The Washington Monument: A Technical History and Catalog of the Commemorative Stones
Jacob JM. 2005. The Washington Monument: A Technical History and Catalog of the Commemorative Stones. National Park Service. Washington, D.C.
In preparation for the new millennium, the Washington Monument was the subject of an extensive restoration. The exterior of the monument was cleaned, masonry repaired, joints pointed, and the lightening-protection system upgraded. On the interior, new heating and cooling systems were installed, the elevator controls and cab were replaced, and the top visitor levels were remodeled. As part of the restoration, the one hundred and ninety-three commemorative stone tablets set into the interior walls of the monument were cataloged and cleaned; additional conservation treatments were carried out as necessary. The entire project—exterior and interior—is called the “2000 Restoration” in this report. The 2000 Restoration was planned and managed by the Denver Service Center. The Northeast Cultural Resources Center, Building Conservation Branch (now the Northeast Regional Office, Architectural Preservation Division, APD) carried out the work on the commemorative stone tablets over a five-year period (1997-2001). The most commonly used term to describe the collection of tablets is the “commemorative stones” and this is the term that will be used in this report. In order to best understand the condition of the commemorative stones, necessary for making informed conservation treatment decisions, an extensive amount of research was carried out. Libraries and archives provided information on the technical history of the stones which included descriptions of materials, original appearance, and installation in the monument. In addition to historical documents, the stones themselves provided information, often verifying documents or answering questions posed by a lack of documents. This report presents a technical history of the commemorative stones and makes recommendations for further research. Following the history and recommendations is a catalog of the stones, the most thorough and extensive to date. There were a number of stones donated to the monument but never installed; a catalog of these stones is also included.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Jacob, Judith
- Date of Issue
- 2005
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- HIST , NAMA , NCR , WAMO
- Keywords
- commemorative, ehistory, History, history program, monument, Photgraph, Photographic Records, project, Recommendations, special history study, technical, Technical History, Washington