A Walkabout, Congressional Cemetery DC. National Burying Ground. Washington DC

Washington DC. The national burying ground.  Surprise. Enjoy a graveyard. Treat yourself to a leisurely walkabout, after the pomp and monotony of Arlington, with its grim adulation of force as the ultimate problem solver. This is the world's second-best cemetery, the first being the Merry Cemetery, Sapinta, Romania, where each deceased's manner of death, or earlier occupation, is carved as a scene on a cheerful wooden marker.  A cemetery with variety in message, attitude: what do some folks say about themselves as they lie here. after the ball is over. Knock knock.  Who's here?

Dogs, for one.  The canines are welcome.  "Permissible to Unleash Dogs Beyond This Point." And there is the nice hose not only for watering plants, but to service the doggy dish. 

Congressional Cemetery DC, dogs permitted, with a simple registration. And it works.

This is not a public dog park, however.  People have to register if they want to bring dogs, and we found no stray poops. What are the criteria for registering as a dog visitor in this nice cemetery? So sensible. Go online at http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/dogwalking-program.  No panicky broad exclusions contemplating chaos if force is not applied, just sensible rules for a caring community. 

And there are limits. Dogs are to be kept out of the garden.  Fine.

Dogs:  Stay out of garden, but roam the Congressional Cemetery, Washington DC

2.  Imagination, for two.  How shall we remember thee? Let us count the ways.

2.1   The Man of the Up-tipped Cube. Meet  Charles Fowler, noted on his grave-block as a writer, educator, sportsman and advocate for arts education.

Congressional Cemetery, Charles Fowler cube

This balancing is clever and sleek, and not, clearly, set up by a blockhead.  Consider coming grouping 2.3.

2.2  Bar-code Man.  Adam Sean Ziolkowski.  Sic mors non potuit quot dare vita dabit.  Have tried translator sites, so far none pithy or sounding right.  Since death is unable, what gives life or what? 

Bar-code man, Congressional Cemetery, National Burial Ground, Wasington DC. Adam Sean Ziolkowski

2.3  Men of the Cenotaphs.  A Cenotaph means empty tomb, says the brochure; and about 80 Congressmen are buried here, another 85 or so are not -- the block remains.  The purpose was to honor people who died in office. Do we care?  Unless the office was a cause of death, the significance escapes. Thank one George Frisbie Hoar in 1870 for stopping the practice, see http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/district_of_columbia/Congressional_Cemetery_Government_Lots.html/.  Congressmen could pay a fee and, if they died in office, could enjoy the knowledge that their names would be forever on identical blocks in rows on pedestals with pointy tops.

On and on they go.  The ego of it all.

Congressional Cemetery, National Burying Ground, Cenotaphs: Order in advance. for Congressmen who died in office.

3.  Our own.  Native Americans are also here.  A serious topic, and here, fine people.

3.1 .  This, the marker for Push-Ma-Ta-Ha, Choctaw Chief, and also a diplomat and warrior, and officer (soldier?).  He served in the War of 1812 at the Battle of New Orleans.  This marker seems inconsistent with those views shown at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=845, but the insciption, "That the big guns be fired over me," is the same and known as the Push-Ma-Ta-Ha inscription.  And the Washington guns indeed fired, with a huge procession for him.

Congressional Cemetery, Chief Push-Ma-Ta-Ha.

Irony: The Government owed money to the Choctaws.  Push-ma-ta-ha came to collect, but he died before he got the job done, in 1824:  of croup.  Finally in 1881, Washington paid the Choctaws.  Did they get interest?  See bio at http://nativeamerican.lostsoulsgenealogy.com/biographies/pushmataha.htm/  An earlier marker called Push-ma-ta-ha a friend of the white man.  Is that because the white man calls anyone friend who does not succeed in collecting on debts owed by the white man? At least, not for a long time?

3.2 . Taza, Son of Cochise.  His tribe was the Chiricahua Apaches, and he was the chosen leader, trained by his father, to succeed him.  The story of Taza is more typical of the fate of many indigenous people who get conquered:  he was put in little theater shows by the Indian Agent at the time, one John Clum, so the Indians could finance their own trip to Washington.  Their purpose was to protest the closing of reservations, so whites could take the land. The Indians they became part of a side show, those Wild West shows. He was a man of honor. See  http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2013/04/buried-history-hear-me-my-chiefs.htm/  

Taza is featured in the brochure at the National Burying Ground.  Some put remembrance stones on his gravestone, however, as seen on graves of some of the Jewish persons here. His story formed a basis, somewhat, of the film, Taza, Son of Cochise, from 1954 and with Rock Hudson. Name: also spelled Tahzay.

