the future) why Conrad deserves such a "dedication" or how he relates to MLK and RFK (if at all). (Larry Conrad" was a local lawyer and Democratic politician who died in 1990.)

I met Nancy Papas at the monument. In 1968 she worked for Birch Byah [US Senate 1962-1980], and she vividly remembers the day that candidate Kennedy came to town and his calming influence. She also knew Larry Conrad and never questioned his link to the monument. A day after we met, Papas exchanged email with Diane Meyer Simon whose name follows Conrad's on the plaque. She and various Simon family interests were the monument's major contributors.

All monuments prove that memory is selective, and monuments such as this one reflect the values of wealthy contributors. I don't always agree with the historical interpretations offered by the monuments for which they are responsible, but I certainly do in this case.

Designed by Greg Perry (about whom I cannot find any information), the monument includes busts of King and Kennedy sculpted by controversial Indiana artist Daniel Edwards from handguns melted down after a police buy-back program (yet another symbolic element of the monument). This seems to be about the last "conventional" sculpture ever made by Edwards: Most, if not all, of his later sculpture is intended to shock the public, e.g. "Brittany Spears Giving Birth," "Autopy of Paris Hilton," and "Presidential Bust of Hillary Rodham Clinton," i.e. her decolletage.

Click here for the description of a 2003 visit to the monument by Rev. Chris Buice of Knoxville, Tennessee. Click here for information on a 2009 video about the 1968 event and the commemorative monument. Click here for an air view of MLK Park and monument in its center.

2010 - "Glick Peace Walk," Walnut Street, Indianapolis, Central Indiana.
(See Indiana, Future, Sculpture, Trails, Glick.)

According to a newspaper article dated June 26, 2009, "Indianapolis real estate mogul Gene Glick always wanted to build an homage to peace in a city whose icon is the [284-foot] Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. Then Cultural Trail founder Brian Payne convinced Glick to build outward, instead of up." Gene and Maryilyn Glick contributed $15 million to the 8-mile, $55 million Cultural Trail, enough to change its formal name to "Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene & Marilyn Glick."

The recently announced "Glick Peace Walk," for which the Glicks contributed an additional $2 million, will be a short, two-block segment of the Cultural Trail. . It will have 12-foot illuminated steel-and-glass scuptures honoring Susan B. Anthony, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, Jonas Salk, Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington, and the Wright Brothers. (I wonder what artist or artists are making each of these sculptures.)

The Glicks are the benefactors of many Indianapolis institutions, including the Indiana History Center (IHC), so their appreciation of museums is unquestioned. But peace museums are so rare in the USA that they probably never considered endowing a living peace monument such as a peace museum or library, instead of two blocks of inanimate steel-and-glass. (Indianapolis does already have one "living" peace monument, a "Peace House" endowed by the Lilly Endowment -- part of the large local pharmacentical fortune -- and jointly operated by colleges of three Indiana peace churches -- Bretheran, Mennonite and Quakers.)

When we drove into Indianapolis, we expeced to find evidence of the new Cultural Trail, but it appears that only a very small part has been completed so far and that the trail is therefore not yet being publicized or sign-posted. We did, however, easily find the two-block "Peace Walk" portion of the Cultural Trail (Walnut Street between Meridian Street & Capitol Avenue), and it is very much under construction. Both blocks of the street have already been divided, creating a wide median in which I imagine that the statues will be erected. Curbs and underground work, including electricity, are virtually complete, and the separate roadways are being paved in brick.

Ironically (or intentionally?) the Peace Walk is in the very shadow of the huge Scottish Rite Cathedral and within sight of the American Legion headquarters building and of the "Gatling Gun Club." The latter occupies a mysterious Greek temple I don't remember ever seeing before at 709 North Illinois Street. The building is in need of repair, and one of the two Gatling guns which used to point at passing traffic is missing.

Future - National Peace Academy (NPA), c/o Case Western Reserve University, Ohio (USA)
(See Future, INMP, Boulding, Maver.)

In Wilmington, Ohio, Jim Boland mentioned the recent formation of the National Peace Academy (NPA) and named Dot Maver as its leader. Boland also said that Wilmington (population 11,921) recently suffered the closing of a DHL hub (a former Air Force Base acquired by Airborne Express, later merged into DHL) and the consequent loss of 14,000 jobs. Boland is proposing that the new academy take over the vacant facility. (By the time he said this, I was pressed for time, so I failed to ask him how likely he thinks it will be for the NPA to acquire the all of the resources necessary to realize such an audacious project.)

When I got home, I Googled the NPA and Dorothy (Dot) Maver. In 2005-2007, she was Executive Director of The Peace Alliance which advocates a US Deparment of Peace. She now directs the NPA. But where does she live and work? Does the NPA actually exist? Why is it called an "academy?" Does the name imply that the NPA intends to emulate the officer training academies of the armed services? What is its intended relationship to peace studies departments, the US Institute of Peace (USIP), and other existing peace instituions?

