Cemetery Conservation

This report provides information and progress on the comparative study of commercially available cleaners for federally issued headstones.

The City of New York Parks and Recreation seeks a Monument Coordinator. Salary: $43,000 – $50,000.

Materials Conservator Jason Church demonstrates how to properly reset stone grave marker.

A critical and long-standing challenge in the preservation field has been finding unmarked graves.

NCPTT and the City of New London, Conn., will present the sixth annual Cemetery Monument Conservation workshop on October 7-9, 2008.

Historic Congressional Cemetery’s Arsenal and Macombe Monuments have been the focus of NCPTT’s recent research into cleaning technologies for grave markers.

NCPTT’s Cultural Diversity Intern, Candida D’Avanzo, is studying African American burial traditions in the Cane River region.

NCPTT recently recorded its first podcast. In it, conservator Jason Church talks about NCPTT’s cemetery monument conservation initiative and about his experiences growing up that led him to the field of cemetery conservation.

NCPTT and the City of New London will deliver the sixth annual New England Cemetery Monument Conservation workshop on October 7-9, 2008, in New London, Conn.

NCPTT and the City of New London will deliver the sixth annual New England Cemetery Monument Conservation workshop on Oct. 7-9, 2008, in New London, Connecticut.

NCPTT and the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office hosted a half-day Cemetery Monument Conservation Basics Workshop in Morris, Illinois. on May 17, 2008.

Stace Miller, a longtime undergraduate intern at NCPTT, received a B.S. in chemistry and an B.S. in Math from Northwestern State University of Louisiana on May 9.

NCPTT and the Department of Veteran Affairs, National Cemetery Administration has released the interim report entitled, Comparative Study of Commercially Available Cleaners for use on Federally-issued Headstones.

On June 12-14, 2008, in Savannah, Georgia, NCPTT and the Georgia State Municipal Cemeteries Association will host a half-day Cemetery Monument Conservation Basics workshop.

Jason Church and Stace Miller presented results of NCPTT research at the annual meeting of the American Institute for Conservation in Denver Colorado, April 21-24.

NCPTT’s Jason Church is conducting site visits in preparation for the 2008 Cemetery Monument Conservation Basics Course to be held in Morris, Illinois, in June and the 2008 Cemetery Monument Conservation Workshop to be held in New London, Connecticut in October.

$695 per participant. Topics Will Include: Condition Assessments, Conservation Ethics, Protection, Cleaning, Stone Loss Repairs, Bases and Resetting, Adhesion & Reinforced Repair, Consolidation.

NCPTT has been granted a cultural diversity intern for summer 2008 through the NPS Cultural Resources Diversity Internship Program.

NCPTT’s Jason Church participated in a session on cemetery preservation planning and maintenance as part of Saving Places 2008, Colorado Preservation, Inc.’s annual historic preservation conference.

The Department of Veteran Affairs, National Cemetery Administration, has entered into a new interagency agreement with NCPTT to continue the evaluation of commercially available cleaners for use on federally-issued headstones.