Upcoming Presentations
Stay tuned for more upcoming visits to local communities.
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Watch/Listen Online
Pioneer Mother Monuments
University of Oklahoma
Merkel Family Foundation Distinguished Lecture Series
Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of the American West
February 29, 2024
Pioneer Mother Monuments: Constructing Cultural Memory
University of North Dakota
Women’s History Month presentation University Council for Women+
March 27, 2023
KPR Presents: Grandma in a Sunbonnet
How do we remember and honor the women who settled Kansas and the West? Dr. Cynthia Culver Prescott explores the statues that commemorate them in her book, Pioneer Mother Monuments: Constructing Cultural Memory.
An interview with Kansas Public Radio
Aired November 27, 2022
Rediscovering Kansas City’s Pioneer Mothers
Kansas City Central Library
Kansas City, Missouri
August 18, 2019
Sponsored by the University of Oregon Department of History and Lane County History Museum
Viking Braggot Company Southtowne
Eugene, Oregon
July 15, 2019
Controversial Monuments of the American West Panel Discussion
Western History Association Annual Meeting
San Antonio, Texas
Friday, October 19, 2018
America’s Pioneer Monuments
There are hundreds of monuments throughout the country honoring the pioneers who settled the American West. But what do these tributes say about our ideas about American exceptionalism, race relations and gender identity?
Interview with Steve Kraske on Up To Date, KCUR (Kansas City public radio). Up to Date focuses on pressing issues, both local and national, including politics, economics, planning and design, history and culture — topics that have an impact on the lives of the Greater Kansas City region. Segment 2, beginning at 24:20: Public sculptures reveal how we have constructed our cultural history.
Monumental Debates: Academic Perspectives on Global Movements to Topple Historical Monuments
Claremont McKenna College
October 8, 2020
Panelists: Ana Lucia Araujo, Daniela Blei, and Cynthia Culver Prescott
In summer 2020, protesters throughout the United States and around the globe demanded the removal of statues memorializing historical figures such as Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Experts who study the meaning behind memorials offer a discussion on why people took to the streets to argue for or against the preservation of certain historical monuments. Drawing from research on the public memory of the Atlantic slave trade, Pioneer Mother monuments, and Nazi monuments after WWII, panelists Ana Lucia Araujo, professor of history at Howard University, Cynthia Culver Prescott, associate professor of history at the University of North Dakota, and writer and editor Daniela Blei provide an engaged discussion of present battles over the past.
Past Presentations
Ponca City, Oklahoma
March 1, 2024
Lawrence, Kansas
Pioneer Mother Monuments
University of Kansas
November 3, 2022
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Pioneer Mother Monuments
Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum
Colorado Springs, Colorado
August 8, 2020
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Pioneer Mother Monuments and US Cultural Memory
In 1911, Denverites opposed plans for a Pioneer Monument featuring a Plains Indian warrior towering over white settlers. A century later, Colorado Springs residents rejected a conventional covered wagon monument in favor of a modern design celebrating cultural inclusivity. Amid anti-racist protests this summer, Denver removed part of its Pioneer Monument. Cynthia Prescott will recount 100 years of pioneer monument controversies in Colorado, and invite you to consider the future of local statues.
University of Guelph
February 27, 2020
Fargo, North Dakota
Responses to the Past
with Rebecca Weaver-Hightower, author of Frontier Fictions: Settler Sagas and Postcolonial Guilt
How should we remember North Dakota pioneers?
What are our responsibilities as residents of lands taken from previous occupants?
HoDo Restaurant & Lounge
February 16, 2020
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Myth and Memory in Western Pioneer Monuments
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
September 17, 2019
Denver, Colorado
Myth and Memory in Denver’s Pioneer Monuments
Denver Public Library
September 15, 2019
Kansas City, Missouri
Rediscovering Kansas City’s Pioneer Mothers
Kansas City Central Library
August 18, 2019
Eugene, Oregon
Myth and Memory in Oregon’s Pioneer Monuments
Viking Braggot Company Southtowne
July 15, 2019
Cosponsored by the Lane County History Museum and University of Oregon Department of History
Portland, Oregon
The Promised Land? Public Reactions to Portland’s Pioneer Monuments
Presented by Cynthia C. Prescott with Wendell Baskins and Marc Carpenter
Oregon Historical Society Museum
July 14, 2019
Bismarck, North Dakota
Myth and Memory in Western Pioneer Monuments
North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum
May 19, 2019
Tempe, Arizona
Myth and Memory in Arizona’s Pioneer Monuments
Arizona Heritage Center
March 14, 2019
San Francisco, California
Depicting Race in San Francisco’s Pioneer Monuments: 100 Years of Debate
San Francisco Public Library
July 28, 2018
