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Association for Gravestone Studies
e-Newsletter
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AGS
Florida Chapter, April 28th Meeting
at the Italian Club Cemetery,
in Tampa, Florida.
Photo by Matt McMullen.
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| Association for Gravestone Studies Newsletter |
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AGS Membership
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The Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) was founded in 1977 for the purpose of furthering the study and preservation of gravestones. AGS is an international organization with an interest in gravemarkers of all periods and styles. Through its publications, conferences, workshops and exhibits, AGS promotes the study of gravestones from historical and artistic perspectives, expands public awareness of the significance of historic gravemarkers, and encourages individuals and groups to record and preserve gravestones.
If you're not an AGS member already, we want you to join! If you become a member, you will receive:
-The next published issue of
Markers
-Discounts on AGS publications
-Discounts on AGS conferences
-News and Notes about AGS Chapter meetings
To join, renew, or for more information, visit
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AGS Chapters
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Did you know that the AGS now has nineteen chapters? Our state and regional chapters work as local extensions
of AGS and thus, provide meeting and workshop opportunities at the local level.
Consider attending a meeting in your area. Here is a list of our current chapters and who to contact for more information.
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AGS Publications Available Online
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Past AGS Conference program books have been digitized and can be viewed on the UMass, Amherst Library website:
Also, some back issues of the
AGS Quarterly and
Markers can be viewed here:
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2018 AGS Conference, Danbury, Connecticut
Registration is Open!
Deadline: June 1st
After that date we cannot guarantee on campus lodging.
Some of the workshops and tours are already at capacity,
so register ASAP
to prevent missing out!
Our 2018 Conference Logo:
The Lilly Ferry Monument at
Wooster Cemetery in Danbury, CT
Photo by Bob Young
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Markers for sale at this year's conference
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AGS Quarterly -- 2018 theme issue: African American Markers
We are seeking articles for our 2018 theme issue - African American markers.
The issue is slated for publication late this year. Please send your article to
info@gravestonestudies.org by August 30th. Suggested length for articles is about 2,500 words.
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New AGS Young Professionals Group
Are you a young professional in the field of cemetery or gravestone research? Do you know young professionals in the field who may be interested in getting more involved in AGS? If so, the AGS Young Professionals group may be the right fit for you!
The mission of the Young Professionals group is to expand public awareness and support for the research, preservation, and conservation of grave markers and places of burial within the young professionals community. The group will act as an extension of the national AGS organization and actively participate in local chapter events, but will also organize and host its own events geared towards young professionals interested in the study and preservation of gravestones. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Ashlynn Rickord at
ashlynn@ashlynnrickord.com.
The AGS Young Professionals Group will be meeting on Friday, June 22,
4:30 - 5:30 PM, at the AGS Conference in Danbury, Connecticut.
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Report: AGS Florida Chapter, Spring 2018 Meeting
Members and friends joined together on April 28 in Tampa. We visited the Italian Club Cemetery, Centro Espanol Cemetery, Oaklawn Cemetery and Saint Louis Cemetery. We had lunch at noon on the patio at Ybor City State Park, with excellent cuban sandwiches provided by La Segunda Bakery. Thank you everyone! Park Ranger Jessica was very much appreciated!
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Report: AGS Western New England Chapter, Spring 2018 Meeting
On Saturday, May 5th -- one of our first spring-like days, hereabouts -- we met at the Hubbard Memorial Library in Ludlow, MA. The morning program, co-sponsored by the library, featured a presentation by Dave Robison. Dave, a professional genealogist and local historian, spoke about the creation of Quabbin Park Cemetery and told us about some of his experiences as a Find-a-Grave contributor. Quabbin Park Cemetery, located in Ware, MA, was established in the 1930s during construction of the Quabbin Reservoir. Quabbin is the principal water source for metropolitan Boston. During reservoir construction, the markers and remains from 6601 graves at 34 cemeteries in the Swift River Valley were moved to Quabbin Park.
Following Dave's presentation, Bob Drinkwater offered a brief introduction to some of the eighteenth- and early nineteenth- century stonecutters who worked in the local area.
The meeting provided an opportunity to introduce local residents to AGS. Twenty people attended the morning program -- AGS members from near and far, plus several local library patrons. After lunch, a few of us went on an informal tour of three local cemeteries.
