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About Me

Laura A. Macaluso is a researcher, author, cultural heritage professional, and grant writer specializing in public art and public history projects. Using museums, monuments, murals, and material culture, her work examines, centers, and celebrates the value of art, culture, and history to community and humanity.

Digital Humanities projects – 

Objectify Benedict Arnold: Making Memory of America’s Traitor, with H-Net Spaces Cohort Program, 2025-2026, https://networks.h-net.org/objectify-benedict-arnold

Street Scene: CETA Murals, New Haven, and the Late 1970s, with Public Art Archive, 2022, https://explore.publicartarchive.org/new-haven-ceta-murals/

Recent Publications

BOOKS

Book, A History Lover’s Guide to Alexandria and South Fairfax County, 2022. 

Book, Historic Virginia: A Tour of More than 75 of the State’s National Landmarks, 2019.

Book, A Guide to Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia, 2018. 

Book, The Public Artscape of New Haven: Themes in the Creation of a City Image, 2018. 

Book, Art of the Amistad and the Portrait of Cinque, 2015.

EDITOR

Co-Editor, Nineteenth Century, the Journal of the Victorian Society in America, focusing on monuments, memorials, and sculpture of the long nineteenth century (1785-1917). Also includes an essay on sculptor Paul Wayland Bartlett and the Lafayette on Horseback Monument, Fall 2019.

Book Editor, Monument Culture: International Perspectives on the Future of Monuments in a Changing World, American Association for State and Local History/Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. 

BOOK CHAPTERS

Chapter, “The Portrait of a Ship: Framing the Visual Narrative of La Amistad,” History and Visual Sources, Laura Prieto and Sarah Leonard, editors, Routledge, 2026.

Chapter, “Three Rude Crosses: Reflections on the Jerome Family Pilgrimage to France, 1919,” Pilgrimages to the Western Front of World War I, Heather Warfield, Stephane Michonneau, and Franck Viltart, Peter Lang, 2025.

Chapter, “The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project Pilgrimage: A City Works to Remember, Reconcile and Repair Its Lynching History,” Women on the Pilgrimage to Peace, Anna Hamlin, ed., Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024.

Chapter, “Monumental Relationships: International Monument Culture and the United States in the Early 21st Century,” Controversial Monuments and Memorials, A Guide for Community Leaders, 2nd edition, David Allison, ed., AASLH/Rowman & Littlefield, 2023.

Chapter, “Public Art Inside & Outside the Museum” (The Evolution of a Cultural Practice in Hartford, Connecticut), The State of Museums: Voices from the Field, MuseumsEtc Ltd., 2018. 

ESSAYS & OPINIONS

Opinion, “Why the Liberty Bell still rings true,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 7, 2026.

Essay, “Bust of John Carlton,” Special Issue ’76 Objects, American Historical Review, June 2026, https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/131/2/663/8724444

Opinion, “There’s Still More to Learn About America’s Monument Debate,” with Karim M. Tiro, TIME Magazine, July 2, 2024, https://time.com/6992004/philip-schuyler-monument-history/.

Essay, “Public History Play-Acting After All, Comments on a Confederate Battle Flag Exhibit in Virginia,” Special Issue on Public History, History, the Journal of the Historical Association, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-229X.13267,  February 2022.

Essay, “Benedict Arnold’s House: The Making and Unmaking of an American,” Commonplace, http://commonplace.online/article/benedict-arnolds-house/, Fall 2021.

Essay, “A Digital Reading of the Sengbe Pieh Portrait in the Covid-19 Era,” The Muslim World Journal, Summer 2020.

Essay, “The Spirit of 1776/1917: Town and Gown Go to War,” Bulletin of the Auckland Museum (New Zealand), Fall 2020.

EXHIBIT REVIEWS, BLOG POSTS & MORE

Exhibit Review, “Revolutionary Things: Objects from the Collections (State Museum of Pennsylvania) in Celebration of America’s 250th Anniversary,” Early American Miscellany, University of Pennsylvania, June 1, 2026,  https://web.sas.upenn.edu/earlyamericanstudies/2026/06/01/exhibit-review-revolutionary-things-objects-from-the-collection-in-celebration-of-americas-250th-anniversary-laura-a-macaluso/

Blog Post, “Appalachian Trail Museum,” Mainly Museums, 2023, https://mainlymuseums.com/post/1129/appalachian-trail-museum/.

Blog Post, “Fashioning the Self: Jennie Jerome, a 20th-century Victorian in the Library,” Women’s History Network, 2022, https://womenshistorynetwork.org/fashioning-the-self-jennie-jerome-a-twentieth-century-victorian-in-the-library-laura-a-macaluso/

Encyclopedia Entry, “Washington Monument” for the Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington, December 2021 https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/washington-monument/

Opinion, “The Best Books on Monuments in the Era of Controversies and Removals,” Shepherd Books https://shepherd.com/best-books/monuments-in-the-era-of-controversies-and-removal

Blog Post, “Commemorative Intersections of Carceral History in Lorton, Virginia,” History@Work, National Council on Public History, https://ncph.org/history-at-work/commemorative-intersections-of-carceral-history-in-lorton-virginia/, Fall 2021.

Opinion, “Rethinking the Lotus Bowl at Auction,” The Arts Paper, https://www.newhavenarts.org/arts-paper/articles/rethinking-the-lotus-bowl-at-auction, April 2021.

Media Coverage

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/2026/07/02/students-touch-history-at-benedict-arnold-house-excavation-site/

Social Media

@MonumentCulture

Country Focus

United States

Expertise by Geography

United States

Expertise by Chronology

18th century, 19th century, 20th century

Expertise by Topic

American Revolution, Art & Architectural History, Book History, Libraries & Archives, Literary History, Local & Regional, Material Culture, Museums, Public History, World War I