Cemeteries: a cultural resource

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Comment by Joanne Riley on October 6, 2009 at 12:00am

Hi all - I've posted a listing that I saw on H-Net about a scholarship and award for Gravestone studies. It's here on the network under the "Classifieds" tab - http://mastudies.ning.com/classifieds/index/view?id=1187051:Classified:13219

Comment by Joanne Riley on June 4, 2009 at 11:16am

City of Boston's HBGI website displays histories of the 16 burying grounds it manages, with ability to search historic headstones and gravestone iconography.

Historic Burying Grounds Initiative
Boston's historic cemeteries are important examples of the City's early landscape, linking contemporary Boston with a rich historical legacy. The City of Boston has sixteen historic burying grounds and three larger garden-style cemeteries under its jurisdiction which date between 1630 and 1892 and are located in thirteen Boston neighborhoods. The burying grounds house a rich collection of historic artifacts that tell many stories about Boston's cultural heritage.

The Historic Burying Grounds Initiative (HBGI) is a public/private cooperative program established within the Boston Parks and Recreation Department with the history of the initiative dating back to the early 1970's. Its mission is the comprehensive restoration, on-going conservation, and heritage interpretation of Boston's sixteen historic burying grounds."

Comment by Betty F. Slade on May 30, 2009 at 7:26am

I invite you to view our website for Westport, Ma. We started by identifying and registering the private historic cemeteries in Westport and now are recording information on two of the three public cemeteries. We invite your comments. http://westport.loreprojects.com/home.cfm

Comment by Rob Gregg on May 22, 2009 at 7:40am

This article points to community programs being established to interpret the cultural resources of cemeteries.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2009/05/21/crossroads_of_nature_notables_mysteries/?page=full

Comment by Rob Gregg on April 11, 2009 at 6:59am

Vine Lake Preservation Trust was founded to preserve, enhance, interpret, and celebrate Medfield's historic Vine Lake Cemetery.

Here is the press release: http://www.wickedlocal.com/medfield/town_info/history/x180632633/Trust-formed-to-preserve-interpret-Vine-Lake-Cemetery

Here is the Trust's website: www.vinelakepreservationtrust.org

Comment by Ellie Bailey on August 12, 2008 at 9:03am

Hello Group,
Sounds like there's some exciting preservation work going on. Hope to hear more about it.
Ellie

Comment by Rob Gregg on July 13, 2008 at 8:44am

Elise,

Your comments and questions are provacative.

The GIS data to be collected includes: Section #; Lot # and Grave #, or just Grave #; Type; Placement; Material; Condition; Inscription condition.

On an Excel worksheet is listed: Surname; Given name;
Death Year; Inscription; Veteran status.

Photographs will be considered for the on-line Catalog.

You bring up a worthy consideration when you mention software. The Excel worksheet is now landscape legal, providing a row for each deceased person. When the GIS information is added to it, I anticipate the row to be many times its present size. Already at 108 pages, I sense the completed hard-copy report will be almost cumbersome once the GIS information is added.

I sense another software application might need to be considered, perhaps FileMaker. Thank you for suggesting an exploration of other solutions.

Rob

Comment by Elise Madeleine Ciregna on July 8, 2008 at 5:48pm

Hi,

Rob, this sounds like a really interesting project. I am currently preparing a similar monument survey project at Forest Hills, in which we will attempt (with the help of dedicated volunteers and/or interns) to completely survey selected areas of the historic core of Forest Hills. We are using a survey form for the field work on which we plan to capture much of the same info as you, including GPS location, inscription etc., but also as much info about the material culture itself of each monument as possible: shape, design, motif, material, or stonecutter signature (if extant or visible). There is also a photography component in the project--many/most of our 19th c marbles are deteriorating, so we are trying to capture as much information as possible before they become too eroded to be legible.

Are you using anything besides Excel for the technology portion? Are you including photographs as documentation, or not? We are having this discussion with folks at Mt. Auburn and elsewhere--apart from very expensive (and for us, untouchable right now) cemetery software which is meant to track the accounts receivables and trusts on currently active lots, and not so much the cataloguing of "historic" monuments, there really isn't any software for this kind of cataloguing project, other than adapting other kinds of software, like Filemaker.

Your thoughts? Anyone else? Also, anyone who has made it to the end of this "comment" (sorry!) who is AT ALL interested in being part of this survey project, or who has students/colleagues who might be interested, please do let me know! It will be fun work, I promise.....and lively too!

Elise

Elise

Comment by Rob Gregg on July 4, 2008 at 4:28pm

Using today’s technology, a new Catalog of Graves and Inscriptions of the Old Section of Medfield’s Vine Lake Cemetery is being compiled. Two earlier projects addressed distinct parts; now both aspects will be merged and augmented. In 1899, five ambitious persons (William S. Tilden, Joseph H. Baker, Harriet A. Fowle, Henry E. Marshall, Stillman J. Spear) compiled a truly remarkable Catalog of Inscriptions. Seventy-seven years later, Medfield resident Ellen Gruhn and her mother, Elsa Bartels, collected an extensive list of graves, a project directed by the Medfield Historical Commission. In 1978 Betty Kaerwer of Medfield retraced the original 1927 map.

After inputting all the data from the first hand-written Catalog and the second typed collection into an Excel spreadsheet, a new Catalog will be comprised of three sections: the first sorted in grave-number order, the next in surname order, and the third listing the veterans and the war of participation. The Catalog’s three formats will be hard-copy, CD-ROM, and on-line at the Town of Medfield’s website.

The new Catalog will be beneficial to 1) the administrative community which has charge of the Old Section [the Highway Department, the Cemetery Commission], 2) the archival community which has historical concerns [the Medfield Historical Society, the Medfield Historical Commission, the Medfield Public Library, the New England Historic Genealogical Society], and 3) genealogists who record family history.

Beyond listing the surname, given name, death year, and inscription for the deceased, additional information will be available for a truly complete record. The grave location by number and sub-section will allow researchers to more quickly locate the grave on a newly up-dated 2008 map. Next, information will be gathered from on-site data collection which will describe in extensive detail the present condition of the monument, headstone, and footstone.

The Town of Medfield is incorporating G.P.S. (Global Positioning System) as an integral part of all mapping projects. This technological tool will be used during data collection in the cemetery. Users can then easily locate gravestones with their own hand-held devices. G.P.S. is yet another dimension of technology used to facilitate easier access to history.

In preparation for data collection, an extensive step is underway in the Old Section to locate missing and hidden headstones, footstones, and markers. Regrettably, since 1899 and 1976, numerous gravestones have toppled, broken, disappeared, or been overgrown. Soil and sod continue to hide these treasures; however, careful searching and excavation is beginning to reduce significantly the number of lost artifacts.

The new Catalog of Graves and Inscriptions of the Old Section of Medfield’s Vine Lake Cemetery awaits a hopeful publication in the fall of 2008.

Comment by Kim Zunino on July 1, 2008 at 9:26am

I love old cemeteries and have been working toward preserving an abandoned graveyard in Lowell that dates back to the mid-17th century. I discovered the site about three years ago and have been fighting to get this historic place protected. The graveyard was active until 1942, but had been neglected since the turn of the century. I recently attended the AGS 2008 Conference in Amherst, MA and learned so much about preserving gravestones and the wonderful history they convey. I love connecting with people who value these sites and work to preserve them.

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