Heritage Preservation Assisting U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs with Care of Historic Monuments
In order to address the condition of historic monuments memorializing our nation's war dead, the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has contracted with Heritage Preservation to preserve memorials in VA cemeteries.
Heritage Preservation coordinated conservators to assess 160 historic monuments in 67 cemeteries across the United States, from Augusta, Maine to San Diego, California. This assessment phase came out of a 2006 comprehensive survey by NCA staff and volunteers of the approximately 960 monuments in the 125 national cemeteries and 33 soldiers' lots maintained by NCA at the time. The process was based on the model developed by Heritage Preservation's Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) program in its inventory of the nation's collection of outdoor sculpture.
In 2010 and 2011, NCA arranged for the conservation treatment for 76 of these monuments and Heritage Preservation assisted NCA in reviewing the treatment proposals. Finally, Heritage Preservation consulted with NCA to create maintenance procedure manual for historic monuments and to develop a curriculum and materials for teaching basic monument preservation principles and techniques to NCA cemetery staff.
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Civil War Soldier, Los Angeles National Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA, before and after its 2010 treatment |
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The monument maintenance training program was piloted in June 2012 at the Winchester (Va.) National Cemetery. The training was taught by Frances Gale, Professor of Historic Preservation in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. Twelve cemetery personnel, attended the two-day training, which included a day of classroom instruction and a day of demonstrations in the cemetery. Participants learned how to identify materials used in monuments and common causes of deterioration. They were instructed how to document damage or deterioration on an annual inspection form and conducted a practice inspection. In addition, they learned and practiced techniques on gentle cleaning, applying protective wax coatings on bronze, graffiti removal, temporary masonry repointing, and repainting metal. Procedures on reporting emergencies and proper grounds maintenance were also discussed.
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Participants in the monument maintenance training program practice applying a protective coating of wax to the bronze plaque on the Massachusetts Monument at Winchester (Va.) National Cemetery |
Instructor Frances Gale notes the characteristics of a marble monument in Winchester (Va.) National Cemetery |
SOS!, a project of Heritage Preservation, helps communities across the United States preserve and promote their sculpture. SOS! began in 1989 by involving 7,000 volunteers in cataloging and assessing 30,000 publicly accessible outdoor sculptures. Fifty-four percent were determined to be in critical or urgent need of conservation. The data is accessible via the Inventory of American Sculpture database at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Support Heritage Preservation as we work to save outdoor sculpture and monuments.