What are monuments, memorials, and graves for: the past, present, or future? This course introduces students to the ways the public interacts with historical representations and memory at three types of sites, and explores the challenges and controversies of creating, maintaining, and interpreting monuments, memorials, and graveyards. We will contextualize recent debates over controversial monuments, including agitation around Confederate monuments and statues, as well as historical activism and protests around memorials and monuments. Through case studies and research projects the class will reconstruct the histories of prominent American monuments and memorials including Mount Rushmore and war and veterans' memorials on the National Mall as well as more local sites such as New Hampshire's Hannah Duston Memorial State Historic Site, the Portsmouth African Burying Ground, and Fort Warren in Massachusetts. Students will develop an understanding of how historic sites and statues connect with modern social and political issues, and expose competing historical memories of people and events.