Congressional Cemetery News

The latest news, announcements and updates for Historic Congressional Cemetery

Dust to Dust: A Guide to Green Burials at Congressional Cemetery Part Two

Over the course of the next few weeks, Congressional Cemetery will be sharing information about green burials and the funeral industry’s role in the sustainability movement. The second section, Part Two, focuses on embalming and preserving a corpse. Preserving a Corpse/Embalming Embalming is used as a way for a corpse to be prepared by chemicals [...]

By |2019-07-26T13:03:21-04:00October 12th, 2017|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Dust to Dust: A Guide to Green Burials at Congressional Cemetery Part Two

Dust to Dust: A Guide to Green Burials at Congressional Cemetery Part One

Over the course of the next few weeks, Congressional Cemetery will be sharing information about green burials and the funeral industry's role in the sustainability movement. The first section, Part One, serves as an introduction to the topic. Each year in the United States, 22,500 traditional cemeteries put the following into the ground: 827,060 gallons [...]

By |2019-07-26T13:02:28-04:00October 5th, 2017|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Dust to Dust: A Guide to Green Burials at Congressional Cemetery Part One

Adopt-a-Plot Program at Congressional Cemetery

The Adopt-a-Plot Program plays a key role in the preservation and beautification of Congressional Cemetery. Our program provides individuals, groups, organizations, and companies with the opportunity to play an important and active role in preserving, enhancing, and maintaining Congressional Cemetery’s landscape and grounds. The objective of our Adopt-a-Plot program to get members of the local [...]

By |2022-03-04T09:47:22-05:00September 21st, 2017|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Adopt-a-Plot Program at Congressional Cemetery

Adventurer, Veteran, Secret Service Chief, Interrogator, and More

As I flipped through file folder upon file folder of mere death certificates and lengthy, obscure family histories, my eyes were immediately drawn in by an obituary sub-headline in one file: “LIFE A CONTINUOUS MELODRAMA.” The man behind the melodrama? Colonel William P. Wood, the rather multifaceted first chief of the Secret Service. While Wood [...]

By |2019-07-26T12:41:15-04:00August 24th, 2017|Uncategorized|2 Comments

Not Written in Stone or Bone

The staff here often refer to cemeteries as outdoor museums. Our “collection” on the grounds consists of over 14,000 headstones, each one in need of proper care and conservation, and each one has a written story to tell. Some stories are more detailed than others, but every headstone is a historical record that memorializes the [...]

By |2019-07-26T12:36:23-04:00August 10th, 2017|History|5 Comments

Adam Gurowski: A Polish Eccentric and Lincoln’s Intellectual Foe

When President Abraham Lincoln told his bodyguard about whom he feared potentially assassinating him the most, it wasn’t the disgruntled, Confederate-sympathizing actor John Wilkes Booth. Rather, it was a somewhat bizarre Polish man who had renounced his old citizenship, became a spokesman for tsarist autocracy in Russia, and ultimately moved to the United States and [...]

By |2019-07-26T12:31:16-04:00July 27th, 2017|History|1 Comment

And You Thought I Was Done with Introductions: Meet Our New Grounds Conservation Manager, Kymberly Mattern

Now that our previous Grounds Conservation Manager, Daniel Holcombe, has moved on to a new job, it’s time to welcome our new one, Kymberly Mattern! This Northern Virginia native recently moved back to the region upon completing her graduate studies. She studied History and Women’s and Gender Studies at Juniata College, which she described as [...]

By |2019-07-26T12:27:44-04:00July 13th, 2017|News|Comments Off on And You Thought I Was Done with Introductions: Meet Our New Grounds Conservation Manager, Kymberly Mattern

The Dead Tell the Best Stories: An App Review

Do you love interesting stories about our Cemetery’s “residents?” Of course you do! You’re following the Congressional Cemetery blog. You’re in great company, because so does Liz Ruskin, a woman who works in public radio, brings her dog Lola to the Cemetery, and has put together a truly engaging audio tour. This exclusive tour, aptly [...]

By |2019-07-26T12:25:21-04:00June 29th, 2017|News, Tours and Events|Comments Off on The Dead Tell the Best Stories: An App Review

Introducing…The Summer Interns!

In keeping with Cemetery intern tradition, I figured that I should go ahead and formally introduce myself and our other summer intern to the fabulous readers of this blog! My name is Katelyn Belz, and I am this summer’s Programming, Writing, and Research intern here at Historic Congressional Cemetery. I’m a rising senior and unabashed [...]

By |2019-07-26T12:19:03-04:00June 15th, 2017|Uncategorized|1 Comment
Go to Top