When you come across a name such as Marguerite’s, you might expect a certain type of person: blue-blooded, wealthy, and perhaps a little haughty as a result. And to a certain extent, Marguerite Lamott DuPont Lee was very much a product of her prestigious name. Born to the wealthy DuPont family from Delaware and married [...]
As you walk through the cemetery, you may have come across a grave “stone” that is bluish-grey in color. These stones are called white bronze monuments, but they are actually made out of zinc. This example of a "white bronze" monument is located in Congressional Cemetery, near 17th street. The Monumental [...]
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 fourth section, Part Four, discusses vegetation and pest management. Vegetation and Pest Management Aerating the soil after digging a grave and the nutrients released through the decomposition of [...]
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 third section, Part Three, focuses on burial containers. Burial Containers One character defining feature of green burials includes the use of biodegradable caskets, urns, and shrouds. These can [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
We could go on and on about why you should run Dead Man's Run, a race which is now in its SEVENTH year. Caps lock because we can't believe it either. But if you won't take our word for it, we hope you listen to one of our veteran runners, Catherine Collins. She's been running [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
