QR Codes Bring Black History to Life at DC’s Congressional Cemetery

By Potomac Photonics
Category: 3D Printing, Articles, Company, Industry

Laser Marked QR Codes help a headstone company bring black history to life for a Washington, D.C. cemetery.

In recent years, Potomac has done some rather interesting laser coding and marking work for customers.  With the current celebration of black history month, we’d like to share one such project using QR Codes to help a headstone company bring black history to life for a Washington, D.C. cemetery.

Congressional Cemetery is an historic resting place for many figures associated with American history.  Previously known as the Washington Parish Burial Ground, it was a logical extension that the Capitol Hill location would encourage Congress to purchase sites and build monuments to Congressmen who had died in office. Around 1830 everyone started to simply refer to it as Congressional Burying Ground, later Congressional Cemetery, and the name stuck.  It is a private non-profit organization and has no government affiliation, but Congressional Cemetery is still an important link to the people who have been in the U.S. government, as well as the ordinary citizens who played a part in our nation’s history.

Congressional Cemetery is an historic resting place for many figures associated with American history.

Wanting to tell the story of the men and women interred on their grounds, Congressional Cemetery turned to Rusty Sams, the owner of Oakview memorials in neighboring Waldolf, MD.  Rusty knew that it would be a great time to bring some 21st century tools to the cemetery’s historic perspective.  He suggested using QR Codes on the headstones of the historical figures that would link to website pages about the person’s story.

The cemetery chose to begin with four people who were instrumental in the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses used to help slaves escape to the North.  The term is also is applied to both black and white abolitionists who aided in bringing these human beings to freedom.  One of the black freedom champions didn’t even have a headstone.  In addition to building new tombstones for Congressional Cemetery, Rusty worked on adding a QR Code that would tell the details of the individual’s contribution.

“I added 1.25” x 1.25” square plaques to the headstones,” explains Rusty, “but needed a process that would withstand the elements.”  Metal plaques fit the bill but he needed a marking process that worked on metal.  “It was hard to find a supplier who could make the plaques,” says Rusty.  I called perhaps 30 vendors in the DC area and most didn’t know what I meant by QR Codes.”

Potomac President and CEO Mike Adelstein explains that laser engraving QR Codes is not an easy process.  “We’ve worked for years, not just to be able to create precise marks. Potomac also had to configure the interface with the QR Code readers on smartphones since platforms vary and it is not standardized.  With more and more application for QR Codes, we refined the entire process to better serve our coding and marking customers.”

Congressional Cemetery is an historic resting place for many figures associated with American history.

Potomac can put QR Codes on virtually any surface including glass, plastics, and metals such as anodized aluminum or stainless steel.  The laser marks are great for QR Codes since without burning or charring they are crisp and clean enough to be read by the smartphone readers.

“The tags were exactly what I was looking for,” says Rusty.  “In addition to having a good technical solution, Potomac listened and I had the best customer experience.  They took the same steps I take in my business, working to get the best end result for our customers.”

Rusty is looking forward to Congressional Cemetery recognizing more historic figures in the future.  But in the meantime, Potomac is pleased to be a part of keeping the Underground Railroad story alive in celebration of Black History Month.

We’re proud to announce that the Women’s Center at UMBC and Women of Color Coalition were recently awarded a $5,000 grant from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). The 2014–15 AAUW Campus Action Project (CAP) grants, sponsored by Pantene’s Shine Strong campaign, fund student led projects that fight stereotypes and biases.In addition to the AAUW CAP grant, we were also awarded a $500 community project grant from BreakingGround to help support this ambitious campaign. 

Our project, called “Telling Our Stories: I’m Not/I Am,” aims to 1) raise awareness and reject stereotypes about women of color, and 2) create space for women of color voices and counternarratives. Following a series of consciousness-raising discussions over the past year, many of our students saw the need to promote visibility and community-building among WoC in order to stand in solidarity against racist and sexist microaggressions. First-year student Jahia Knobloch vividly describes the harmful impact that stereotyping can have on women of color: 

Women of color are blessed with so many gifts: our beauty, compassion, ingenuity and grace are unparalleled. But too often our gifts are ignored, with ruthless stereotypes and myths being built around our existence which casting us into either unthreatening or highly exoticized and eroticized roles.

My first realizations about what it means to be a woman of color came, as so many realizations do, because of discrimination. Around the age of fourteen, I began receiving attention from boys and men. Many of these attentions were flattering; some were offensive and others downright menacing. But some of the most memorable comments I received were from non-POC boys and men. These comments were memorable only in their flabbergasting ignorance about what being attracted to a women of color apparently means in the minds of non-POC boys and men. Some examples: “I’ve never been with a Black girl before,” “You’re so pretty because you’re mixed—you’re lucky you only got the good features of being Black,” “I love your hair, it’s so dark,” and the jaw-dropping “I love the way your dark skin looks against my white skin.” Really dude?

I came to realize that as a woman of color, you are forced by proxy to represent the exotic “other”—a taste of a world in which non-POC men dare not venture into past a certain point. Even with our own races, we can be subjugated to lesser roles because of our status as women. Yet what those who wish to make us less-than do not see is that we can be the strongest of champions: not only for ourselves, but for our people and all those who are oppressed. We are a force to be reckoned with.

For me, dismantling stereotypes is so important because it gives us as WOC a chance to show that there is no “other.” We will not be your African, Asian, Latin, Native American or interracial vacation to the dark continent. We will not be a stop on your experimental college road trip for you to regale your friends about. We will not be a tourist attraction, an item on your bucket list or a milestone. We will only be us: beautiful, intelligent and independent. We will only be as strong as we have been made to be from centuries of oppression. We will continue to carry our status as WOC not as a burden, but as a gift. We will tell our stories. We will be heard.

By launching the project with the “I’m Not” poster campaign, we hope to disrupt the misguided assumption that racialized gender stereotyping is not a problem for our campus community. Click here to see the latest posters from the campaign! 

The second phase of the project consists of creative skill-building workshops which will culminate in a “Telling Our Stories: I Am” showcase. We intend to go beyond challenging the misrepresentation of women of color and actually create a platform dedicated to their authentic self-representation. Women of Color Coalition member-at-large Bree Best explains the importance of storytelling: 

Not only does telling your story tell people who you are but It give a different perspective of how to view things. These stories are needed and you, woman of color, have the pen in your hand ready to write it.

At the end of the showcase, I don’t want the conversation of women of color telling their stories to stay stagnant. I want this to continue because there are many “untold stories” in the woman of color sphere that need to be heard. These need to be heard so that they can help heal the multigenerational hurt that women of color have accrued. I believe if we tell our stories people will understand better how to heal or not hurt us through racial interactions.

The Telling Our Stories showcase will celebrate the creative self-expression of women of color and empower them to reclaim their own narratives. The showcase will be held on Wednesday, April 29th from 6-8pm in the Commons Sports Zone. 

Be sure to like Women of Color Coalition on Facebook and follow us on Tumblr for more news and updates on the Telling Our Stories project!