Taza, son of Cochise, grave, Congressional Cemetery, National Burying Ground DC

Taza, son of Cochise, grave, Congressional Cemetery

Headstone, footstone, grave of Taza, Son of Cochise, National Burying Ground, Congressional Cemetery, Washington DC

3.3  Shrouded dead.  Green burials. The Congressional Cemetery receives Green Burials, the body merely wrapped, shrouded, and lowered into the ground, no coffin required.  See http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/types-interment. No vaults, no liners, no embalming required.  Headstones are optional.  The fee depends on how deep the hole must be at time of need, see http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/general-price-list.  To use your plot, for which you have purchased an interment right, it must be fully paid for. http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/funerals-and-burials/  Your purchase lasts 75 years and if you do not use it in that time, it reverts.

4.  Now to force, sneaky compiler of dossiers. Now to Hoover.  Must we?  Yes.  J. Edgar Hoover.  He fences himself in, and provides a nice bench to contemplate his final resting place.  Head on. Why does the design of the bench legs evoke a certain authoritatian symbol of the 20th Century?  Imagine them together. Angled. Fused.

Grave, J. Edgar Hoover, Congressional Cemetery

Medallion for self erected by Society of Former Special Agents of FBI , on bench at viewing point for grave, J. Edgar Hoover

5.   Welcome simplicity.   A stone, literally, with Hebrew inscription, for one Michael Taylor Epstein

Michael Taylor Epstein, grave stone, literally, Congressional Cemetery DC

A quick search did not unearth a biography.  To continue.  Fine stone, and a subtle Star of  David.

6.  A cluster for human rights:  The rights of gays, lesbians, same-gendered couples to each other, and dignity.

6.1  A gay Vietnam veteran, as the inscription tells us:  Leonard Matlovich, see http://www.leonardmatlovich.com/storyofhisstone.html/  He had been in the Air Force, and discharged when he declared his sexual preference.  He died of AIDS, but his life and open declarations spurred a movement.

Leonard Matlovich, A Gay Vietnam Veteran, Congressional Cemetery

Another, in the area: "If you have done nothing to erase prejudice, wherever it exists, best weep for yourself and your country."  Cliff Anchor.

Memorial bench, Congressional Cemetery: erase prejudice

Bronze star:  for Leonard Matlovich.

Leonard Matlovich, Congressional Cemetery, Bronze Star, DC

6.2  Barbara Gittings, and Kay Tobin Lahusen, gay civil rights:  Pioneers http://archives.nypl.org/mss/6397

Barbara Gittings, Kay Tobin Lahusen, Congressional Cemetery

"Partners in life, married in our hearts." Inscription.  "Gay pioneers who spoke truth to power. Gay is good." Inscription.  Gittings, Lahusen.

Gittings, Lahusen: Gay is Good.

6.3  Family support here. An aunt and benefactor of Barbara Gittings, reads this inscription. Katherine Batchelder.

Katherine Batchelder, Congressional Cemetery, aunt and benefactor of Barbara Gittings.

7.  Benefactor:  Focus beyond self.  Ruth Rappaport, funds for fine causes, a life from pre-WWII turmoil, through it, uprootings, finding her relationship, an inspiring life, see http://rappaport-prize.com/en/index.php/about/ruth

Ruth Rappaport, Congressional Cemetery DC

8.  And the sound of our times for any celebration, parade, dusting.

Musician.  John Philip Sousa, and his family's plots also.  Do a video search for the marches. Volume up.

John Philip Sousa, Congressional Cemetery DC

He and his father were each a marine.  He is here with all the other sousaphones.

. Family, John Philip Sousa, Congressional Cemetery, Washington DC

Were you surprised? Did you actually enjoy a graveyard,  especially after the bowing to the awe and determined cultural grandeur, deifying force, and the tragedies resulting from force, in Arlington. The best part of Arlington is the Lee house.

