Memorials Inventory Project (MIP) Progress Report, November 2002

In spring 2002 the National Cemetery Administration embarked on the first comprehensive inventory of its memorials. The Memorials Inventory Project (MIP) is capturing fabrication, inscription and condition data as well as photographic images of all memorial structures for historic and preservation purposes. Volunteers are carrying out all data collection. Announcements about the Memorials Inventory Project were made to veteran’s service organizations, VA employees, and a wide variety of organizations in order to recruit volunteers from across the country. The NCA project is modeled after the inventory program developed by Save Outdoor Sculpture!

At the onset of the project, NCA estimated that volunteers would catalog approximately 300 memorials or monuments in its 120 national cemeteries and 33 related soldiers’ and Confederate lots. Since the project was so well received, NCA is expanding the project to capture an estimated 500 memorials or monuments, to include more than 160 cenotaphs at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., where the government maintains some lots. Information obtained from the Memorials Inventory Project will be shared with the public through the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS) as part of its Art Inventories database.

At this time, documentation of 24 memorials is complete and 121 memorials are actively being surveyed. Approximately 58 percent of the 348 known monuments and memorials remain to be documented.

As of October 2002, nearly 150 individuals wishing to volunteer for the project had contacted NCA. Unfortunately, many did not live near an NCA memorial. Current volunteers represent individuals of all ages and interests, educational backgrounds, and professions. They include elementary through college-age students, active and retired military personnel of all ranks, VA headquarters and field staff, state historic preservation office personnel, state and local parks department staff, landscape architects, archivists, librarians, historians, teachers, historical society members, veterans service organization members, Civil War history enthusiasts, retirees, and persons with an attraction to history or cemeteries. Volunteer John Haltigan said, “I did Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery in southern Maryland with a couple of friends. . . it was great to do it and the project is fantastic.”

A number of volunteers were parents who saw the Memorials Inventory Project as a means to create an entertaining and educational weekend activity for the entire family. Some volunteers asked to be assigned to cemeteries out of their area and used the project as a reason to plan summer or fall getaways. Four officers stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, are documenting memorials at the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery as part of a community affairs project. Others were curious about this aspect of military history located in their own backyard. Most volunteers stated that the project permitted them to contribute to the preservation of America's heritage resources and to honor "in some small way" our fallen veterans.

Since many of the national cemetery monuments and memorials date to the Civil War and are considered historic cultural artifacts, the project appealed to some teachers who saw the project as an opportunity to provide "hands-on" history lessons for their students. John Wilkes, a history instructor at the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School in Richmond, Virginia, is working with his senior history students to document the memorials at three Civil War-era national cemeteries in Virginia: City Point, Cold Harbor, and Seven Pines. Similarly, Paul LaRue, a research history instructor at Washington County High School in Columbus, Ohio, volunteered his class to record the memorials at Camp Chase Confederate Stockade. Below are his students’ comments about the experience:

Updated 12/2002