Ethan Prior, Mexico High School alum, presented his research on the Berlin Wall at the Audrain County Historical Society (ACHS) Aug. 8. The first in a proposed speaker series at ACHS, Prior shared his findings along with a Missouri connection to the wall. 

Prior referenced in his presentation how Missouri fit in. A piece of the Berlin Wall can be found in Fulton, where Winston Churchill gave his Iron Curtain Speech in 1946. This speech reinforced the alliance between the United States and Great Britain during the Cold War. 

Prior’s decision to study the Berlin Wall all started with a question about graffiti. He was in class when he noticed that the wall was coated with spray paint. “I started wondering, what is the meaning behind that? Why are people spray painting on it and why does the spray paint seem kind of random at times,” said Prior. 

He took the question to his professor only to find that his professor also did not know. “He looked at me and said, well, I don't know the answer. He said, but I'm willing to work with you to find the answer and so it's from that moment that him and I decided to work together to do research on it” said Prior.

Prior’s research was funded by the Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experiences scholarship program, which supports Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) students. Though Prior is a second year master student at Southeast Missouri State studying public history, he began the process in his undergrad years at Missouri S&T.

The process involved looking at photos of the wall, verifying the timelines, and placing them chronologically.  Prior identified four different periods of graffiti on the wall, minimal (1961-1977), political (1978-1982), artistic (1983-1989), and memorialization (1989-present). 

Minimal referred to the period in which small amounts of graffiti could be found, political referred to graffiti with political statements, artistic referred to when the graffiti became less political and more of an art form, and lastly memorialization referred to how the graffiti on the wall was remembered. 

Observing the graffiti has changed Prior’s view of it. “I now look at it purely as an art form. And while in some cases, yes, it's still illegal and all that, it's still beautiful to look at. And I've come to appreciate it a lot more than I used to, when I was younger, I used to ignore it,” said Prior. 

For Prior, the graffiti on the wall symbolizes human strength in the face of difficult times. “They decide to paint a wall and turn it from an ugly concrete gray beast to a beautiful canvas, and so I think this is important because what it does is it tells a story of human hope,” said Prior, “and you know, sometimes in the modern era, it feels like sometimes life's a little rough, and this is a reminder that we can persevere, and we can find even the simplest ways of making life a little more beautiful.”