New York City
Landmarks Preservation Commission
Gravestone Project

Introduction

Cemeteries are outdoor museums which reflect changes in culture just as
vividly as they reveal genealogical records.  Cemetery gravestones mirror
trends in social history, art, and architecture, and cemetery grounds are
often important examples of landscape design.  They therefor merit the same
public attention and preservation given to historic houses and other
landmarks of America's heritage.

Why study historic gravestones?

_Gravestones_are_documents_in_stone._  They may be the only surviving records
providing information on life spans, infant mortality, sex roles, occupations,
ethnic status, and social class.  When other sources have survived,
gravestones can often fill in the gaps left in the written historical record.

_Gravestones_are_works_of_art._  Early American stones are the work of our
nation's Colonial artisans, and the carved designs are a folk art.  Later,
in the Victorian era, cemeteries reflect significant trends in art,
architecture, and urban planning.  The more elaborate Victorian nineteenth
century cemeteries often include sculptures and mausoleums which rival
museum pieces in esthetic and technique.

_Cemeteries_reflect_America's_attitude_toward_death._  Colonial cemeteries
were pious reminders of the brevity of life and the stark surety of death,
mitigated by the promise of eternity.  The designs on Colonial stones were
simple because colonists believed that protracted mourning and ostentatious
displays of grief were an affront to God and a chellenge to the Divine plan.
Death was a humbling reminder of an individual's mortality and God's
omnipotence.  In contrast, the more elaborate nineteenth century Victorian
motifs reveal how attitudes had evolved or changed since the Colonial period.
The Romantic cemeteries of Victorian America celebrated death as the step
into immortality from a life on earth, which, if fortunately lived with
success, hinted at the richness to come in the eternal life.  The Victorians
believed that worldly success affirmed God's plan.  Therefore, it was no
longer considered impious to display one's material wealth and social status
in the erection of splendid monuments or mausoleums.  Thus the success of
the deceased could be proudly memorialized rather than recalled with humility
as in the Colonial period.

Materials

The earliest surviving New York City gravestone dates from 1681.  Colonial
stones were carved from schist from Manhattan and Connecticut, sandstones
from Connecticut and New Jersey, and slates from Massachusetts and Rhode
Island.  Occasionally, stones were imported from Europe.  Between 1800 and
1820, marble was increasingly preferred for monuments and sculptures.
However, by the last decade of the nineteenth century it was apparent that
marble deteriorated quickly in the urban environment.  The predominant use
of granite has continued ever since.

Throughout the nineteenth century, mausoleums and elaborate monuments
utilized a wide variety of stones including brownstones and colored granites.
Cast iron fencing, monument trim crafted from a variety of metals, and semi-
precious stones complemented the ornate markers and mausoleums of Victorian
cemeteries.

Motifs

The symbols most frequently found on Colonial stones are:

1) death's heads with wings or crossbones
2) cherub or angel heads with wings
3) ornate or prominently carved initials of the deceased
4) flowers
5) Masonic designs

Infrequently, Colonial stones include a unique symbol such as a cannon or
portrait.  The majority of the Colonial stones in New York City include
nothing more than inscriptions and dates.  Stones showing surnames of Dutch,
English, Irish, Scottish, German, French, Flemish, Scandanavian, and Jewish
ancestry were found throughout the city in Colonial cemetery grounds
affiliated with their respective congregations and sometimes within the same
burial grounds, but the texts or phrases inscribed on the majority of the
stones were inscribed in English whatever their ancestry.  The surnames
reveal the continuous tolerance extended to diverse ethnic groups by the
Colonial Dutch and English.

After 1840, as Victorian cemetery art evolved, sculptures increasingly
adorned monuments.  Mausoleums as well as monuments reflected popular
nineteenth century architectural styles such as Egyptian and Gothic Revivals.
On individual stones, Colonial motifs such as cherubs and angels continued to
be used but the number of motifs increased profusely.

Among the more popular motifs used during the Victorian period were the
following:

Motifs and their Meanings

ANCHORS Hope

ANGELS AND CHERUBS Heavenly messengers, guides

BOUQUETS Condolences, mourning

DOVES The soul; purity; Holy Ghost

FLOWER WITH BROKEN STEM Life cut off in bloom (especially regarding youth)

HANDSHAKES Spiritual union; farewell

LAMBS Innocence; Christ; sacrifice

SHEAF OF WHEAT Bounty of the earth; a full life

TORCHES INVERTED Death

URNS Mortality; the container of the soul

WILLOWS Gospel of Christ; mourning

WREATHS Victory over sin and death


Landscape

Colonial cemeteries were usually situated next to the church with a
minimum of landscaping.  Victorian cemeteries were built in response to
the pressures of expanding urban populations at a time when urban land
values were increasing.  The cemeteries were built in areas that at the
time were less expensive rural suburbs but are now part of the city proper.

