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Arlington National Cemetery

national cemetery in Virginia, United States

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ216344 ↗
Source-derived summary

Arlington National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington County, Virginia.

Arlington National Cemetery was established on 13 May 1864, during the American Civil War. It was named after Arlington Estate, the land on which the cemetery was built. This land had been confiscated by the U.S. federal government from the private ownership of Confederate States Army general Robert E. Lee's family following a tax dispute over the property. The cemetery is managed by the U.S. Department of the Army. As of 2024, it conducts approximately 27 to 30 funerals each weekday and between six and eight services on Saturday, or 141 to 158 per week.

In April 2014, Arlington National Cemetery Historic District, including Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington House, Memorial Drive, the Military Women's Memorial, and Arlington Memorial Bridge, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

19th century

In 1802, George Washington Parke Custis, the grandson of George Washington's wife Martha through her first marriage, began building Arlington House on a property, Arlington Plantation, that he inherited from John Parke Custis, his natural father, following his death. Custis went to live at Mount Vernon where George Washington and Martha raised him as their own son.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Arlington National Cemetery” as national cemetery in Virginia, United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1864, 2024, 2014, 1802—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1854. The account is most persuasive where Arlington, National and Cemetery can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as national cemetery in Virginia, United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q216344. VIAF identifies the subject as 136150437. The Library of Congress control number is n88155885. Authority coordinates are 38.878, -77.069. 4 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 2 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1864, 2024, 2014 and 1802.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Arlington National Cemetery primary sources, Arlington National Cemetery archive and Arlington research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Arlington National Cemetery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.