Two Whitmans: Peripheral Monumentality in South Philadelphia

Abstract

This article examines the contemporary politics of commemoration through analysis of the public life of two statues of Walt Whitman in South Philadelphia. Sited near a highway on-ramp and the entrance to a shopping plaza, the monuments to Whitman accompanied and celebrated significant urban spatial transformations in the mid- to late-twentieth century. At the same time, they commemorate battles over neighborhood identity and Whitman’s legacy. In recent years, local conflicts over Whitman’s legacy have been revived in activism to remove a statue of the poet in neighboring Camden, New Jersey. But, in South Philadelphia, debates about the future of public monuments have largely ignored both representations of Whitman. As I trace the lives of both statues, I argue that the quiet persistence of the two South PhiladelphiaWhitmans illustrates the complex political power of public artworks occupying awkward spatial and social positions.