This is a Cemetery for Choice: Individual choices on how to set self up after self has expired.  Compare: Arlington Cemetery is exhausting and uniform in the sense of memorializing military violence mostly, and those who learned and lived by it. Tourist buses glide by there, but not here.  No room or interest.  Arlington wheels go round and  round. Photo op here, photo op there. Better off walking, scrambling about.  .

 Find fine photographs at http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2013_DC_Cong_Cem

Congressional Cemetery, National Burial Ground, jimson weed. Lovely anyway.

FDR home at Springwood, Hyde Park NY. A Closer Look at Roosevelts on the Hudson

New York. Visit Eleanor and FDR at FDR's birthplace, his childhood home, and often refuge, in Hyde Park NY on the Hudson.  Find details of privileged lives, tributes to their accomplishments, and impact on history.  Hyde Park is the name of the town.  The Roosevelt estate is called Springwood.

Hyde Park NY.  Daniel Widing with Eleanor and FDR

The first Hyde Park dates from 1536 in England, a manor fave of Henry VIII for his hunting. He confiscated it from monks, who had been affiliated with Westminster Abbey. Tut! 

Is this the same manor that is the eponymous area now known as Hyde Park in London? Henry:  Another to the manner born, see http://www.word-detective.com/2011/10/to-the-manner-manor-born/  Another Hyde Park is part of the Chicago area, since 1853, and in Utah 1860.

Springwood, Hyde Park NY.  FDR childhood home, adult refuge, and burial place for him and Eleanor.

Eleanor seems to have preferred  nearby Val-Kill cottage, a more modest estate for her own use, see http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=33/;  http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/eleanor_roosevelt_valkill.html

1.  Stables at Hyde Park.  See the outside first.  Stables.  Splendid latches, neatly repeated for each occupant's stall.

Stable latch, Hyde Park, Springwood, NY. 

The stables show more attention to detail:  tiled floor drain, with a bit motif and Delft blue and Greek key design surrounding.  Water, suds and slush say, let me circle here, please, then I will go in peace.

Tiled stable drain, Springwood estate, FDR home at Hyde Park NY

Also note the hardwood floor surrounding. Easy on the hoof.

Originalists will cheer the Essential Design of the stable sink.  There, instead of hardwood, there is brick on the floor.  

Stable sink, Hyde Park, Springwood home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor

Venerable roof.

Moss on shingle.  Hyde Park, Springwood stables, FED estate.

2. Graves at Hyde Park.  The estate was also the childhood home of FDR.  On the death of his father in 1900, his mother Sara inherited the estate and held it in her name until her death in 1941.  Is this why Eleanor had a place for herself at Val-Kill?  Both FDR and Eleanor are buried here.

Springwood gravesite, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Hyde Park NY

Fala, Scots terrior, and Chief, German shepherd, both allies of FDR:  are those their graves in front of the monument to FDR and Eleanor?  I think I recall the guide saying so, but check. FDR's mother, Sara, is buried at St. James Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, the town.

 

3.  Berlin Wall at Hyde Park.  Global impact:  Franklin and Eleanor, or is this generic man and woman, cutouts from part of the old Berlin Wall.  Nearby is a bust of Winston Churchill.   Note the base on the Wall sculpture:  each side, one of the Four Freedoms of FDR, with reach still topic of debate, see http://hellofodderhellobuyer.blogspot.com/2010/07/fdrs-four-freedoms-applied-to-states.html

3.  Selected interior.  Now:  inside.  Famous fireside chats.  The Presidential Library has fine exhibits; it is easy to spend more time there than in the house

Fireside chat, Daniel Widing attends.  Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt at Hyde Park

Springwood living room.  FDR's wheelchair is just behind the green armchair on the left. 

Springwood, Hyde Park NY.  Living room

There is no people-elevator at Springwood. 

To get to the second floor, FDR had modified a dumb-waiter construct so he could use a system of weights and pulleys to get himself (or someone else would) up and down.  Dumb waiter:  a small utility vertical hollow )stick in your head and turn:  Hellooooo up there) sometimes with speaking tube; service for meals was managed with shelving and ropes and pulleys to pull trays up and down on the shelving, dishes and the like, from lower kitchen to higher halls and back.  See http://www.stannahlifts.co.uk/news-and-resources/news-centre/169/the-origins-of-a-dumb-waiter-or-dumbwaiter/  See laundry chute?