Lumber from World War I Research at the Forest Products Laboratory Helps Repair the U.S. Capitol Building

Abstract

The United States Capitol building was breached on January 6, 2021. Historically significant materials, many made of wood, were stolen, damaged, or destroyed. Shortly after the breach, the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) was contacted by the Department of Defense and the Architect of the Capitol and asked to provide technical advice and vintage lumber to aid in restoration efforts. This technical report includes the following: (1) details of FPL efforts to provide vintage lumber specimens to the Architect of the Capitol staff for use in repair of the U.S. Capitol building, (2) information on the vintage lumber, including background on the original supplier of the lumber to FPL, and (3) a brief review of the propeller research conducted at FPL during World War I, which was the original use of the vintage lumber.

Citation

Allison, R.B.; Anderson, J.R.; Androff, A.L.; Ross, R.J.; Senalik, C.A.; Hagan, J.; Oehrlein, M.L.; Kamprath, N.; York, K. 2022. Lumber from World War I research at the Forest Products Laboratory helps repair the U.S. Capitol building. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-296. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. 12 p. https://doi.org/10.2737/FPL-GTR-296.