Grave Affairs:Arlington National Cemetery and the Politics of Death and Honor

Micki McElyaAssistant Professor of HistoryUniversity of ConnecticutNovember 7, 2011

At center, the Tomb of the Unknowns and Memorial Amphitheater. Photo credit: Minot Air Force Base, stock image

Photo credit: http://www.army.mil

“It has been said that Arlington is the heart of the republic.”

—Arlington: In Eternal Vigil (2006)

Photo credit: Arlington National Cemetery, stock image

Postcards from Cemetery Gift Shop 2008

Mathew Brady, “Long Row of Blacks Reading from a Book

Outside at Contraband School, or Freedman’s

Village,” (1865).

Harper’s WeeklyMay 7, 1864

Spanish-American War Memorial, 1902 (left)

Spanish-American War Nurses Memorial,1905 (right)

U.S.S. Maine Memorial, 1912 (left)

Confederate Monument, 1914 (right)

Fritz Guerin, Little Cuba (1898) Gettysburg Reunion, July 3, 1913

Burying the Unknown Soldier of WWI, 1921

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

“It has been said that Arlington is the heart of the republic.”

—Arlington: In Eternal Vigil (2006)

Heather Lynn Johnsen, Tomb Sentinel, March 22, 1996.Photo credit: Mark Wilson, Associated Press

Unknown, Grave 449, Section 68, 2009Photo credit: www.salon.com