ABSTRACT: This essay traces the intertwined histories of two markers for the same person in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Pensacola, Florida, where an anomalous plaque and rediscovered archives sparked a broader inquiry into memory, materiality, and power. Interdisciplinary efforts to reconstruct the markers’ shifting histories illuminate how commemorative objects can become entangled in legal conflict and historical meaning-making. Even when definitive resolution remains elusive, the essay argues the very process of grappling with the fragmentary past through interdisciplinary inquiry and serendipitous research can yield valuable insights into identity, power, and memory through the material culture of death and commemoration.
Wells et al. (Thu,) studied this question.