DC -- Congressional Cemetery:
- Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.
- Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon
underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.
- Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
- Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.145.2.184 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.
- Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]
|
[1]
 CONG_050507_007.JPG
|
[2] CONG_050507_011.JPG
|
[3]
CONG_050507_018.JPG
|
[4] CONG_050507_025.JPG
|
[5]
CONG_050507_033.JPG
|
[6] CONG_050507_037.JPG
|
[7]
CONG_050507_045.JPG
|
[8] CONG_050507_049.JPG
|
[9]
CONG_050507_057.JPG
|
[10] CONG_050507_062.JPG
|
[11] CONG_050507_086.JPG
|
[12]
CONG_050507_091.JPG
|
[13]
CONG_050507_095.JPG
|
[14] CONG_050507_099.JPG
|
[15]
CONG_050507_110.JPG
|
[16]
CONG_050507_116.JPG
|
[17]
CONG_050507_122.JPG
|
[18] CONG_050507_125.JPG
|
[19] CONG_050507_127.JPG
|
[20] CONG_050507_133.JPG
|
[21]
CONG_050507_136.JPG
|
[22] CONG_050507_147.JPG
|
[23] CONG_050507_150.JPG
|
[24]
CONG_050507_158.JPG
|
[25] CONG_050507_161.JPG
|
[26]
CONG_050507_167.JPG
|
[27] CONG_050507_188.JPG
|
[28]
CONG_050507_191.JPG
|
[29]
CONG_050507_204.JPG
|
[30]
CONG_050507_207.JPG
|
[31]
CONG_050507_216.JPG
|
[32]
CONG_050507_239.JPG
|
[33]
CONG_050507_244.JPG
|
[34]
CONG_050507_248.JPG
|
[35] CONG_050507_252.JPG
|
[36]
CONG_050507_256.JPG
|
[37] CONG_050507_264.JPG
|
[38] CONG_050507_268.JPG
|
[39]
CONG_050507_270.JPG
|
[40]
CONG_050507_277.JPG
|
[41] CONG_050507_278.JPG
|
[42]
CONG_050507_290.JPG
|
[43] CONG_050507_292.JPG
|
[44]
CONG_050507_302.JPG
|
[45] CONG_050507_315.JPG
|
[46]
CONG_050507_324.JPG
|
[47] CONG_050507_326.JPG
|
[48]
CONG_050507_343.JPG
|
[49] CONG_050507_351.JPG
|
[50]
CONG_050507_356.JPG
|
[51]
CONG_050507_368.JPG
|
[52]
CONG_050507_375.JPG
|
[53] CONG_050507_380.JPG
|
- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- CONG_050507_007.JPG: These are cenotaphs, a name which means empty tomb. However, about 80 Congressmen lie beneath these sandstone memorials erected to honor those who died in office. In the old days, it was hard to preserve bodies for movement so they were buried where they died but this became an obsolete practice over time. Originally designed by Benjamin Latrobe, the memorials are stark and cost about $125 each.
- CONG_050507_018.JPG: The central chapel in the cemetery
- CONG_050507_033.JPG: John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) was invited to play with the Marine Corps Band when only 13 years old. Later, he became its director for 15 years, then organized his own band and toured the United States and Europe, earning the title "March King."
- CONG_050507_045.JPG: This is the Ward Six September 11 Memorial Tree Grove, the first of nine contemplative groves to be planted in the city. The groves will commemorate the events of September 11, 2001. A large central grove on a reclaimed Kingman Island will anchor the project and is scheduled to be dedicated in 2006. Eight smaller groves will be located in each of the city's eight wards.
The trees here will extend all the way to the southern edge of the cemetery. 143 Chinese Elms and Hornbeams will provide flowering trees into a seating area with views toward the Anacostia River.
