As a retired history professor and Pittsburgh resident, I oppose the effort to remove the Columbus statue in Schenley Park. No statue that has had a prominent public place for more than 60 years should be removed without careful and lengthy consideration. Years of vandalism against the statue should certainly have no effect, nor are online petitions sufficient.
Rather than surrender to transitory activism, the Pittsburgh Art Commission should, at the very least, try to put together a set of criteria for public statuary, rather than acting on an ad hoc basis. Of course, assembling such criteria would be difficult, requiring the commission to consider that the most consequential historic figures generate the greatest controversy, and that respect for our ancestors requires us to understand, rather than condemn, the values they honored.
I cannot agree with the view expressed by University of Pittsburgh professor Kirk Savage that the statue “erases history” (“Schenley Park’s Columbus statue ‘erases history,’ Pitt professor says”). While no statue can offer more than a particular view of a particular piece of history, I would adopt the sentiment in the Trib’s editorial concerning the diorama at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (“Carnegie diorama should represent evolution of science, history”) that the statue is part of the historical record and should be explained, rather than erased.
Perry K. Blatz
Regent Square