"A small secluded plot of ground": Preservation of the West Campus Cemetery at St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, DC

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC admitted its first patients in 1855. After a patient with no relatives died the following year, a cemetery was established on a hillside overlooking the Anacostia River. During its short two decades of use, civilian and Civil War veteran patients were buried there. However, few contemporary records exist for the federal cemetery, including any formal recordation of burials. Additionally, headstones marking the graves of Union soldiers were not placed within the cemetery until 1873 and a portion of the cemetery contains unmarked graves. In early March 2021, a small landslide occurred adjacent to the cemetery, dislodging the boundary fence and potentially threatening the integrity of several burials. In consultation with the U.S. General Services Administration, Stantec conducted a geophysical study and extensive inventory of the cemetery to document and create a data set for use in future conservation and damage mitigation efforts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology