Capitol Hill History Project -- Cindy Hays (Past and Future of Congressional Cemetery):
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Description of Pictures: Overbeck Lecture: The Past and Future of Congressional Cemetery
On Tuesday, February 7, Cindy Hays will deliver an illustrated Overbeck History Lecture on Congressional Cemetery, its significance to the Capitol Hill community, and its impressive, ongoing restoration by concerned neighbors and friends. The 30-acre site, which contains the remains of Matthew Brady, John Philip Sousa, J. Edgar Hoover and many other historical figures, has served the Hill for more than two centuries.
Hays is executive director of the Association for the Preservation of The Historic Congressional Cemetery, the local citizens organization that has brought the storied resting place back from decades of decline and neglect and made it a source of pride for the neighborhood.
The lecture is set for Tuesday, February 7, at 8:00 p.m. at the Naval Lodge Hall at 330 Pennsylvania Avenue S.E. As always, admission is free but a reservation is required due to limited seating.
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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.
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
HAYS_120207_023.JPG: Cindy Hays, John Franzen
HAYS_120207_131.JPG: Cindy Hays
HAYS_120207_146.JPG: The Founders
Captain Thomas Tingey -- Commandant, Washington Navy Yard
General Archibald Henderson -- Commandant, Marine Corps
George Blagden -- Overseer of Construction, US Capitol
HAYS_120207_179.JPG: Originally Known as
Washington Parish Burial Ground
As a result of the custom of interring
Congressmen here
Became "Congress Burying Ground"
HAYS_120207_180.JPG: Benjamin Henry Latrobe's sketch for a
monument for George Clinton, 1812
HAYS_120207_187.JPG: Cenotaphs
169 monuments
58 members of Congress entombed
HAYS_120207_189.JPG: The First National Cemetery --
55 years before Alexandria and Old Soldiers
and 57 years before Arlington
Over 1300 Veterans Representing Every Major War
including:
* 50 Veterans of the Revolutionary War
* 76 Veterans of the War of 1812
* 30+ Veterans of the Mexican War
* Civil War (both USA and CSA)
* Spanish American War
* World War I
* World War II
* Korea
* Vietnam
HAYS_120207_191.JPG: Only Vice President &
Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Elbridge Gerry, d. 23 Nov. 1814 (R29/9-11)
Note: Vice President George Clinton (d 1812) rested near Vice President Gerry until his remains were removed to New York in 1908.
HAYS_120207_193.JPG: Three Presidents Rested Here
(Public Vault -- Later Removed)
* Gen. Benjamin Harrison (d. 7 April 1841)
* John Quincy Adams (d. 23 Feb. 1848)
* Gen. Zachary Taylor (d. 13 July 1850)
HAYS_120207_210.JPG: Ten Mayors of Washington Rest Here
* Daniel Rapine, 1812-13, R54/6 (no marker)
* Benjamin Grayson Orr, 1817-19, R28/15
* Samuel N. Smallwood, 1819-22 & 1824, R49/2
* Roger Chew Weightman, 1824-1827, R53/134
* Joseph Gales, Jr., 1827-30, R55/158
* William W. Seaton, 1840-1850, R57/165 (no marker)
* John Walker Maury, 1852-54, R49/171
* John Thomas Towers, 1854-1856, R47/167
* James G. Berrett, 1858-1861, Berrett Vault
* Sayles Bowen, 1868-1870, R84/102
HAYS_120207_216.JPG: Military Leaders
Major General Alexander Macomb
Captain Thomas Tingey, Commandant of the Navy Yard
HAYS_120207_218.JPG: The Monument to the 21 Women Who Died
In an Emplosion at the U.S. Arsenal
June 19, 1864
HAYS_120207_220.JPG: The Association for the Preservation of Historic Congressional Cemetery:
* 1972 -- HR 14339 introduced to acquire, protect, and administer the cemetery as part of the national park system.
* 1974 -- Report from NPS that acquisition was not feasible.
* 1975/6 -- Members of the vestry, local merchants and civic leaders organize to divest Christ Church from operation of the cemetery.
* 1976 -- All staff were laid off.
