Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial: Cultural Landscape Report, Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial

Williams, Sherda; Boyle, Susan

This Cultural Landscape Report was Produced as a collaborative effort between the Cultural Resources Division, Midwest Region Office and the Denver Service Center. Historian Susan Calafate Boyle, of the Denver Service Center, and Park Historian Gerard T. Altoff, of Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, researched secondary and primary written documentation for the site. Midwest Office Regional Historical Landscape Architect Mary Hughes, Historical Landscape Architect Sherda Williams, and Landscape Architectural Intern Mark Weekley conducted a field inventory of existing conditions and landscape features in July 1992. The inventory was completed only on the original poartion of the Memorial. National Park Service/Denver Service Center provided an AutoCAD-generated base map used for the inventory. Historian Susan Boyle, Park Historian Gerard T. Altoff, and the Midwest Regional Office staff involved with this project reviewed the archival documentation at Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial. The documentation reviewed included an excellent collection of photographs, plans and other graphic material, and written documents. The archives at the park contains a photographic collection that documents the construction. The archives also contains the written records of the Memorial commissions. In addition, Historian Boyle and Park Historian Altoff examined documentation sources at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus, Ohio. A more thorough examination of the commission records potentially could uncover more details on the evolution of the site. Plans and graphic materials were also located at the NPS/DSC, Technical Information Center and in storage at the NPS/Midwest Regional Office. Telephone inquiries for relevant information were also made with the Library of Congress, Columbia University, and the archives of the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. Future research may discover Freedlander’s professional papers and more drawings. The authors conducted a thorough search of obvious sources for this Report. Evaluation of the integrity of the historic character of the site was made using procedures presented in two National Register bulletins: National Register Bulletin 18: How to Evaluate and Nominate Designed Historic Landscapes and National Register Bulletin 30: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Rural Historic Landscapes. Historical documentation sources were analyzed in relation to the existing site inventory. Historic photographs, plans and drawings provided the most useful documentation sources for determining when landscape features appeared on or disappeared from the landscape. Relying on photographs alone was inadvisable though, since dating was fairly tentative on the majority of the photographs found in the Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial archives. The usefulness of these photographs was enhanced dramatically by comparison with written documentation. Various surveys or inventories completed by the National Park Service were useful in identifying later locations of plants on the site. The author used all of these sources to compile a chronological reference list for the individual features and components of the landscape.

Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial: Cultural Landscape Report, Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial

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