Terminology: Monument Versus Memorial

I recently exchanged email with a columnist regarding the difference between a monument and a memorial. I believe the thoughts may be of interest to my readers. Please feel free to email me your own thoughts at Burton@USAMonuments.com.

"Dear John,

You wrote another fine article, “We still need to hear Dr. King's words, not just visit a monument.” As a Southerner, I recall with appall the days of Jim Crow and overt institutional racism. I too am happy that public racism has been censored in our society. As a young man, I spoke out for equality of treatment for the races. As a society, we have come a long way, though we have not achieved equality of treatment or opportunity for our fellow man.

One point that you made deserves comment by me and I wish to express my view that a monument and a memorial though often considered to be synonymous have different meanings.
We memorialize honorees through monuments, plaques, street signs, moments of silence, parades, proclamations, building dedication ceremonies and holidays to honor the lives of noteworthy individuals, organizations, ideas and events.

Memorials are a broader concept than monuments. Surely, Dr. King deserves to be honored and memorialized as his actions were fundamental in changing the heart of a nation. The remembrance site in Washington D.C. will be a memorial. It is true that it will have one or more monuments, but the site itself is a memorial.

As a nationally recognized monument builder, with numerous national publications on the subject, I can state that a monument is, for all practical purposes, an object of remembrance. A memorial incorporates the use of monuments to memorialize the life or event that persons may wish to perpetuate in memory.

As a memorial designer, and owner of USAMonuments.com, I recognize that most families build monuments for their loved ones and not memorials. Private monuments usually express the name, dates of birth and death and perhaps a short epitaph and little more about the individual.

Memorials celebrate and honor the uniqueness of life, celebrating the characteristics of the individual and serving as a resource to not only honor the individual but to educate others both living as well as those who are not yet born.

I advocate the use of a Life History Plaque to memorialize the life and family history of a family’s loved ones. A $250 investment can serve as a testament that will be cherished through the ages and will turn the typical monument into a memorial that will serve to remind us and celebrate and honor our family history. This is much more to a memorial than a monument and Dr. King deserves to have many monuments and memorials to celebrate his profound positive influence on the moral compass of our nation and the world."

Share with us by emailing your thoughts to Burton@USAMonuments.com.