Cast in Stone

Guide to using the database

This guide offers some suggestions on how users may navigate this database. Please note that the English and French versions of the website may be different. Below are some steps that can be taken depending on your preferences.

For those who wish to understand the database and its contents as a whole, we propose that you start by reading the page Data sources, methods and editorial decisions. This will tell you how many colonial statues in UK and British overseas territories, and in France and French overseas territories are in the database; the number is roughly 600. You will also be able to see where we have gathered our data from, what decisions we have made, and the shortcomings of our data as far as we have been able to identify them.

You may proceed from here, or go directly to the Monuments tab, which offers an Index of all statues in our database. The statues are listed by the name of the person depicted. If you are interested in the public depiction of any particular individual, you can search for the name in our database. For particular individuals (such as Queen Victoria), you may discover that there are several statues. If you click the link for a specific statue, you will be able to see one or more images and any details about its creation and subsequent developments that we may have been able to collect. Please be aware that this is a pilot database, so the information you will find in relation to most individual statues will be minimal and limited to location, date of listing, and, in many cases, the name of the sculptor who created it. Even with this data, you will be able to see how one individual is depicted in various statues and learn more about the artists who produced these kinds of statues. The map function locates all statues; you can zoom in to identify the statues in a given region. Each statue has its own map location, and in some of the more deeply researched statues, you will see a list of events in relation to the statue. Clicking on the event links will tell you more of the story with links to our information sources and resources for further study.

The information in the People tab is best explored after the reviewing information in Monuments, and possibly after reading the Data sources, methods and editorial decisions. The People in our database includes the persons depicted through statues, the artists who sculpted these statues, but also the funders, supporters, detractors and policy makers. Clicking on the name of any individual reveals which statue they are associated with and what their role was in relation to it. The Groups tab takes you to a list of non-state collective entities associated with the creation and maintenance of, and challenge to, particular statues. The Groups in our database include but are not limited to profit-making corporations and charities, as well as other associations. Institutions, on the other hand, lists all state agencies associated with the management of statues; they include ministerial departments, statutory heritage bodies and local area authorities, such as city councils, universities and colleges.

The Documents tab offers access to a small and non-exhaustive set of documents of international, national (British) and local relevance; these include international conventions in relation to heritage, national policy documents, legislation and archival documents related to specific statues. It is hoped that these will offer some insight into how heritage is managed in law and policy. We also hope that these documents will encourage you to undertake further research of your own. The Interviews tab offers a collation of 20 interviews that team members conducted with individuals who have either taken action, or expressed views in relation to the statues of Edward Colston in Bristol, Robert Clive in Shrewsbury and in Westminster, London and Robert Milligan in London. The interviewees are specifically drawn from those groups of people whose voices are not fully heard, whether due to their social location (being members of racialised, minoritised communities and/or their access to wealth) or the nature of their professional work (for example, museum professionals who often work behind the scenes). These interviews can be listened to on the project YouTube channel; in some cases, full (but uncorrected) transcripts are available. 

The Case Studies tab is the richest of all. This may be read in any order. It hosts a small set of detailed studies of specific statues, offering something like a life-history – not of the person depicted, but the statue itself. These are the products of research undertaken by individual members of the Cast in Stone team, in collaboration with other members, and should be seen as public-facing academic publications.

There may be many other ways of approaching the database; however you choose to approach it, we hope you find it useful.