NCA Memorials Inventory Project Completed

Loudon Park – Unknown Dead, by J.M. Dibuscher, was dedicated in 1895.

by Darlene Richardson, Memorials Inventory Project
The National Cemetery Administration (NCA), Department of Veterans Affairs, began its Memorials Inventory Project in May 2002 and officially closed it to new volunteers on December 31, 2004. The project was the first-ever comprehensive survey of monuments and memorials conducted by the administration. It was also the first volunteer project undertaken by the NCA History Program. In 2002, NCA estimated that around 300 memorials would be identified and documented: the actual survey results in 2006 were very surprising.

Nearly 3,000 individuals from around the world contacted NCA to participate in the three-year survey project. In all, 372 volunteers were assigned to document monuments and memorials in 95 national cemeteries, soldiers’ lots, and monument sites under NCA’s jurisdiction. Twenty-five NCA cemetery properties were found to contain no memorials.

Volunteers documented over 1,000 memorial objects that included carillons, historic “gun monuments,” plaques, headstones, and other objects. The VA defines a monument or memorial as a commemorative object erected on a site that is not a grave. As a result, a number of inventoried objects were re-classified under other nomenclatures. NCA has retained a file on every object inventoried, as the information will be helpful in reporting requirements for the Preserve America Executive Order No. 13287. After the re-classification of non-memorial objects, the number of true memorials (as of January 15, 2006) was 834—nearly triple the original estimate.

The USCT monument by Roy Butler was dedicated in February at the Nashville National Cemetery. Courtesy Roy Butler.

The data collected from the Memorials Inventory Project showed a marked increase in the number of memorials erected in national cemeteries after 1980. The national cemeteries were created by Congress in 1862 during the Civil War, and it was thought that Civil War memorials would outnumber all others. However, the survey revealed that the number of memorials in national cemeteries and soldiers’ lots commemorating all veterans, all wars, or 20th-century wars far exceeded those erected specifically for Civil War soldiers. Surprisingly, monuments commemorating the Civil War continue to be erected during our modern era, as evidenced by the dedication of the USCT monument at Nashville National Cemetery on February 18, 2006.

One explanation for the profound increase in memorials in the past 25 years is the existence of memorial walkways at many new national cemeteries. The walkways provide a place to put memorials, whereas in the past, valuable burial land was sacrificed to make space available for monuments.

The Massachusetts National Cemetery MIA-POW memorial, by Robert Shure, was dedicated in 1998.

In January 2006, NCA shared information on 80 of its sculpture monuments with the Smithsonian Institution’s American Art Museum. Information and images of those monuments are accessible on-line at their SIRIS website: www.siris.si.edu. Click on "Art Inventories" listed under the Smithsonian American Art Museum Research Databases section. The easiest way to pull up all 80 monuments is to select a "keyword" search from the green bar at the top of the first search screen, then type Memorials Inventory Project in the "General Keyword" box and National Cemetery in the "Owner Keyword" box. NCA will continue to report all new sculptural monuments so they may be added to the SIRIS art inventory database.

The Memorials Inventory Project final report, as well as various lists of NCA’s memorials, can be accessed at the NCA Web site: www.cem.va.gov/histhome.htm, under Historic-Resource Information.