In the Hall of Forgotten Names

In the Hall of Forgotten Names

I have always loved historical museums and being around objects of the past. So, when my fiance, Andrew, and I went to Canberra in late 2008, we made sure to go to the Australian War Memorial and museum. This picture is of the memorial, which can be read about on the wiki page here.

The way in which we commemorate those who died in the line of duty or in other historically important moments interests me. As time passes, the names on these walls become sadly meaningless—not because we do not care, but because the larger the gap of time between us and the person who owned one of those names becomes, the harder it is to know anything about them or their lives. While many stop to look at the walls with names, few stop for long, because it is unlikely that they will even recognize a distant relative’s name if they cross it.

When I see these walls, I never can help but wonder how the world might be different if the individuals commemorated hadn’t died. Perhaps there would be new inventions, new books, new artwork and theories; perhaps there would be a few more crimes, a few more broken lives. We have no way of knowing.

It is heartening to me that those who will be commemorated in the future, for whatever reason, will most likely have a plethora of visual and written media that surrounded their lives. With that, with the videos and photos and blog entries, we will much better remember them. Their names will not get so easily lost on walls.

Lelia Katherine Thomas
leliathomas@gmail.com
www.leliathomas.com

—-—-

Want a free, high quality copy of this? Download it via BitTorrent.

—-—-

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. You are free to ‘remix’ it under noncommercial terms. For more information about remixing my work, visit this page on my website.

Available for sale as

Greeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints, Framed Prints and Posters