The landscape design of Victorian cemeteries is reflected in the terms
frequently applied to these cemeteries: "Romantic," "rural," and "garden."
Victorian cemeteries were based on precepts established in England during
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by such visionaries as Capability
Brown and Humphrey Repton.  These concepts were popularized and further
developed in America by landscape architects such as A. J. Downing, Calvert
Vaux, and Frederick Law Olmsted.  Their plans emphasized the picturesque
planning of man-made pools, curving paths, and idyllic vistas set amidst
plantings of both native and exotic trees.  The overall effect was that of
nature preserved -- and rearranged -- by the hand of man and protected from
the corrupt city.

The park-like effect was designed to achieve two goals of the Romantic ideal:
both to delight the beholder and to lift the individual's thoughts to a more
spiritual plane.  They were also designed to act as public parks, outdoor
museums of sculptures, and arboretums.  A Sunday afternoon horse-drawn
carriage ride through the cemetery, a stroll around the grounds, and even a
picnic lunch amidst the monuments became popular forms of recreation in the
Victorian era.

Preservation

In the twentieth century, attitudes toward death are as culturally complex
as they have ever been.  As in the past, they are different from beliefs
held by preceding generations.  Today's views of immortality, whether
optimistic or skeptical, place less emphasis on the importance of memorials
than Victorian Americans did.  Although for admittedly different reasons,
today's stones are reminiscent of Colonial America's minimal emphasis on
markers.  The twentieth century's increasing reluctance to bear the full
cost of cemetery upkeep threatens to destroy the heritage of America's
earlier cemeteries.  Maintenance costs for monuments, cast iron fencing and
landscaping are increasingly difficult to fund.  Even more striking are the
effects upon cemeteries of age and environmental pollution.

Some congregations, civic organizations, and local governments have advocated
a return to the Victorians' use of cemeteries as public parks.  One such
example is the welcome extended by Trinity Parish in lower Manhattan to
people on their lunch hour who may bring sandwiches and eat on benches placed
throughout Trinity's two graveyards, utilizing the cemeteries in ways not
unlike the Victorians who picnicked in and enjoyed the park-like setting of
their cemeteries.

Some municipalities have converted cemetery chapels and gatehouses into
local history museums or community centers.  Tours focusing on both the
historical and esthetic aspects of old cemeteries can serve to increase
community awareness and interest so that adequate funds can be raised to
preserve deteriorating monuments.  Because so many of the old cemeteries
contain a variety of trees, bushes, and flowers, historic cemeteries are
obvious attractions for horticultural groups and garden clubs.  You may
wish to write for further information by contacting the following
organizations:

     The Association for Gravestone Studies
     c/o American Antiquarian Society
     Worcester, MA 01609

     Friends of Mt. Hope Cemetery (Victorian)
     791 Mt. Hope Avenue
     Rochester, NY 14620

     New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
     20 Vesey Street
     New York, NY 10007

8 responses total.

Very interesting, Larry.  Did you write this for publication?

No, no, this was the text of a brochure published by the New York Landmarks
Commission (illustrated with lots of nifty photographs!).

I don't agree with it 100%, but it is about the best short statements on
the subject I have seen.

Michigan's historic cemeteries badly need some efforts on behalf of their
preservation.  I'd like to see New York's project duplicated here.

The best tmobstone i ever saw was in Milan. All it had on the grave was a big
ARRIVEDERCI!...goodbye in italian

What an Item Antiquarian you are. These are all moldy enough to be
interesting again - like fine cheese?

Rane, it is up to us to save this conference from total obscurity...
Tally-ho!

This is a "rare piece". I didn't know it was here until you got it
to turn over in its .... ahh...grave? Perhaps there is a need for
a conference on grave matters, considering how many there are on silly
matters.

Hee Hee.......(laughs>

For more information on historic cemetery preservation, see the links
at http://polygon.intranet.org/cemeteries.html

Response not possible - You must register and login before posting.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss