Second Seminar and Workshop held in Washington D.C., Congressional Cemetery
NCPTT recently followed up its highly successful training held last year on the conservation of cemetery monuments with a new seminar and workshop focused on the conservation challenges of the mid-Atlantic region.
Participants from across the nation participated in the events held in Washington, D.C. The participants represented a wide array of individuals involved in cemetery preservation, including cemetery association members, state historic preservation officers, national and state park employees, doctoral students conducting research in cemeteries, cemetery caretakers, monument builders and family cemetery owners.
Several nationally-recognized experts worked together on the development and instruction for the seminar and workshop. The instructors included Norman Weiss, Irving Slavid, and Karl Munson from Monument Conservation Collaborative of Colebrook, Connecticut; Fran Gale from PROSOCO of Lawrence, Kansas; Shelley Sass from New York University; Dennis Montagna, Judy Bischoff, and Lucy Lawliss from the National Park Service; Patty Miller from Conservation Solutions of Washington, D.C.; Glen Boornazian, Integrated Conservation Contracting; and Mary Striegel and ElizaBeth Bede Guin from NCPTT in Natchitoches, Louisiana.
“A Perfect Setting”
The seminar and workshop series stemmed from one of NCPTT’s research priorities: meeting the preservation needs of houses of worship and cemeteries. Based on demand, training events will continue to be organized for other regions in the United States.
The one-day seminar was held on May 4 at the historic Charles Sumner School in Washington, D.C. It provided a broad overview of issues facing those responsible for the conservation of cemetery monuments.
For participants interested in hands-on training in cemetery monument conservation, a two-day workshop followed on May 5-6 at the historic Congressional Cemetery in Washington D.C. Twenty-six participants from around the country were selected from a waiting list for the workshop based on their level of experience. They represented a wide range of cemetery preservation professions from local, city, state, tribal and federal offices responsible for cemetery conservation to monument builders, cemetery associations, private industry, universities and private cultural resource offices. Five professional monument builders were among those selected.
Founded in 1807 by private citizens, Congressional Cemetery got its name from its popularity as the unnofficial resting place for members of Congress. Congress erected a monument designed by Benjamin Latrobe, architect of the Capitol, over the graves of each of its members.
For those Members who died in office and were buried elsewhere, the Congress erected cenotaphs, or “empty tombs,” of the same Latrobe design to commemorate their service.
“The cemetery was a perfect setting for this program,” said Glen Whitener, a Certified Memorialist who has participated in both the Southern and Mid-Atlantic training courses. “Nearly every type of stone and restoration problem exists there. The cemetery needs lots of work. The group incorporated
all types of professions, including conservators working in government and private practice.”
Linda Donavan Harper, chairwoman of the Association for the Preservation of Historic Congressional Cemetery, worked with NCPTT to coordinate activities for the workshop, along with Bill Fecke, cemetery manager.
The round-robin workshop included hands-on condition assessment and conservation treatments. The conservation treatments encompassed cleaning tests using water, hand-scrubbing with soft-bristle brushes, chemical methods and low-pressure washing (less than 300 psi).
Other hands-on treatments included the removal of failed repairs, resetting of a marker into its original base, consolidation of markers, adhesion of a marker with multiple breaks, the installation of fills, and curing/finishing techniques such as acid-washing fills.
A session on vault restoration was a new addition to the Mid-Atlantic workshop as the Congressional Cemetery features several family vaults.
Participants also put management lessons learned in the seminar to practical use. In one exercise, groups were given a budget and told to devise an effective plan to conserve the Congressional Cemetery.
Helping Hands
Workshop discussions covered numerous topics, including the use of other chemical treatments such as water-repellents, consolidants and anti-graffiti coatings, the use of patching and grouting mixtures, the stabilization of foundations, the casting of new footings and the resetting of markers.
The Congressional Cemetery benefited physically from the workshop as participants reset four markers. They also pinned and reattached a marker and used adhesion repair to reassemble another marker.
Patching, filling and cleaning was performed on a number of markers. Participants also performed consolidation on numerous fragments around the cemetery.