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MARKERS  XXrV 


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Markers  XXIV 


Annual  Journal  of 
The  Association  for  Gravestone  Studies 


Edited  by 
Gary  Collison 


Association  for  Gravestone  Studies 
Greenfield,  Massachusetts 


Copyright  ©  2007 

Association  for  Gravestone  Studies 

278  Main  Street,  Suite  207 
Greenfield,  Massachusetts  01301 


All  rights  reserved 
Printed  in  the  United  States 


ISBN:  1-878381-17-2 
ISSN:  0277-8726 
LCN:  81-642903 


The  paper  used  in  this  publication  meets  the  minimum  requirements  of  the 

American  National  Standard  for  Information  Sciences  —  Permanence  of  Paper 

for  Printed  Library  Materials,  ANSI  Z39.48-1984. 


Cover  Illustration:  Motlicr  and  Tzviiis  Moniiiiieut  (detail). 
Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,  Philadelphia,  courtesy  of  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Page 

Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children: 

Epitaph  Language  and  the  Construction  of  Gender  and 

Social  Status  in  Cumberland  County,  Maine,  1720-1820  vi 

Joy  M.  Giguere 

New  Netherland's  Gravestone  Legacy:  An  Introduction  to 

Early  Burial  Markers  of  the  Upper  Mid- Atlantic  States  24 

Brandon  Richards 

Myths  and  Realities  of  Laurel  Hill's  "Mother  and  Twins"  Monument  40 

Janet  McShane  Galley 

Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  In  America's  Rural 

Cemeteries,  1850-1900  56 

Elisabeth  L.  Roark 

Borden  Thornton  (1762-1838),  Rhode  Island  Stonecarver  112 

Vincent  Luti 

The  Year's  Work  in  Cemetery  and  Gravemarker  Studies: 

An  International  Bibliography  132 

Compiled  by  Gary  Collison 

Contributors  and  New  Editorial  Board  Members  140 

Index  142 


MARKERS:  ANNUAL  JOURNAL  OF 
THE  ASSOCIATION  FOR  GRAVESTONE  STUDIES 

EDITORIAL  BOARD 

Gary  Collison,  Editor 

Pemi  State  York 


Richard  F.  Veit 

Associate  Editor 

Moniuoiitli  University 

June  Hadden  Hobbs 

Assistant  Editor 

Gardner-Webb  University 

Tom  Malloy 

Assistant  Editor 

Mount  Wachusett  Community  College 

Jessie  Lie  Farber 
Editor,  Markers  I 

Richard  Francaviglia 

University  of  Texas  at  Arlington 

Laurel  Gabel 

Former  AGS  Research 

Clearinghouse  Coordinator 


Blanche  M.G.  Linden 

Independent  Scholar 

Richard  E.  Meyer 

Editor,  Markers  X-XX, 

Western  Oregon  University 

Julie  Rugg 
University  of  York  (UK) 

James  A.  Slater 

University  of  Connecticu t 

David  Charles  Sloane 

University  of  Southern  California 

David  H.  Watters 

Editor,  Markers  II-IV 

University  of  New  Hampshire 

Wilbur  Zelinsky 
Tlie  Pennsylvania  State  University 


This  year's  issue  features  work  by  young  scholars  — a  hopeful  sign  for 
gravestone  and  cemetery  studies  — as  well  as  by  one  senior  scholar  still  young 
at  heart.  It  includes  not  one  but  two  articles  on  "rural" /garden  cemetery 
sculpture.  The  longer  article,  by  Beth  Roark,  explores  the  historical  back- 
ground, types,  and  meaning  of  the  angel  sculptures  that  began  to  populate 
cemeteries  in  great  numbers  in  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Janet 
McShane  Galley's  article  on  Laurel  Hill's  early  and  outstanding  sculpture, 
known  popularly  as  "The  Mother  and  Twins"  (1858),  analyzes  the  romanti- 
cized stories  about  the  sculpture  that  began  to  circulate  in  the  late-nineteenth 
century,  several  of  which  are  still  in  circulation  today.  As  she  discovers,  the 
actual  events  behind  the  sculpture  did  not  involve  twins,  and  the  realities  be- 


