by Frederick J. Augustyn, Jr.
A version of this article was originally sent out to Guild members in an email on June 6, 2016.
Near the Gutenberg Bible off the Great Hall in what is now called the Jefferson Building, a carved wall lists the full names of four men employed by the Library of Congress who died in military service during World War I. Library sources such as multiple copies of Report of the Librarian of Congress and Report of the Superintendent of the Library Building and Grounds in the Manuscript Division as well as contemporary newspapers and an issue of American Forestry provide their fuller portraits.
They were:
- Corporal Charles Edwin Chambers (assistant to the chief of the Library’s Smithsonian Division), Company C , 312th Machine Gun Battalion, 79th Division who died in France at age 31 from pneumonia leaving behind his widow Virginia.
- Lieutenant Edward Theodore Comegys (Copyright Office), 11th Aero Squadron who died at age 22 on a bombing expedition behind German lines on the Lorraine Front. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
- Corporal Frank Edwin Dunkin (Copyright Office), Company I, 54th U.S. Infantry who died at age 26 in France from pneumonia. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
- Private John Woodbury Wheeler (Superintendent Building and Grounds Force), Company B, 104th Field Signal Battalion, 29th Division.
There were a total of 104 Library men who served in either the army or navy and 2 Library women who served in the Red Cross during World War I.
On December 7, 1920, Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam presided over a ceremonial planting, with a group of airplanes flying overhead, of a Japanese (although some sources say Chinese) elm with the names of those who died placed on a bronze tablet on the grounds of the “Congressional Library.” Dr. Putnam was accompanied by Rep. Julius Kahn, Chairman of the House Committee on Military Affairs; Col. E. Lester Jones, Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey; Capt. Garland Powell, commander of the Aero Squadron in which Comegys first served; the Marine Band; Capt. Frank Averill, Superintendent of the Library Building and Grounds; and members of the staff and relatives of the men. This tree is still flourishing close to the corner of First Street and Independence Avenue, S.E. The tablet has been tempered with age but you can still read the names of the men.
References
1) Cole, John Y. and Henry Hope Reed, eds. The Library of Congress: The Art and Architecture of the Thomas Jefferson Building (New York: Norton, 1997), 103.
2) Report of the Librarian of Congress and Report of the Superintendent of the Library Building and Grounds (1918), 6, 7; Ibid (1920), 6; Ibid(1921), 191.
3) “Library of Congress Honors Memory of Heroes,” American Forestry 27, no. 326 (February 1921), 76. (See scanned page in Google Books)
4) The Washington Herald (July 21, 1917), 5; The Washington Herald (Nov. 1, 1918), 11; Washington Evening Star (July 20, 1917); Washington Evening Star (August 7, 1917), 10; Washington Evening Star (May 26, 1921), 13; Washington Evening Star (May 28, 1921); The Washington Times (Dec 7, 1920), 3.
5) Arlington National Cemetery Database: https://ancexplorer.army.mil/publicwmv/index.html