Washington Monument cornerstone fragment, Washington, D.C., 1848
notes: label: Description
content: Broken from the cornerstone of the Washington Monument laid in 1848, this piece of marble belonged to Joseph Meredith Toner, a Washington, D.C., physician, philanthropist, and amateur historian. A collector of all things related to George Washington, Toner led the revival of the commission that oversaw the completion of the monument in 1884.
label: Description
content: The 24,500-pound marble cornerstone had been laid on July 4, 1848, before an audience of 15,000 to 20,000 people. Begun by private subscription, the construction came to a halt for lack of funds in the mid-1850s. Not until the nation’s centennial in 1876 did Congress finish what in the intervening years had become a national embarrassment.
label: Description
content: The restart began with the construction of a new supporting foundation that covered the cornerstone. Dr. Toner was present when workmen shored up the cornerstone, and he collected a piece of it that broke off in the process. Dr. Toner took great pride in showing it. “I am not a vandal,” he later volunteered to a reporter, who noted that Toner bundled his prize in a gauzy bandage “wrapped around the small chunk of marble as carefully as the swaddling clothes around the ghostly form of an Egyptian mummy.”
label: Description
content: Transfer from the Joseph Meredith Toner manuscript collection, Library of Congress, 1961
place: label: associated place
content: United States: District of Columbia, National Mall, Washington Monument
setName: label: See more items in
content: Political History: Political History, General History Collection
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content: Government, Politics, and Reform
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content: Souvenir Nation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Library of Congress
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PL.235052.01
label: catalog number
content: 235052.01
label: accession number
content: 235052
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cornerstone piece
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: marble (overall material)