Starting in the early 19th century, Italians helped build memory sites across America, using skills and materials from their homeland. By erecting these statues and monuments, the Italian artists permanently altered public memorializtion. The landscapes of Public History and memory interact every day as people relate their lives and the past with the environment around them. The public space where history and memory intermingle shifts narratives and changes meanings. These monuments use the performative observation of history to define how a community's collective memory relates to the history of locations and events. Despite immigration restrictions and the “Otherness” imposed on Italians, they still made a significant impact on our memory landscape. The data collection of this research can aid in establishing different frames of reference for exploration, such as a timeframe, geographic mapping, or the identification of similarities in materials used across a specific set of memory sites.