- CONG_050507_057.JPG: The Arsenal Monument memorializes the 21 women killed in an explosion at the Washington Arsenal, June 17, 1864. The accident resulted when the heat of the sun set off a large quantity of fireworks outside the building where the women were filling cartridges for the Civil War. A burning fuse blew through an open window igniting the exposed gunpowder. The $2,500 sculpture was done by Lot Flannery, a local sculptor.
- CONG_050507_091.JPG: Adelaide Johnson (1859-1955) was the sculptor who did a famous three-some women's suffragette sculpture standing in the Capitol -- Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott.
- CONG_050507_095.JPG: Matthew Brady (1822-1896) was a famous photographer in the Civil War. He and his staff chronicled the war with photos of battlefields and combatants. The engraving for the five dollar bill was based on his photographic portrait of Abraham Lincoln. This is the newer stone for him, having been donated in 1988.
- CONG_050507_110.JPG: The poles are the Lummi "Liberty and Freedom" Totem poles, carved and delivered by Lummi master carver James Jewell and the House of Tears carvers as a traditional Native American effort to help the nation heal.
- CONG_050507_116.JPG: The cemetery has a number of Indian chiefs buried in it. Most served as delegates from Indian territories in the 1800's although this one is much more recent.
- CONG_050507_122.JPG: The building in the distance is the DC prison
- CONG_050507_136.JPG: Annie Royall (1769-1854) was an aggressive woman reporter whom Congressmen crossed the street to avoid. She was jailed twice for her polemical rantings. The marker notes that it was erected in appreciative recognition by a few men from Philadelphia and Washington DC.
- CONG_050507_158.JPG: J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972), first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His close friend, Clyde Tolson, is buried a short distance from Hoover's family plot. Note the chair so you can sit in front of it and contemplate his greatness.
- CONG_050507_167.JPG: Taza (Tahzay) (1815?-1876) son of Apache Chief Cochise. He was brought to Washington DC in 1876, along with 22 others of his tribe, by an Indian agent who paid for their trip by having them dance and exhibit themselves at side shows along the way. While here, Taza was fatally stricken with pneumonia and was buried here. The memorial here was placed in later years by the American Indian Society of Washington.
- CONG_050507_191.JPG: Robert Mills (1781-1855), architect of public buildings. He worked in the Capitol but was never Architect of the Capitol. He designed the Washington Monument, Old Treasury, Old Post Office, and the Patent Office (now housing the National Collection of Fine Arts). He was an innovator of fireproof construction. His grave was unmarked for more than 80 years until The American Institute of Architects put this memorial up in 1936.
- CONG_050507_204.JPG: Joseph Inslee Anderson. Served as a Revolutionary War soldier, U.S. Senator from Tennessee, and Comptroller of the U.S. Treasury.
- CONG_050507_207.JPG: Push-ma-ta-ha (1764?-1824) Choctaw Indian Chief, warrior and diplomat, served with Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. While in Washington seeking payment of debts owed by the Government to his nation, he died of croup in 1824 (the debts were paid in 1888). His military funeral was led by Senator Andrew Jackson.
- CONG_050507_216.JPG: Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) is the only signer of the Declaration of Independence buried in the area. He was a member of the Continental Congress, member of the "XYZ Affair" to France, and Vice President under Madison for 1-1/2 years until his death. He was stricken in his carriage while riding to the Capitol to preside over the Senate and died within 20 minutes. While Governor of Massachusetts in 1812, he backed legislation to redistrict an area for political advantage, which when drawn on the map looked like a salamander. The term "gerrymander" was coined from this.
- CONG_050507_239.JPG: Elisha Harrison (died 1849) was a surgeon during the American Revolution
- CONG_050507_244.JPG: Dr. William Thornton (1761-1828) won the competition to design the U.S. Capitol in 1793. He also designed the Octagon House, Tudor Place, and Woodlawn.
- CONG_050507_248.JPG: George Hadfield (1764?-1826) was an Italian-born English architect who worked from 1795-1798 on the Capitol. He patented the first brick and tile-making machine in the United States and was also City Councilman. He designed the Van Ness Mausoleum (Oak Hill Cemetery), Lee Mansion (Arlington National Cemetery) and Old City Hall (now the District Court House).
