Momento Mori

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Summary

  • Article concerns a mid-19th century movement dedicated to establishing pastoral landscapes within urban areas, and offers Washington, D.C.'s Oak Hill Cemetery as a prime example of that naturalistic style. The author also links the cemetery, planned by W. W. Corcoran, to the Smithsonian Institution in two ways: Smithsonian Institution Building architect James Renwick, Jr., worked at Oak Hill while supervising construction of the Castle building, and the first two Smithsonian Secretaries are buried at that cemetery. Renwick designed the cemetery's fence, gate posts and chapel; styles and materials correspond with those used for the Smithsonian Institution Building at that time and later for the Enid A. Haupt Garden in the Castle's south yard.
  • Secretaries Joseph Henry and Spencer Fullerton Baird, along with members of their respective families, are buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. The author describes their grave markings, names other family members buried at the sites, and gives other details concerning each of the two secretaries' burial areas.

Subject

  • Renwick, James 1818-1895
  • Henry, Mary Anna 1834-1903
  • Henry, Joseph 1797-1878
  • Henry, Harriet A. 1808-1882
  • Baird, Mary Helen Churchill
  • Baird, Lucy Hunter
  • Baird, Spencer Fullerton 1823-1887
  • Corcoran, W. W (William Wilson) 1798-1888
  • Smithsonian Institution Building (Washington, D.C.)
  • Oak Hill Cemetery

Category

Smithsonian Institution History Bibliography

Notes

Article includes two photographs: granite marker on Joseph and Harriet Henry's grave and the Churchill/Baird mausoleum in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Contained within

Smithsonian Preservation Quarterly (Newsletter)

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

Fall 1994

Topic

  • Architecture--Washington (D.C.)
  • Cemeteries
  • Architects
  • Secretaries

Place

  • Mall, The (Washington, D.C.)
  • Enid A. Haupt Garden (Washington, D.C.)

Physical description

pgs. 4 & 5

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