Vermont exhibit describes making of Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Robert Congdon, a recent graduate of the College of St. Joseph in Rutland, spent the fall semester as an intern at the Vermont Marble Museum.

His internship yielded more than an A: It produced a new exhibit, “The Story of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier,” that opens today and will be part of the Proctor museum’s permanent exhibition.

The exhibit describes the making of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The iconic memorial to wars’ unidentified dead stands at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.

“We originally planned to have Robert do a report about the use of Vermont marble in the nation’s capitol,” said Cathy Miglorie, manager of the museum. But the archival material Congdon unearthed proved worthy of a permanent exhibit.

“It’s really very cool,” Miglorie said. “There’s a whole room full of stuff. We’re very excited about the project.”

Congdon, 22, grew up in Clarendon and majored in history and secondary education in college. His internship was a chance to do hands-on work related to his major, Congdon said.

And hands-on it was: Digging around through an old filing cabinet in the museum, Congdon discovered a set of index cards that were key to his research project: The information on the cards was about job No.¤2460: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Through the index cards, Congdon tracked down a ledger book that contained more information about the project: its cost, the labor breakdown, the quarrying effort and more.

“It was an exciting experience,” said Congdon, who is working as a landscaper. “I described it to quite a few people as a roller-coaster ride: You’re on this fast track of trying to gather information and find out what we could. And when I came upon that stuff, it was really exciting.”

Before Congdon’s research, the museum knew it had in its possession certain objects related to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The extent of his discovery was like coming upon a treasure trove.

“If he didn’t actually blow the dust off history, literally, we never would’ve found this stuff,” Miglorie said.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was commissioned by the federal government, a $50,000 appropriation approved by Congress in 1921. The original tomb was dedicated on Armistice Day, 1921.

That tomb, like the one that replaced it, was made in Proctor. It was crafted from local stone, white marble quarried in nearby Danby. (Records of that construction, in ledgers Congdon found, are part of the exhibit.) The sarcophagus with sculpted ornamentation, which replaced the original monument, was set in place a decade later with little ceremony.

The 1931 Proctor-crafted monument was carved from marble extracted from a quarry in Marble, Colo., the Yule Marble Quarry. The Colorado quarry, known for its white marble, was owned by the Vermont Marble Co. It took the Colorado quarrymen a year to release the 56-ton block of stone from the quarry, Migliore said.

Four to six Vermont sculptors worked on the memorial for about six months, before it was shipped by train to Washington, Miglorie said.

“For them, it was just another project,” she said. “They were immigrant workers, master carvers from Italy. They didn’t know the national significance of it.”

The fabrication of the tomb, including its Doric pilasters, was done by craftsmen in Proctor. The finish carving took place in Virginia and was fashioned by sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones.

Jones sculpted the wreaths and the figures that grace the memorial; the three figures represent peace, victory and valor. The sculpture bears the words: “Here Rests In Honored Glory An American Soldier Known But To God.”

The Vermont Marble Museum is within the 400,000 square-foot building that housed the Vermont Marble Co.’s mills and shops. The museum space, 27,000 square feet, opened in 1933. It was originally planned as a showroom for the marble company, but the public’s interest in the business inspired the creation of the museum, Miglorie said.

Congdon’s internship ended in December. His commitment to the project continued through the spring, even as he worked as a student teacher.

“Having discovered so many of the pieces, I tried to stay involved when the internship ended,” Congdon said. “I wanted to see the final product come into being.”