- CONG_050507_256.JPG: Captain Thomas Tingey (1750-1829) was one of the founders of the Congressional Cemetery and the first Commandant of the Navy Yard. He and his family lived in the Commandant's house for so many years that, at his death, it was found that he had willed the house to his family. They moved out though.
- CONG_050507_270.JPG: The public vault was built in 1835 with funds appropriated by Congress. People were temporarily interred here until they could be moved to family plots back home. Included in this list were Dolly Madison, John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison, and Zachary Taylor.
- CONG_050507_277.JPG: This vault is shown because on the right side of the door is the name of someone I used to work with when I was with the International Trade Commission. You'll see his marker in close-up later but he was Gary Teske, international economist, who died in 1993 at the age of 45.
- CONG_050507_290.JPG: The column is for Joseph Gales, Jr. (1786-1860), one of ten majors of Washington buried here. He was editor and owner of The National Intelligencer, a politically and socially powerful newspaper. The British destroyed his press during their siege of Washington in 1814 but he was back in business in a few days.
- CONG_050507_302.JPG: The column is for Archibald Henderson (1783-1859) who served as Commandant of the Marine Corps from 1820-1859, the longest tenure of anyone.
- CONG_050507_324.JPG: Another view of the Joseph Gales, Jr. marker.
- CONG_050507_343.JPG: Ruth Ann Overbeck was a local historian
- CONG_050507_356.JPG: Charles Forbes (died 1895) was personal attendant to Abraham Lincoln. He accompanied the Lincolns to Ford's Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865 and officially was seated just outside the box when the President was shot, having let John Wilkes Booth into the box. Most people assume however that he actually left his post and might have passed Booth in the saloon.
- CONG_050507_368.JPG: Andrew Humphreys (1810-1883) served as a division commander during Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, then became chief of staff to General Meade. In 1864, he took over Winfield Hancock's II Corps. After the war, he commanded the Army Corps of Engineers for 13 years.
- CONG_050507_375.JPG: We're in the Herold family section. In an unmarked grave here is David Herold who was executed for his role in the assassination of President Lincoln.
- Wikipedia Description: Congressional Cemetery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Congressional Cemetery is an historic cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the bank of the Anacostia River. It is the final resting place of hundreds of individuals who helped form the nation and the city of Washington in the early 1800s. Many members of United States Congress who died while Congress was in session are interred at Congressional. Other burials include the early land owners and speculators, the builders and architects of the great buildings of Washington, native American diplomats, mayors of Washington, and hundreds of Civil War veterans. Nineteenth-century Washington, D.C. families unaffiliated with the federal government have also had graves and tombs at the cemetery. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 23, 1969.
It was first established by private citizens in 1807 and later given over to Christ Church, which later gave it the name Washington Parish Burial Ground. By 1817 sites were set aside for government legislators and officials; this includes cenotaphs for many legislators buried elsewhere. The cenotaphs were designed by Benjamin Latrobe. The Latrobe design consists of a large square block with recessed panels set on a wider plinth and surmounted by a conical point. The design is considered a rare and possibly unique example of Visionary architecture in the United States, of the kind practiced by the 18th-century French visionary architects Etienne-Louis Boullée and Claude Nicolas Ledoux.
The cemetery is still owned by Christ Church but is now managed by the Association for the Preservation of Historic Congressional Cemetery (APHCC). In recent years, Congressional has witnessed a great turn around in its situation. Where the grass was unmowed in 2000, the board now has established an endowment fund that will maintain the lawn in perpetuity. The Association hosts over 500 volunteers each year working on a wide variety of projects: from planting bulbs to resetting tombstones to pruning trees, doing research, and writing a newsletter.
