Sightseers visiting the gravesite of Pierre Charles L'Enfant gaze towards Washington, D.C., Arlington, 1947

Item Overview

Title

Sightseers visiting the gravesite of Pierre Charles L'Enfant gaze towards Washington, D.C., Arlington, 1947

Photographer

West, H. H. (Henry Hebard), 1872-1958

Date Created

October, 1947

Date

1947-10

Language

No linguistic content

Collection

West (H. H.) Collection

Notes

Description

NRHP reference # 66000040 (Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial)
Photograph of visitors to Arlington National Cemetery standing at the grave site of Pierre Charles L'Enfant. A walkway enters frame from the bottom edge at center and stretches back towards the right. It slices through the grassy lawn in front of the Lee Mansion (out-of-frame). At the end of the path and in the near distance at center, the grave site of Pierre Charles L'Enfant stands atop a hill. It is viewed at an angle. The tomb consists of a foundational slab at its base. Atop the foundation, a smaller, beveled slab rests. Six decorative posts rise from the beveled base and support another slab. Two couples stand atop the foundational base of the monument. One woman stands at the near, short side and rests her hands on the top slab. To her left, a man stands at the near left corner. The other couple stands at the far right corner. All turn their backs to the camera as they look out towards Washington, D.C. The Washington, D.C. skyline is visible in the far distance. The Lincoln Memorial is barely visible to the right of the near woman and the Washington Monument rises between the couple at right. The Capitol building's dome rises farther out at right.

Caption

Text from negative sleeve: 2371. Eastern trip October 1947 Arlington 1 Guard at tomb unknown soldier 2 H H West at tomb of unknown soldier 3 Visitors at tomb unknown soldier The guard is visible thru 4th from right 4 L to R Mrs T.Guard, T. Guard, Mertie West. Guards from Flageler [sic] Colorado visiting cemetery and showing us map to get to tomb unknown soldier 5 Mertie West at right with two ladies walking up lawn slope to Lee Mansion. 6 & 7 Two pictures of grave of L'Enfant who laid out City of Washington. Grave is right in front of Lee Mansion

Physical Description

Extent

1 photographic negative

Medium

b&w nitrate negative

Keywords

Genre

cellulose nitrate film
black-and-white photographs

Names

Arlington National Cemetery (Arlington, Va.)
L’Enfant, Pierre Charles, 1754-1825
Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial (Va.)

Location

Virginia--Arlington

Longitude

38.88106

Latitude

-77.072387

Resource type

still image

Subjects

Tombs & sepulchral monuments--Virginia--Arlington
Monuments & memorials--Washington (D.C.)
Sightseers--Virginia--Arlington