Monuments and memorials are a big part of what we talk about in our Learning Places class. Unfortunately one component of that discussion is how statuary and historic structures are often vandalized. This vandalism can be political in nature, such as when people write graffiti on monuments they disapprove of. Other times people destroy them for financial gain, breaking the memorial and selling its materials for scrap. It’s unfortunate but that’s the way it goes. Alas I could not embed it directly into this post, but here is a news clip we showed to the students yesterday in class. It shows some vandals tearing down a stone wall at the Philadelphia Union League Club and tearing out its brass banister. The news article has been updated since yesterday and apparently they have a strong idea, even the name, of who it might be. It’s an extraordinary clip.

(image/NYPL)