The Association web site is by far the most expansive cemetery web site with over 25,000 obituaries, news clips back to the 1820s, then and now photographs, and transcripts of descriptions of early Washington. Various themed tours are in the works and some available on the web site highlighting many of the everyday patriots that helped form the Nation and its capital city. [www.congressionalcemetery.org]
The cemetery celebrated its bicentennial in 2007 with a Heritage Festival on May 19, 2007 on the grounds of the cemetery. The Festival included marching bands (honoring John Philip Sousa), Civil War re-enactors, stone conservation demonstrations, several themed tours, landscape and watershed management demonstrations, stone rubbings and other activities.
Congressional Cemetery is also known for allowing members of the APHCC to walk dogs off-leash on the cemetery grounds. In addition to their annual dues, K-9 Corps members pay an additional fee for the privilege of walking their dog in one of Washington, DC's great open spaces. K-9 Corps members provide about one-third of Congressional Cemetery's operating income. Dog walkers follow a set of rules and regulations and provide valuable volunteer time to restore and beautify this historic place. The K-9 Corps maintains a web presence at [www.cemeterydogs.org]
The K-9 Corps program is near-universally recognized as providing the impetus for the revitalization of Congressional Cemetery, which had fallen into tremendous disrepair and neglect prior to the program's creation. In 2008, the Association will restrict K-9 membership, and is placing restrictions on the dogwalkers, now that the cemetery is on the upswing.
Notable interments:
* Joseph Anderson, Comptroller of the U.S. Treasury
* William Lee Ball, War of 1812 soldier, U.S. Congressman
* Theodorick Bland, U.S. Congressman
* Thomas Blount, Revolutionary War soldier, U.S. Congressman
* Mathew Brady, photographer
* William A. Burwell, U.S. Congressman, Thomas Jefferson's private secretary
* Joseph Goldsborough Bruff, architect, U.S. Army Captain, topographer
* John W. Carrington former Fire Chief of Washington, D.C.
* John Dawson, U.S. Congressman
* Owen Thomas Edgar, last surviving Mexican-American War veteran
* Mary Fuller, silent film actress
* John Gaillard, U.S. Senator
* Elbridge Gerry, U.S. Vice President and the only signer of the Declaration of Independence buried in Washington, D.C.
* James Gillespie, Revolutionary War soldier, U.S. Congressman
* William Montrose Graham, Jr., Major General in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War
* George Hadfield, architect
* Archibald Henderson, the longest serving Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps
* David Herold, conspirator of the Abraham Lincoln assassination
* J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director
* Robertson Howard, attorney, editor for West Publishing, and founder of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity
* Samuel Humphreys, Chief Constructor of the Navy
* Adelaide Johnson, sculptor, social reformer
* Charles West Kendall, U.S. Congressman
* Horatio King, U.S. Postmaster General
* Joseph Lovell, Surgeon General of the U.S. Army
* Alexander Macomb, Jr., Revolutionary War officer
* Leonard Matlovich, gay-rights activist and Air Force veteran
* Robert Mills, architect
* James Noble, U.S. Senator
* William Pinkney, Attorney General, statesman, diplomat
* Push-Ma-Ha-Ta, Native American (Choctaw) Chief
* Edith Nourse Rogers, reformer, U.S. Congresswoman
* Alexander Smyth, lawyer, soldier, U.S. Congressman
* John Philip Sousa, composer
* Richard Stanford, U.S. Congressman
* William Taylor, U.S. Congressman
* William Thornton, architect
* Thomas Tingey, U.S. Navy officer
* Clyde Tolson, associate director of the FBI
* Joseph Gilbert Totten, military officer, regent of the Smithsonian Institution
* Uriah Tracy, U.S. Congressman: subsequently U.S. Senator
* William Upham, U.S. Senator
* Abel P. Upshur, lawyer, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, U.S. Secretary of State
* Charles H. Upton, U.S. Congressman, consul to Switzerland
- Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
- Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
- Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].