NPA has an extensive website, but it's frustratingly vague -- full of process but very little substance. The website gives no hint of NPA's funding or location. The best description I could fine is this: The NPA as "an institution of learning that strives to support, advance, and nurture existing and emerging peacebuilding efforts, utilizing a whole systems approach and working with and through government, business, and civil society."

According to the website, NPA is supported (in what ways?) by the "Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit" (BAWB) of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University and by the Biosophical Institute. Both institutions are in Cleveland, Ohio. The website asks that donations be sent to the Omega Point Institute in San Mateo, California.

NPA was "launched" at a three-day "Stakeholder Design Summit" at Case Western Reserve, March 2-4, 2009, which was attended by "more than 170 scholars, academicians, business representatives, government officials, researchers, and community leaders from around the nation and from 10 other countries." The 170 leaders included Boland, Maver, and representatives of the USIP. But -- so far as I can tell -- museums for peace were not represented, much less the International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP). One of the NPA webpages very impressively provides photos and "profiles" of 116 summit participants, but this information is very difficult to analyze because each of the 116 "profiles" must be clicked individually to determine the particant's identity and location.

Comment: The well-attended summit and lofty goals of the NPA are very impressive. But time alone can tell if the NPA will emerge as a viable institution. Certainly NPA is not yet a "peace monument" (like the Peace Resources Center) since it is not yet physical and not yet permanent.

N.B. By no means do the six peace monuments shown above represent all of the peace monuments on our route. Here are interactive links to an additional 34 peace monuments which we knowingly by-passed on this trip in order to visit the six which we had not previously visited:

1840 - "The Slave Trade" by Auguste-Francois Biard, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
1932 - Seated Lincoln Monument, Wabash County Courthouse, Wabash, Indiana
1930s - "Swords Into Plowshares" by John Peter Klassen, Klassen Court, Bluffton College, Bluffton, Ohio
1936 - International Friendship Gardens, US Highway 12, Michigan City, Indiana
1936? - Peace Bell, International Friendship Gardens, US Highway 12, Michigan City, Indiana

1960+ - John F.Kennedy/Peace Corps Marker, Michigan Union building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
1962 - Statue of Mary Dyer, Stout Meeting House, Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana
1970 - "LOVE" Sculpture by Robert Indiana, Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), Indianapolis, Indiana
1979 - "Congregations for Peace", Monroe County Courthouse, Bloomington, Indiana
1984 - "Constellation Earth," Snyder Traffic Circle, Bluffton College, Bluffton, Ohio (Same sculpture as in Nagasaki)
1985 - Peace Pole Makers USA, 7221 South Wheeler Road, Maple City, Michigan
1987 - Lion & Lamb Peace Arts Center, Bluffton University, Riley Court (Lower Level), Spring Street, Bluffton, Ohio
1987 - Jangchub Stupa, Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, 3655 South Snoddy Road, Bloomington, Indiana
1987 - Pan American Plaza, Indianapolis, Indiana
1988 - Peace House & Gladdys Muir Peace Garden, Manchester College, North Manchester, Indiana
1989 - Peace Pole, Miami Memorial Garden, Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters, Huntington, Indiana
1989 - Peace Circle, Knudsen Elementary School, Waterford, Michigan
1991 - "Stop, Look, and Listen," A. J. Muste Alcove, Van Wylan Library (2nd floor), Hope College, Holland, Michigan
1994 - "Peace Thrones," below Sauder Visual Arts Center near Riley Creek, Bluffton University, Bluffton, Ohio
1996 - Mary Todd Lincoln House & Beula C. Nunn Garden, 578 West Main Street, Lexington, Kentucky
Date? - Dove of Peace Window, Abundant Grace Church, 2425 South Emerson Avenue, Greenwood, Indiana
1997 - "Peace Wall & Moon Gate," Lion & Lamb Peace Arts Center, Bluffton University, Riley Court (Lower Level), Bluffton, Ohio
1997 - "Peace House," Lion & Lamb Peace Arts Center, Bluffton University, Riley Court (Lower Level), Spring Street, Bluffton, Ohio
1997 - "Jonah & the Whale," Lion & Lamb Peace Arts Center, Bluffton University, Riley Court (Lower Level), Bluffton, Ohio
1997 - Plaque & Photo, Manchester College, North Manchester, Indiana
1999 - World Peace Bell, World Peace Bell Center, 425 York Street (4th & York), Newport, Kentucky

2002 - Patriots Peace Memorial, River Road east of Zorn Avenue (next to Thurman-Hutchins Park), Louisville, Kentucky
2003 - Theodore M. Berry International Friendship Park, Downtown Eastern Ohio Riverfront, Cincinnati, Ohio
2003 - Peace Pole, Riverscape MetroPark, Deeds Point, Webster Street, Dayton, Ohio
2004 - Indianapolis Peace House, 1421 North Central Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana
2004 - National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 East Freedom Way, Cincinnati, Ohio
2005 - "Peace Pole Garden," Beech Acres Park, Anderson Township, Cincinnati, Ohio
2005 - Dayton International Peace Museum, Pollack House, Dayton. Ohio
2009 - Missing Peace Art Space, 234 South Dutoit Street, Dayton Ohio