History and heritage of two Midwestern towns: a toponymic-material approach

•Toponyms and materiality intersect in constructions of commemorative landscapes.•A combined approach provides comprehensive access to memory and heritage.•Memorial features and historic narratives of various actors are analyzed in two case studies.•Names and material forms jointly express historic (re)interpretation in both cases.

Scholarly interest in toponyms and material culture has been revived over the past decades through critical analyses of symbolic meanings and politics of spatial inscription. Place names and physical objects such as public sites, monuments, and buildings provide access to intricate aspects of history, memory, and place; yet toponymic and material studies often lack coherent integration. This paper shows how a combined toponymic-material approach can provide a more comprehensive analysis of commemorative processes and heritage construction at two German-founded towns in the American Midwest: New Ulm, Minnesota, and Eudora, Kansas. Based on qualitative interviews and additional background information, I discuss how various actors foster, assert, and challenge specific narratives of history and heritage through time. Patterns of (re)designing and (re)naming local commemorative features, such as streets, parks, and monuments, overlap and reinforce each other in continuous efforts of identifying an ‘authentic’ sense of the past and place through time. This includes associated commemorative practices and performances as well as broader discourses of (inter)national history and heritage. Integrating the analysis of physical and symbolic space, the toponymic-material approach provides a valuable perspective on the past and present of place on the local level and beyond.