If Cemeteries Could Talk

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If Cemeteries Could Talk

• What we could learn from a walk in the cemetery

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Within Each community, cemeteries are among the
most fascinating, richest, and often the most
neglected sources of historical information. The
age of the community, its ethnic composition and
the impact made by immigration can be determined
by investigating gravestones. The style of
gravestone, the symbolism of their art and their
inscriptions reflect religious beliefs, social
class, values, as well as cultural change over
time. - Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Burial Practices

• Burial practices vary from culture to culture and
  across time, for that reason we will confine our
  discussion to Western European or Euro-American
  practices.

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What should I look for?Questions to ask

• Available cemetery records alone do not tell the
  complete story.
• The inscription can tell us something about the
  individual.
• Symbols can often tell us about something they
  believed in or about an organization to which
  they belonged
• Grave placement or relative proximity why was
  the person buried close to someone or separated
  by some distance? Is this a reflection of their
  place in a relationship while among the living?
• Are the families buried around them any relation?

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Observe

• Were the internments (burials) in a section made
  at or about the same time?
• Judging from the birth and death dates were the
  people about the same age at the time of death?
• Do any of the dates coincide with known events in
  local history. (wars, famines, epidemics, floods
  or other natural disaster)
• Does this section of the cemetery give evidence
  that it was set aside to receive members of the
  armed forces or clergy etc.?

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Reasons for human burial

• Sanitation avoid unpleasant odors from
  bacterial decomposition
• Remove from view remember appearance as it was
  in life
• Respect remains are not open to visible decay
  or predation by animals
• Bring closure pain of loss can be lessened (out
  of sight out of mind almost)
• Step in the process from life to an afterlife

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Burial Places

• Cremation while always the norm in India is
  growing among Western Cultures
• Places also include in mounds of earth,
  underground caverns and in temples
• Modern times bury dead below ground with stone
  markers to mark the place - almost universal in
  western culture

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Marking the Location

• Serves two main purposes
• Grave will not accidentally be exhumed
• Contains information or tributes to the deceased
• Form of remembrance for loved ones
• Form of immortality

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Marking contd.

• Marked grave lasting memory, fondness respect
• Unmarked grave consignment to oblivion or an
  ignominious end, disdain and disrespect

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Anonymous Burial
Normandy France
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Washington D.C.
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Secret Burial

• Walt Disney
• Eva Peron (Evita)

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Why study gravestones?

• History should include the lives of ordinary
  people and events
• Stones mark the graves of ordinary people
• Gravestones provide valuable information about
  family genealogy, local history, medical history,
  religious history and changing fashion in art and
  literature
• The power of the cemetery is its call never to
  forget the loved ones who have gone before us

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History Development of Cemeteries

• 1620 1820s - Church Yard cemeteries follow
  British custom in the church or church yard
• 1831 - 1855 rural or garden cemetery
  movement
• Three great gardens Garden of Eden (place of
  creation a beginning)
• Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives (prayer,
  betrayal transition to a new life)
• Garden of the Holy Sepulcher (resurection,new
  life and reward)
• 1855 1920 lawn and memorial park movement
• 1920 present

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Rural Cemeteries Mt. Hope Cemetery Rochester
Grave of Frederick Douglas
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Forest Lawn Buffalo NY
Birge Memorial
Blocher Monument
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Cemetery Symbolism
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Anchor
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Angel
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Broken Column
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Celtic Cross
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Dove
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Draped Urn
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Freemasons
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Hands
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Ivy
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Lamb
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Lily
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Lyre
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Mound
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Obelisk
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Orb
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Rose
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Sarcophagus
Forest Lawn
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Sarcophagus contd.
Mount Calvary Cemetery
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Torch
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Tree Trunk
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Urn
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Willow Tree
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GAR
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Gravestones as Material Culture tell us something
about the deceased. Views Values
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Negative view of death
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Only slightly more positive
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Positive View
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Note Picture of home in Germany pictured on
face of stone
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Proud Irish Heritage??
Shamrock Image of St. Patrick
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An image frozen in time. Looking out and beyond
the grave.
Note the open collar and leisure suit fashion of
the 1970s and early 80s
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Signature of last name placement close together
indicates probable relation.
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A loving couple? Remembered that way for all time.
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Father Son / Brother Uncle
Note hair style and plaid shirt.
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Hair style beard typical of 1970s
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Interest or participation in sports for a 17 year
old
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The loss of a child cannot be replaced regardless
of the beauty of the sculpture that marks the
passing
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The Lord said the times when you have seen
only one set of footprints my child, I have
carried you!
Love is immortal
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Inscriptions

• The inscription reads Molly tho pleasant in her
  day was suddenly seized and sent away. How soon
  shes ripe because shes rotten, sent to her
  grave and now forgotten

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Sears Catalog Tombstones
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For Further Reading Study

• Farrell, James J. Inventing the American Way of
  Death. Philadelphia Temple University of
  Pennsylvania Press, 1980.
• French, Stanley. The Cemetery as Cultural
  Institution The Establishment of Mount Auburn
  and the Rural Cemetery Movement. Stannard,
  David E., Editor, Death In America. Philadelphia
  University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975.

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Further Reading contd.

• Mitford, Jessica, The American Way of Death. New
  York Simon and Schuster, 1963.

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Websites of Interest

• http//www.forest-lawn.com/
• http//www.gravestonestudies.org
• www.sellersfuneralhome.com
• http//ah.bfn.org/a/forestL/symbols/index.html
• http//members.tripod.com/wnyroots/