File:50. Don H. Castleberry, Acting Regional Director, Mid Atlantic Region to James T. Broyhill, House of Representatives June 26 (14232b63-be16-4c0a-b937-c17cf5ea67b5).jpg

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Jun 26 1984 Honorable James T. Broyhill, N. C. House of Representatives 2340 Rayburn House Office Building Washington D.C. 20515 Dear Mr. Broyhill: Your wrote to our national director, Mr. Russell E. Dickenson, in connection with the request of Mr. Jeff Stepp, President of the Society for the Historical Preservation of the 26th North Carolina Troops, Inc. Director Dickenson has asked us to answer you. Mr. Stepp has requested that we allow Mr. Eleftherious Karkadoulias to work on the North Carolina monument at Gettysburg National Military Park, that he be allowed to use the ball peening method and that he be permitted to use his secret coating. The North Carolina Legislature would appropriate funds for this. We will discuss the points he raises individually: 1. Mr. Karkadoulias is a fine craftsman. You will be interested to know that when we embarked on a monument preservation program at Gettysburg, in 1978, Mr. Karkadoulias was awarded the first contract. He has been working at Gettysburg almost every year since then. 2. Glass bead peening is another matter. When the idea was first proposed, conservators were captivated by it. We even contracted to have Mr. Karkadoulies apply the system to some of our monuments at Gettysburg. Now that the system has been used for some years and conservators have been able to monitor the results, the Park Service has abandoned the process. Last fall the Park Service held a symposium at Gettysburg on the conservation of outdoor bronze sculpture. There was unanimous agreement among the speakers, both from within and outside the Park Service, that peening actually alter the surface metal structure and is therefore irreversible.

• Keywords: Gettysburg; Gettysburg National Military Park; Photography; monuments; memorials; virtual experience; battlefield