In the midst of the United States’ monumental reckoning and reimagining, Monument Lab compiled the first-ever National Monument Audit, a panoramic study of the commemorative landscape, released September 29, 2021, in partnership with the Mellon Foundation. To produce the Audit, the Monument Lab research team spent a year scouring almost half a million records of historic properties created and maintained by federal, state, local, tribal, institutional, and publicly assembled sources. For Monument Lab’s deepest investigations, we focused on a study set of approximately 50,000 conventional monuments representing data collected from every US state and territory. This landmark study has been cited by numerous federal, state, local, institutional, artists and grassroots organizations as a transformative way of understanding and reimagining our inherited monument landscape.

Five years after its release, the Audit continues to generate new common knowledge about who and what America commemorates—and what our monument landscape leaves out. Researchers, educators, government agencies, artists, and civic leaders across the country have drawn on its findings, language, and methods to study their own landscapes, inform public policy and planning, and imagine new possibilities for commemoration.

That work carries new urgency today. At a moment when histories are being erased, suppressed, and removed from public view, building a rigorous and accessible public record is itself an essential civic act. The researchers behind the Audit sought and fought for a form of public accounting and knowledge that was rigorous, clarifying, and catalyzing. The Audit demonstrates that we cannot understand—or reimagine—our commemorative landscape without first accounting for what is there, what is missing, and whose histories have been made visible. 

As Monument Lab enters its next chapter, we will be building on these foundational methodologies and approaches. In the coming year, we will expand auditing across our work, developing new ways to document, investigate, and make sense of commemorative landscapes and the stories they carry. As we prepare to move into a new home and programmatic hub on Broad Street in Philadelphia in 2027, auditing will remain a vital part of how we produce knowledge, invite participation, and equip others to reimagine the monuments of the future.

“The National Monument Audit transformed our understanding of the monuments we inherited and reframed our grasp on the forces of history,” says Paul Farber, Monument Lab Director and Co-Founder. “As we look forward, and persist through times where the telling of our full histories is under attack, we will be bringing our work of auditing forward over  the coming years.”

By changing what we know and how we understand monuments, the National Monument Audit has expanded how we live with monuments and transformed our relationship with history.

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Impact of the National Monument Audit

A foundation for new research and scholarship

By creating a national panoramic snapshot and a shared framework for understanding monuments, the Audit opened new questions and lines of inquiry across scholarship, public history, and interpretation.

Audit at Work:

• More than a dozen scholarly publications across public history, art history, legal studies, preservation, archaeology, heritage studies, and the digital humanities have used the Audit as a dataset, methodological model, conceptual framework, or central case study.
• The National Park Service’s 2022 report Landscapes of Protest described the National Monument Audit as “the most comprehensive study of monuments in the United States to date.” Drawing on the Audit’s definitions, data, and findings, the report examined representation and power in the National Capital Region and advanced recommendations for more responsive interpretation of contested monuments.

A tool for public action

The Audit moved research into action, giving public agencies a data-driven framework for assessing existing monuments and making more informed decisions about what comes next. 

Audit at Work: 

• The San Francisco Arts Commission referenced the Audit as a model for its Shaping Legacy Initiative, a multiyear assessment combining research, community engagement, and equity-focused analysis to inform the future of the city’s monuments and memorials.
• In Santa Monica, the Audit contributed to the research framework for the city’s Reframe: City Hall Mural initiative, which developed formal recommendations for interpretation, public art, and future assessment of the city’s commemorative landscape.
• At the federal level, the National Capital Planning Commission cited the Audit in its 2022 Equity Action Plan and 2024 Comprehensive Plan update, using its findings to support expanded approaches to representation, commemoration, and public space in the nation’s capital.

A shift in public consciousness

The Audit helped shift public understanding of monuments beyond individual statues and controversies, revealing the nation’s commemorative landscape as a broader system that shapes whose histories are visible, whose lives are valued, and what futures people can imagine.

Audit at Work:

• National and international coverage of the National Monument Audit in outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR had an estimated media reach of 8.93 million, bringing the Audit’s findings about representation and power in the American commemorative landscape into broader public conversation.
• In her #1 New York Times bestseller The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, Michelle Obama drew upon findings from the Audit to reflect on how representation in public space shapes our understanding of who matters and what futures we can imagine for ourselves.
• The Audit has also shaped major museum exhibitions. The Smithsonian American Art Museum cited it as informing The Shape of Power: Stories of Race in American Culture, while Audit data was presented in MOCA and The Brick’s MONUMENTS through Monument Lab’s own artwork, the short film An American Reflection.

A catalyst for field-wide investment

By documenting the scale and systemic nature of inequity across the nation’s commemorative landscape, the Audit made the case that transforming that landscape requires sustained attention, resources, and investment.

Audit at Work: 

• The Audit documented systemic inequities in the nation’s commemorative landscape at a moment of unprecedented philanthropic attention to monuments and public memory. Its findings helped establish an evidence base for sustained, large-scale investment in more equitable approaches to commemoration.
• The Audit led to renewed thinking for major monument projects and commemorative campaigns in numerous major cities, the Mississippi delta, the Great Plains, and Puerto Rico.