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Report: AGS New York Chapter, Spring 2018 Meeting
The New York Chapter held a hands-on conservation workshop on May 5th at Green-Wood Cemetery -- many thanks to Neela Wickremesinghe, her team, and Green-Wood for hosting us! We learned techniques and best practices for gravestone cleaning, resetting and studio repairs.
Photos by Eva Bowerman.
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Report: AGS Ohio Chapter, Spring 2018 Meeting
Thanks to everyone who came out for the Spring 2018 meeting on May 12th in Akron.
The weather was beautiful!
The meeting was sponsored by Amanda Sedlak-Hevener.
Photos by Teresa Straley Lambert.
Glendale Cemetery.
Photo by Krista Horrocks.
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Report: AGS DC/Metro Chapter, Spring 2018 Meeting
Thanks to the rain for pausing, and thanks to all who came out for our Spring Meeting on May 19th at the historic Pohick Church Cemetery in Lorton, Virginia! Highlights were Civil War soldier graffiti on the cornerstones, George Washington's pew, a 1000-yr old baptismal font retrieved from a 19th c. local farmer's field (actually a prehistoric mortar), and the oldest marker in Fairfax County.
Will Harris,
oldest grave in Fairfax County,
moved from his family graveyard at Neabasco in Woodbridge.
Photos by Kara Van Dam.
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Report: Illinois Chapter, Spring 2018 Meeting
The Illinois Chapter 2018 Spring Meeting was a cemetery crawl starting in Lincoln, Illinois. Attendees gathered at the The Mill on Route 66 at 9:00 am on May 19th. The weather was excellent, with good light. Ten people showed up and we relocated a few blocks away to take a group photo at the number one attraction in Lincoln, the world's largest covered wagon that also has a giant statue of Lincoln reading a book.
The first cemetery we visited was the "Old Union Cemetery" in Lincoln; it is a nice little rural cemetery.
Next we visited Elkhart Cemetery in Elkhart IL. I think the most notable resident here is Richard James Oglesby, who was elected he 14th Governor of Illinois in 1864.
We had lunch Gina's Talk of the Town. The food was good.
After lunch the group traveled to Jacksonville, IL and visited the Diamond Grove Cemetery, notable for its father and son Illinois Governors, Richard Yates and Richard Yates Jr.
While in Jacksonville, we visited the final cemetery of the day, Jacksonville East Cemetery.
The weather held out all day and a good time was had by all.
Photo by Dave Chabala.
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Report: AGS Wisconsin Chapter, Spring 2018 Meeting
The rain held off during the AGS-Wisconsin Chapter's Spring Meeting on May 12th, creating the perfect weather for a cemetery tour--gray, but with the feeling that summer was coming. The meeting was held in Janesville, a town of over 60,000 in southern Wisconsin. Oak Hill Cemetery is the main cemetery in town and dates back to the 1850s, just a few years after Wisconsin officially became a state.
Photo by Carlin Hastings.
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Save the Date: New York Chapter Meeting, Hartsdale, New York
The New York Chapter of the Association for Gravestone Studies will hold its fall meeting on Saturday, September 29, 2018. The event will take place at Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Hartsdale, NY.
The meeting will include a morning session featuring talks on a variety of topics related to cemeteries and gravestone studies. In the afternoon there will be a walking tour led by Hartsdale Cemetery's Historian, Mary Thurston. More information will be announced closer to the date; email
evabowerman25@gmail.com to be added to the chapter mailing list.
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Copp's Hill: Evolution of a Puritan Burying Place 1659-The Present
This study of Boston's Copp's Hill Burying Ground was published last year by Barbara Donohue. It is unique as it is the only burying ground along the Freedom Trail whose landscape reflects over 300 years of changing ideas about death and burial practices. The death's head motif remains a somber reminder of a time long ago when insecurity dominated the lives of the Puritan settler. As Boston grew and ideas about life and death changed, so too did the images on the gravestones and eventually the landscape of the burying ground. While one goal of this book is to take the reader on a journey from the world of the Puritans to the world of today via the development of the Copp's Hill Burying Ground, the other is establish a fund to help preserve this fragile resource. To that end, a percentage of sales from the book will be donated to the North End Historical Society to advance preservation efforts in the burying ground. You can help by purchasing the book online at
seattlebookcompany.com
or
amazon.com
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Gravestone Preservation Workshop: Vermillion, Ohio
June 9 - 10
Hosted by Brownhelm Historical Association,
Brownhelm Cemetery
3025 North Ridge Road, Vermilion, Ohio 44089
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Preservation workshop, Woodbine Cemetery, Ellsworth, ME
The Woodbine Cemetery Board of Directors of Ellsworth has announced that the Maine Old Cemetery Association (MOCA) has selected Woodbine Cemetery for its annual 2018 four-day preservation workshop. The workshop will be held on site July 20-23.
