“Making Zonia Known” . Discussing Baber’s “Peace Symbols” (1948)

Mary Arizona (Zonia) Baber (1862–1956) was an American geographer and geologist best known for developing a method for teaching geography. Baber promoted the progressive pedagogies of the early 20th century and led field trips with her students. As Associate Professor in the Department of Education at the University of Chicago (1901–1921), she helped founding the Geographic Society of Chicago in 1898. Baber was also a lifelong political activist who advocated anti-racism, anti-colonialism, peace, women’s rights, and nature conservation and the promotion of peace. During her long-term membership of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom she held a variety of offices, argued for racial integration as a priority within the organization, and took part in its international programmes. Her final project for the League was the book Peace Symbols (1948) an expanded version of her annotated collection of photographs of monuments and gardens in the United States, in Canada, and abroad which she first issued a decade earlier (1937). Baber dedicates the book to the cause of world peace, and on her 86 birthday presented it as a gift to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. The book describes 40 peace monuments, divided in different categories (Historical and Foreign, United State Monument, United States and Canada, United States, and Mexico) and some “peace gardens” along the U.S.–.Canadian border. Zonia Baber assembled pictures and explanations of these monuments and objects into books, traveling exhibits, and presentations, which circulated in both religious and secular settings. The images of the peace symbols were also distributed as an annotated film strip through the Society for Visual Education. Baber argued that while there were many monuments to war, it was important to give visibility to monuments to peace. The brief text accompanying each photograph describes where, when and by whom the structure was created. This book is symbolic of Baber’s commitment to peace and stands testimony to her geographical heritage, one inspired by the diversity of landscapes and places as a means to deepen understanding and widen appreciation. This chapter will analyse the work of Zonia Baber, framing it in the contemporary debate, with a critical approach to the rhetoric of commemoration in different contexts.