* 1976 -- HR 13789 introduced to appropriate funds for the Architect of the Capitol to renovate the cemetery and fund a study to formulate proposals for renovation and permanent maintenance.
* 1979 -- NPS and Dept. of Veterans Affairs turn down general maintenance requests.
HAYS_120207_223.JPG: The Decline
HAYS_120207_238.JPG: First cemetery to be named to the
National Trust for
Historic Preservation's
11 Most Endangered Historic Sites
HAYS_120207_241.JPG: A Decade of Progress -- Cemetery is Saved:
Volunteers -- Military clean-up days; Dogwalkers; neighbors; church and lineage groups
Infrastructure:
* 1999. 2002 -- $1m Matching Congressional Endowments
* 2009 -- $1M Matched by the Association from private contributions.
* 2002-2008 -- Various Government Appropriations for studies and repairs.
* 2008-2011 -- New roads, cemetery-wide water lines, 1850's drainage system restored
Grants -- Save America's Treasurers; Capitol Hill Community Foundation; MARPAT; Kiplinger Foundation; Dreyfus; others
Full-Time Staff
HAYS_120207_252.JPG: The Present
Mission Statement Adopted in 2009
The mission of the Association for the Preservation of Historic Congressional Cemetery is to serve the community as an active burial ground and conserve the physical artifacts, buildings, and infrastructure of the cemetery; to celebrate the American heritage represented by those interred here; restore and sustain the landscape, protect the Anacostia River watershed, and manage the grounds as accessible community resource.
HAYS_120207_256.JPG: First advertising campaign in at least 40 years:
Where do you see yourself in 100 years?
HAYS_120207_270.JPG: Live on the Hill?
Stay on the Hill
HAYS_120207_272.JPG: long-term stays,
free after first night
HAYS_120207_279.JPG: Preservation of Artifacts and Monuments
HAYS_120207_287.JPG: Celebrate the heritage of those buried here:
* Dozen Self-Guided Walking Tours
* Weekly docent led tours April-October
* Monthly Civil War tour, 2nd Saturday, April-October
* Quarterly lecture of book series featuring "residents"
HAYS_120207_399.JPG: The Future:
The grass will be mowed. Proceeds from the Congressional endowment should never be less that [sic] $100,000 annually.
The cemetery cannot be closed for at least 42 years as a Conservation easement is held by the City.
Christ Church will decide whether to take the cemetery back in 2019.
The new board has committed its efforts toward preservation.
Description of Subject Matter: In keeping with our goal of building a stronger, kinder, more thoughtful community, the Capitol Hill Community Foundation has established the Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project in order to give our neighborhood a better knowledge of its past and a deeper understanding of the everyday lives of its citizens.
The Project collects oral histories and other relevant materials and information from longtime Capitol Hill residents and former residents, to create a permanent, accessible, ongoing record of the people and events that have shaped our community. As a first priority, the collection effort is focusing on elderly residents whose stories may soon be lost, but its ultimate goal is a many-voiced narrative from across the generations, representing all walks of life and all races and backgrounds, that will illustrate the richly inter-connected life of our neighborhood over time.
The above was from http://www.capitolhillhistory.org/
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2012 photos: Equipment this year: My mainstays were the Fuji S100fs, Nikon D7000, and the new Fuji X-S1. I also used an underwater Fuji XP50 and a Nikon D600. The first three cameras all broke this year and had to be repaired.
Trips this year:
three Civil War Trust conferences (Shepherdstown, WV, Richmond, VA, and Williamsburg, VA),
a week-long family reunion cruise of the Caribbean,
another week-long family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with lots of in-transit time in Ohio and Indiana), and
my 7th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including side trips to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, etc).
Ego strokes: I had a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. I had a photograph of the George Segal San Francisco Holocaust memorial used as the cover of Quebec Francais (issue 165). Not being able to read French, I'm not entirely sure what the article is about but, hey! And I guess what could be considered to be a positive thing, my site is now established enough that spammers have noticed it and I had to block 17,000 file description postings for Viagra and whatever else..
Number of photos taken this year: just below 410,000.
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