{"id":1439,"date":"2019-06-07T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T10:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=1439"},"modified":"2020-02-20T16:26:36","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T16:26:36","slug":"heritage-and-memory-the-names-project-quilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=1439","title":{"rendered":"Heritage and Memory: The NAMES Project Quilt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sophie Loftus, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, has written the following blog entry on Cleve Jones\u2019 NAMES Project Quilt for the Introduction to Historical Research module. Sophie discusses how the quilt acts as an important memorial to the people who lost their lives to AIDS, while at the same time challenging social and cultural understandings of the disease. The module is co-ordinated by Dr Maria Cannon, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Portsmouth.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1989, activist Cleve\nJones stood in front of the White House with a message. Jones stated: \u2018We bring\na quilt. We hope it will help people to remember. We hope it will teach our\nleaders to act.\u2019 [1] In that year, with limited response or recognition from\nits government, the death toll from AIDS in the United States of America \u2013 not\nsimply homosexual men, but also heterosexual women, children and men \u2013 already\nstood at almost 90,000. Some three years earlier, in 1986, Jones realised that\nthe dead in San Francisco from HIV\/AIDS had already reached 1000 people. At the\nannual march, held in honour of Harvey Milk on the anniversary of his\nassassination, Jones asked members of the march to put the names of those lost\non placards as a form of remembrance. These were then hung on the side of the\nold federal building. The effect reminded Jones of a quilt, something familial,\ncosy, handed down through generations for warmth and memory. [2] Jones wanted\nto create a memorial to those who had died from AIDS. In the Quilt, Jones\nargued that he wanted to take AIDS from \u2018a \u201cgay disease\u201d into a shared national\ntragedy.\u2019 [3] By the time the NAMES Project Quilt was displayed on the Mall in\nWashington DC in October 1987, as part of the National March for Lesbian and\nGay rights, there were almost 2000 panels. [4] As of June 2016, The AIDS\nMemorial quilt makes up more than 49,000 panels, each one to commemorate\nsomeone lost to HIV\/AIDS. [5] This blog looks to examine the power of\ncollective memory and remembrance and how historians can engage with these\nsources to understand the power of memory not just as a source, but also as a\nsubject. [6]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The AIDS quilt. Image from Wikipedia.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Arthur Marwick argued\nthat the definition of a primary document was one which \u2018by its very existence\nrecords that some event took place.\u2019 [7] However, it must be argued that when\nhistorians are looking at other types of sources for historical importance, by\nsimply reducing an object to little more than evidence, this can remove any\nform of emotive understanding of an event. [8] Sarah Barber argued that each\ntype of source has \u2018its own history which overlaps and influences those of\nother sources.\u2019 [9] Here, the AIDS memorial Quilt can be seen as a useful tool\nin the understanding of other forms of source doing the work of memorialisation.\nElaine Showalter, argues that the Quilt is seen as a \u2018metaphor of national\nidentity.\u2019 [10] Cleve Jones, in the Quilt, attempted to represent familial\nbonds. By creating a memorial to the sheer size of the AIDS problem in the\nUnited States, he wanted to create a \u2018way for survivors to work through their\ngrief in a positive, creative way.\u2019 [11] By attempting to create a positive\nrepresentation of the AIDS epidemic, Jones may not have realised that he was\nalso tapping into the ways in which scholars had begun to understand that there\nwas a violence to the 20th century, which meant that people attempting to\nunderstand and process grief would require new ways to do this. [12]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1920s, Maurice\nHalbwach argued that collective memory was a \u2018product of social frameworks.\u2019\n[13] He argued that history was the recording that remained once social memory\nfaded away, and that \u2018there is only one history.\u2019 [14] However, this cannot be\nseen to be true; when understanding collective memory, one must understand that\nas a source, it is as unreliable as any other due to its potentially personal\nnature. The Quilt is a highly emotive piece, and some members of the LGBT community\nargued that it was too sanitised in its remembrance. Douglas Crimp argued that\nAIDS Activism hinged on how the gay community wished to be remembered, or how\nthe crisis was intended to be seen: whether it was a disease \u2018that has simply\nstruck at this time and in this place – or as the result of gross political\nnegligence.\u2019 [15] Some members of the LGBT community argued that the Quilt was\nsimply making the problem more palatable to heterosexual viewers. Thus,\nMarwick\u2019s theory cannot be substantiated, collective memory cannot be seen as\none history, for memory can be to some, a moment for grief and mourning, and\nfor others a call to action and activism. [16] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scholars such as Bill\nNiven have argued that collective memory can be fruitful in understanding the\nway in which states and governments have attempted to encourage groups to\ncertain views. [17] The AIDS Memorial Quilt however, is a vital example of how\ncollective memory can challenge this. At the time of its conception, the\nAmerican government were doing everything in its power to ignore AIDS.