Field Notes are dispatches from a growing community of voices exploring Monument Circle—its past, present, and possible futures.
Here you'll find updates from the project team alongside writing from historians, research partners, and friends of the Monument who have stories, memories, and ideas to share.
We're learning in public, and we'd love for you to learn alongside us.
In Search of the Family Lore
How do personal memories become part of a monument’s history? In In Search of the Family Lore, Jordan Ryan follows a family story about their great-great-uncle Grover, who allegedly poured soap into the Monument’s fountains decades ago. When the archives offer no proof of the prank, Ryan uncovers something broader: a long history of people filling the fountains with bubbles to mark celebrations, holidays, and other occasions. Through family lore and archival research, Ryan considers how moments of mischief and disruption reveal the many ways people make civic spaces their own—and how those experiences become part of a monument’s evolving public memory. Field Note No. 5.
Holding the Sky: How Indianapolis Framed the Monument
How tall could the buildings surrounding Monument Circle grow before they diminished the Monument itself? In Holding the Sky: How Indianapolis Framed the Monument, Danita Davis traces more than a century of planning decisions, political debates, and building regulations that shaped the skyline around the Soldiers & Sailors Monument. From early height restrictions to George Kessler’s influential 1922 setback formula, Davis reveals how Indianapolis balanced development with a desire to keep the Monument visually dominant—and how those decisions continue to shape the Circle today. Field Note No. 4.
Monument in the Making: The 20 Year Effort to Establish Monument Circle in Downtown Indianapolis
How did an underused public park become the site of one of the nation’s most recognizable monuments? In Monument in the Making, Edward Fujawa traces the decades-long effort to create the Soldiers & Sailors Monument and establish Monument Circle as the civic center of Indianapolis. Drawing on newspaper accounts, legislative records, and archival sources, Fujawa follows the advocacy, fundraising, political negotiations, and international design competition that transformed Circle Park—and shows that the Monument was the product of decades of civic ambition rather than a single moment in history. Field Note No. 3.
A Monument and You, A Monument and Me
What does a monument mean to the people who live their lives around it? In A Monument and You, A Monument and Me, Rasul A. Mowatt considers the Soldiers & Sailors Monument not simply as a memorial, but as a focal point for everyday life. Moving between celebrations, protests, photographs, commutes, chance encounters, and his own seventeen years living near the Circle, Mowatt explores how people continually give monuments new meanings through their experiences—and how a civic landmark can become something deeply personal. Field Note No. 2.
What does the monument know?
What does the Monument know—and what might we learn by asking? In What Does the Monument Know?, Sarah Urist Green begins with a question that becomes the foundation for a larger exploration of Indianapolis’s most recognizable landmark. Drawing on nearly two decades of her own experiences on Monument Circle alongside its histories of celebration, protest, memory, and everyday life, Green considers how the meanings of monuments accumulate and change over time—and introduces a project built around learning what this place has meant, means today, and might mean in the future. Field Note No. 1.