Crisfield World War I Memorial, Somerset County

Created in 1989 and administered by the Department of Planning, the Commission consists of up to seventeen volunteer members appointed by the Governor who bring military, historical, business and government expertise to the important work of safeguarding monuments to Marylanders. The Commission neither owns nor administers the monuments.

The Commission's work is funded through the annual budget of the Department of Planning. In addition, donations have been raised through the generous support of individuals, private groups and veterans' organizations. Additional financial resources have been provided through community sponsorships and by working with civic and governmental organizations. In partnership with the National Park Service, the Commission has worked to treat monuments at Antietam National Battlefield, Gettysburg National Military Park, Vicksburg National Military Park, and Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. The Commission also has provided grants to the City of Baltimore in support of its efforts to conserve the Battle Monument, the Francis Scott Key Memorial Fountain, and the Samuel Smith and George Armistead monuments on Federal Hill.

The Maryland Monument, Antietam National Battlefield, Washington County

Commission members:

• Rebecca Flora, AICP, LEED ND / BD+C, Secretary, Maryland Department of Planning and Chair
• Judge Victor Butanis
• Jenny M. Carson, Ph.D.
• Ellen Chase
• Bryan Fischer
• Stephen S. Hammond
• Cheryl Jewitt
• Nancy Kurtz
• Alfred Mendelsohn
• Peter Morrill
• C. Ryan Patterson
• Lauren Schiszik
• Gail Schnell
• Ray Shipley, Jr.
• Susan Soderberg
• Jari A. Villanueva

Monuments Commission Projects

The efforts of the Commission have extended throughout the State and beyond, to include memorials commemorating the contributions of Marylanders on the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Brooklyn, New York, and Stephenson, Virginia. Professional conservation treatment has been provided for life-sized to heroic-scaled sculptures of bronze, copper, marble, granite, cast concrete, and many smaller reliefs and tablets. Maryland is home to original memorial works by Edward Berge, Ephraim Keyser, Joseph Maxwell Miller, Giuseppe Moretti, Charles Henry Niehaus, Hans Schuler, E.M. Viquesney, Frederick Volk and Stanford White, as well as stock, catalogue-ordered monuments from the American Bronze Company and the W.H. Mullins Company. Treatments conform to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties and are administered by conservation and historic preservation professionals under the direction of the Maryland Historical Trust.

Monument to the Maryland 400, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY, before and after conservation treatment

Conservation and Maintenance

The Maryland Military Monuments Commission obtains the services of professional conservators and historic preservation professionals to determine and carry out appropriate treatments to care for the monuments. The Commission has established a program of cyclical bronze maintenance in order to preserve the accomplished work. Bronze sculpture and tablets in an outdoor environment are exposed to particulates in the atmosphere which settle onto and corrode the surfaces. In urban and industrial areas the bronze may become pitted and uneven. Corrosion may follow water runoff patterns over the surface, forming streaks of light green and black. To respect the historic integrity of the monuments the Commission follows a minimal and reversible treatment program, typically water cleaning of bronze sculptures and tablets followed by the application of a specialized wax to the heated metal. The wax darkens the bronze and is an economical and maintainable coating that offers weather protection.

Francis Scott Key Memorial, Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, Baltimore, before and after conservation treatment.