\nPresident Ronald Reagan did not mention the word AIDS on television until 1986,\nby which point almost 15,000 people had died of the disease. It is here that it\ncan be seen that collective memory, or what John Bodnar has called \u2018vernacular\nculture\u2019 is crucial in describing the way in which groups form ways which \u2018reflect\nhow they want to remember historical events\u2019. [18] This can be important for\nunderrepresented groups who wish to control the narrative surrounding the\nmemory of their own. The Quilt can be seen as what Mary Fulbrook describes as a\n\u2018remembering agent\u2019, or as what Jennifer Power calls a \u2018counter memorial\u2019, a\npiece of history which can be seen as not only a political protest, but also\narguably showcasing the human side of the AIDS crisis. [19] It is not as some\nmemorials, including those also represented at the Mall where the first showing\nof the quilt was presented, are normally envisioned. It is not made of stone,\nit moves and grows. The Quilt travels the nation and the world, in an attempt\nto challenge social and cultural understandings of AIDS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Quilt was nominated\nin 1989 for a Nobel Peace Prize, and is the largest community art project in\nthe world. [20] Cleve Jones created a memorial that grows every day, and can\neasily challenge historians regarding appropriate representations of\nremembrance. While some historians argue about the validity of collective\nmemory as a source due to its potentially unreliable nature, the Quilt shows\nthat counter memorials and representations of collective memory can be so\nimportant in understanding underrepresented history. They can place in the\nhands of historians and the world the ability to understand a past and a\npresent which for some will never be memorialised in stone, but that people\nstill require to grieve, to process, and to remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1] Cleve Jones, When\nWe Rise: My life in the Movement<\/em>. (London: Constable, 2017). 194.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2] Peter S.\nHawkins, \u201cNaming Names: The Art of Memory and the NAMES Project AIDS Quilt,\u201d Critical\nInquiry<\/em>, Vol. 19, No.\n4 (Summer, 1993). 752-779.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]\nHawkins, Naming. 752-779.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4] Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5] The\nNAMES Project, \u201cAIDS Memorial Quilt FAQs\u201d. https:\/\/www.aidsquilt.org\/about\/faqs<\/a>, last accessed 11 April 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6] Joan\nTumblety, \u201cIntroduction: working with memory as source and subject\u201d in Memory\nand History: Understanding Memory as Source and Subject.<\/em> ed. Joan Tumblety.\n(London: Routledge, 2013). 1-17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7] Sarah\nBarber and Corinna M. Peniston-Bird, \u201cIntroduction\u201d in History beyond the\ntext: A Students guide to approaching alternative sources<\/em>. ed. Sarah Barber\nand Corinna M. Peniston-Bird. (London: Routledge, 2009). 1-13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8] Barber,\nBeyond. 1-13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9] Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10] Elaine Showalter, Sister’s choice: tradition and change in American women\u2019s writing<\/em>. (Oxford: Clarendon Press,1991). 169.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[11] Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[12]\nTublety, Memory. 1-17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[13] Bill\nNiven and Stefan Berger, \u201cIntroduction\u201d in Writing the History of Memory<\/em>.\ned Bill Niven and Stefan Berger, (London: Bloomsbury, 2014). 1-25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[14] Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[15]\nDouglas Crimp, \u201cMourning and Militancy,\u201d The MIT Press<\/em>, Vol 51, (Winter\n1989): 3-18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[16] Jennifer Power, Movement, Knowledge, Emotion: Gay activism and HIV\/AIDS in Australia<\/em>. (Canberra: ANU Press, 2011). 157.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[17] Niven,\nWriting. 1-25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[18] Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[19] Mary\nFulbrook, \u201cHistory Writing and ‘collective memory\u2019\u201d in Writing the History\nof Memory<\/em>. ed Bill Niven and Stefan Berger, (London: Bloomsbury, 2014).\n65-88; Power, Movement, 148.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[20] The\nNAMES Project, \u201cAIDS Memorial Quilt Background.\u201d https:\/\/www.aidsquilt.org\/about\/medianewsroom<\/a>, last accessed 11 April 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Sophie Loftus, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, has written the following blog entry on Cleve Jones\u2019 NAMES Project Quilt for the Introduction to Historical Research module. Sophie discusses how the quilt acts as an important memorial to the people who lost their lives to AIDS, while at the same time challenging social and cultural understandings of the disease. The module is co-ordinated by Dr Maria Cannon, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Portsmouth. In 1989, activist Cleve Jones stood in front of the White House with a message. Jones stated: \u2018We bring a quilt. We hope it will help people to remember. We hope it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[97,202,24,14,458,459,456,20,461,25,462,457],"class_list":["post-1439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learning_in_focus","tag-activism","tag-aids","tag-collective-memory","tag-history","tag-hiv-aids","tag-lgbt","tag-memorial","tag-memory","tag-nobel-peace-prize","tag-public-memory","tag-ronald-reagan","tag-usa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/history.port.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/aids-memorial-quilt-543892598-5a6e3b5e3418c60036a1120f-e1562086498826.jpg?fit=620%2C299&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p91PlX-nd","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1439"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1449,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions\/1449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}