This beginners workshop will teach all the skills taught at past four-day conservator-led programs. The public is invited to take part to learn methods of cleaning stones, straightening leaning tablet stones, replacing pins, making new bases, resetting dies into bases and more.
This workshop will be limited to those who have not participated in a previous Maine Old Cemetery Association four-day workshop. This event will be taught by nationally known preservation specialist Joe Ferrannini of Grave Stone Matters, based in Hoosick Falls, NY.
Sign-up will be via the MOCA website. Check the MOCA online calendar and
Facebook pages for more details. There will be approximately 25 openings available for this workshop.
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Summer and Fall Cemetery and Graveyard Tours, New York
New York State's next Path through History summer weekend is June 16-17. Over one hundred history-related events are planned around the state, some involving cemetery and graveyard tours. Participating sites include Forest Lawn in Buffalo, Oakwood in Troy, Oakwood in Syracuse, and Hamptonburgh Cemetery in Campbell Hall.
If you would like to list an event or tour of your cemetery, the fall weekend is October 6-8. Visit the website for more details:
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Presentation: Grave Landscapes: The Nineteenth-Century Rural Cemetery Movement
Buckhead Heritage Executive Director Richard Waterhouse invites everyone to attend Erica Danylchak's talk about the book she co-authored with the late James R. Cothran,
Grave Landscapes: The Nineteenth-Century Rural Cemetery Movement.
Erica will discuss the inspiration for rural cemeteries, their physical evolution, the nature of the landscapes they inspired, and the value of these cemeteries in the 21st century.
The lecture will be held at Cathedral of Saint Philip's Gould Room, 2744 Peachtree Road, NW, Atlanta, GA 30305 on Thursday, June 14th at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $10.00 for members and $20.00 for non-members.
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Presentation: Design in the Desert: The Perils, Pitfalls, and Successes of Cemetery Preservation Projects in a Desert Environment
Jennifer Shaffer Merry of the Association for Gravestone Studies and Cindy Lee and Debe Branning of the Pioneer Military and Memorial Park will be presenting "Cemetery Design in the Desert: The Perils, Pitfalls, and Successes of Cemetery Preservation Projects in a Desert Environment" at the Arizona Historic Preservation Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona on Friday, June 8, 2018.
This is a how-to on the proper research, planning, and implementation of a cemetery preservation project in a desert environment. As co-chairs for the AZ chapter of the Association for Gravestone Studies, we have spent many years traveling and studying cemeteries, gaining hands-on knowledge from top conservation experts in the field of cemetery preservation. This expertise was brought to a four-year preservation project at the Pioneer Military and Memorial Park for the Pioneers' Cemetery Association, and this presentation will share some of the perils, pitfalls, and successes from the project. We will give tips on what worked and what does not work, and how to adapt preservation methods from other places to our arid environment."
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Conference: Motivating Monuments: Defining Collective Identities in Public Spaces
University of Pittsburgh
November 2-3, 2018
The History of Art and Architecture symposium at the University of Pittsburgh is a showcase for young, professional scholarship in the history of art and other visually and historically oriented fields, held every two years by and for graduate students.
According to conference symposium organizers,
"The goal of this conference is to promote interdisciplinary discussions about the power invested in monuments and how individual attachments to them are persistently and profoundly mediated by shared group identities. This symposium takes objects as concrete manifestations of collective identities and will foster productive, in-depth discussions about the shared stakes of monuments. Conversations will unfold across premodern, early modern, modern, and contemporary topics, thematically linking research that might otherwise be isolated by disciplinary or historical divides."
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Conference: People's History - Local History: A Conference for Massachusetts History Organizations and People
Monday, June 4, 2018
From the program guide: "Join us for a day of learning and networking in peer sessions, workshops and hallways, sharing how historical organizations meet the challenges of today.
Explore skills development for professionals and volunteers in public history, figure out walking tour apps, discuss oral history methods, art and history, and share advocacy for public history. Find opportunities, grants and services for your oganization!"
