Uncategorized

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

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 [...]

2019-07-26T13:04:31-04:00October 19th, 2017|

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 [...]

2019-07-26T13:03:21-04:00October 12th, 2017|

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 [...]

2019-07-26T13:02:28-04:00October 5th, 2017|

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 [...]

2022-03-04T09:47:22-05:00September 21st, 2017|

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 [...]

2019-07-26T12:19:03-04:00June 15th, 2017|

Congressional Cemetery’s Giant

Image from 1908 Washington Post article   At Congressional Cemetery, we have a giant in our midst. Varying accounts place resident John Turner at different heights: a Washington Post article claims that he was 7 foot 7 inches, while a contemporary surgeon inflated his height considerably to 8 feet 3 inches. Other studies [...]

2019-07-26T12:08:47-04:00October 20th, 2016|

We’re Dead Serious: Save These Dates.

The past few days in DC have been uncharacteristically cool for August, which naturally turns thoughts to fall and all the good things that come along with the season. Per usual, local stores have jumped the gun, proudly displaying Halloween decorations and pumpkin-everything in an effort to trick us all into believing the season is officially [...]

2019-07-26T12:06:05-04:00August 24th, 2016|

White Vault Restoration

By Margaret Puglisi In 2003, when the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) assessed all of the structures at Congressional Cemetery, the White Vault was in dire condition.  Structural elements were severely deteriorated or missing altogether.  Brick was spalling, sandstone delaminating, ironwork corroding, and mortar had essentially disappeared from the majority of the structure.  All of [...]

2019-07-26T11:56:47-04:00August 10th, 2016|
Go to Top