Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

History

Major Professor

Philip Levy, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Cassandra Yacovazzi, Ph.D.

Committee Member

J. Scott Perry, Ph.D.

Keywords

commemoration, gender, James Otis Jr., memory, Mercy Otis Warren, statues

Abstract

In 2001, a statue of eighteenth-century Bill of Rights advocate Mercy Otis Warren was erected on the Barnstable County Superior Courthouse lawn in Barnstable, Massachusetts. The story of the statue’s eventual placement is a fascinating case study of how the gendered politics of commemoration can play out over time in local communities. The saga of Warren’s commemoration is inextricably bound up with the history of efforts to commemorate Warren’s brother, James Otis Jr., and eventual arguments that Warren’s work deserved recognition in its own right. We first see gendered politics at play as Warren’s real accomplishments were consistently overshadowed by her brother’s ambiguous ones for nearly two centuries. Next, we trace the threads of gendered interpersonal conflict during the commemorative committee work that was undertaken on Warren’s behalf in the 1990s, and which eventually produced the Warren statue. Finally, we observe insistence from committee members and the local press that Warren’s commemoration not appear to surpass her brother’s in any way. This subtle backlash is linked to gendered ideas of “decorum” or “appropriateness” that have been explored by other scholars of commemoration in recent years. Ultimately, however, a comparison of the Otis and Warren statues’ stories demonstrates that longer-term educational campaigns for commemorative projects can raise greater public awareness from larger numbers of small donors. These awareness raising efforts can generate significant local buy-in, and can create a stronger community consensus for a commemorative project than would have otherwise been possible.

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