Keynote Speaker
Franklin Odo, Amherst College, editor of the new Asian American Pacific Islander, National Historic Landmarks Theme Study of the National Park Service.
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"Cinematery" at Congressional Cemetery
Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC will be showing movies on the Cemetery grounds this summer.
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Grants Available for Historic Signs/Markers in New York State
The William G. Pomeroy Foundation, partnering with the New York Folklore Society, announces Legends and Lore, a marker grant program to promote cultural tourism and commemorate legends and folklore as part of New York's history.
ELIGIBILITY
Grants are available to 501(c)3 organizations and municipalities within New York State.
GRANT DEADLINES
June 30, 2018 or October 31, 2018
APPLY ON-LINE!
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Query: Terminology
Ryan Seidemann asks, "Is there terminology that specifies the position relationship between the gravestone vs. the burial shaft? In a Mississippi cemetery where I've been working, for the viewer looking at the front of the headstone, the shaft is behind or beyond the headstone. In a Texas cemetery, the grave is in front. That is, when viewing the front of the headstone, the viewer would (potentially) be standing on the grave shaft. Are there words or phrases to distinguish these two relationships? Do these relationships reflect a deliberate cultural practice? I'd like to include the point/observation in reports to (a) justify location of data collection and (b) so that decades or a century later when stones are missing, the information might prove valuable to persons trying to clean up and locate graves."
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Query: Name for Marble Slabs in Mausoleums
We had an additional query about gravestone terminology: A researcher is looking for the name given to the marble slabs in mausoleums, on which the caskets sit. He believes it is a classical name. Please contact David Osborne at 914-667-4116.
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Query: Ideas to help prevent damage to cemetery in Connecticut
Bill Van Loan sent in this query. The Maple Street Cemetery in New Canaan, CT,
was founded in 1824 by Ezra Benedict.
A real estate developer and the town of New Canaan
are in the final stages of issuing
a building permit that affects part of this cemetery,
and which removes the original right of way to it from 1824.
I would like the names of lawyers in the Darien, New Canaan and Southern Connecticut area
that could help me stop this.
Any ideas would be great. Please contact Bill Van Loan at
203-655- 4475 or email wrvanloan@yahoo.com.
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New Interactive Map: Bisbee (AZ) Cemetery
The City of Bisbee in Arizona is now offering a modern search of Evergreen Cemetery. The burial location of the person you are researching will now pop up in an interactive map. Visit
http://cityofbisbee.cemsites.com/.
Let them know how it works!
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 Blog: "Colma is Running Out of Cemetery Space"
This blog was posted on
San Francisco Weekly.
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Blog Post: "Gravestones Bite the Dust"
This blog post, on the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training website, is a comic by Johnna Rizzo and Matthew Twombly about how gravestones can deteriorate over time.
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Article: "Volunteers to conduct cleaning workshop at Gray [ME] cemetery"
This article is posted on the Sun-Journal website.
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Article: "Is the Cemetery Dead?"
This article by David Sloane is posted on the
Boston Globe website.
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Article: "Wonders of Woodlawn" (Bronx, New York)
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Article: "The Guardians of Portland's [Oregon] Lone Fir Cemetery"
This article, posted on the-line-up.com, is about James and Elizabeth Stephens' gravestone.
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Articles: Cholera Mass Graves and Athens [Greece] Cemetery
These articles are posted on the
Atlas Obscura website.
"Cholera Mass Graves of Fink Cemetery" (Lafayette, Indiana)
"First Cemetery of Athens"
The oldest cemetery of modern-day Athens, Greece, blends the modern and ancient worlds.
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Article: "How American Cemeteries Promise To Keep Your Grave Forever"
This article is posted on NPR's
Planet Money website.
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Article: "Council members take up the cause of the Hart Island [NY] bereaved"
This article is posted on the Politico website.
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Article: "Student historians crack the mysteries of Ephrata Cloister's gravestones"
This article was posted on
Lancaster Online.
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Article: "A Civil War soldier forgotten in an unmarked grave is honored once again"
This article was posted on
Lehigh Valley Live.
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 Article: "Running out of space: Arlington Cemetery eligibility subject to survey"
This article was posted at the WTOP website.
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Article: "Prairie Central geography class mapping cemetery"
This article was posted on
Pontiac Daily Reader.
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