hind  the  sculpture  and  its  meaning  are  at  least  as  interesting,  and  more  com- 
plex, than  the  fanciful  myths.  Both  of  these  articles  are  welcome  follow-up 
pieces  that  draw  on  Elise  Ciregna's  article  on  early  rural  cemetery  sculpture 
{Markers  XX7),  and  all  three  works  suggest  possibilities  for  future  research  on 
cemetery  sculpture. 

Tliree  articles  discuss  colonial-era  gravestones.  One  is  the  first  Markers  ar- 
ticle to  focus  on  gender  as  it  is  manifesteci  in  cemeteries,  in  this  case,  a  study 
of  gender  as  it  affects  language  on  colonial  and  early  national  gravestones  in 
Cumberland  County,  Maine.  The  author,  Joy  Giguere,  analyzed  over  1,000  ex- 
tant gravemarkers  between  1720  and  1820  to  discover  how  a  person's  gender 
(and  age  and  social  status)  often  dictated  the  way  he  or  she  was  remembered. 
Another  article  on  colonial-era  gravemarkers  is  Brandon  Richard's  analysis 
of  early  Dutch  gravemarkers.  Finally,  a  new  contribution  from  Narragansett 
Basin  gravestone  carver  sleuth  Vincent  Luti  describes  the  life  and  work  of 
Borden  Thornton,  a  Rhode  Island  carver.  It  is  an  excellent  example  of  how 
dogged  research  — and  fortuitous  help  from  a  fellow  researcher  —  can  lead  to 
important  discoveries,  even  if  it  takes  twenty-some  years! 

Once  again  I  thank  the  members  of  the  board  of  editors  and  several  anony- 
mous scholars  for  their  generous  and  conscientious  assistance  in  evaluating 
manuscripts.  For  invaluable  support  both  tangible  and  intangible,  I  am  grate- 
ful to  Drs.  Joel  Rodney,  Chancellor,  and  Joseph  P.  McCormick  III,  Director  of 
Academic  Affairs,  of  Penn  State  York.  For  assistance  of  various  kinds,  I  am  in- 
debted to  Andrea  Carlin,  Penny  Davis,  Robert  Miller,  Jim  O'Hara,  Judy  Leece, 
and  Brenda  Malloy. 

Markers  is  indexed  in  America:  History  and  Life,  the  Bibliography  of  the  History 
of  Art,  Historical  Abstracts,  and  the  MLA  International  BibUograpihy. 

There  are  many  potential  topics  that  I  would  like  to  see  covered  in  future 
issues  o(  Markers,  including  distinctive  individual  cemetery  sculptures  or  types 
of  sculptures  (WWI  soldiers,  for  example);  or  ethnic  cemeteries,  especially  so- 
called  "national"  cemeteries  for  immigrant  groups.  There  are  dozens,  if  not 
hundreds,  of  groups  that  might  be  treated,  such  as  the  Armenians  of  Glendale 
and  Fresno,  Calif ornia  —  who  may  or  may  not  have  drawn  on  the  distinctive 
"khatchkar"  tradition  of  their  native  land;  Native  Anierican/ tribal  cemeteries 
and  gravemarkers;  distinctive  regional  gravestone  carvers  and  traditions  such 
as  the  clay-sewer-pipe  markers  of  Ohio;  and  many  other  topics.  For  some  ideas 
and  suggestions  of  ethnic  groups  and  locations,  see  the  Harvard  Encyclopedia  of 
American  Ethnic  Groups  (1980);  Ethnicity  and  the  American  Cemetery  (1993),  edited 
by  Richard  E.  Meyer;  or  the  recent  Encyclopedia  of  American  Folklore  (2006),  4 
vols.,  edited  by  Simon  Bronner.  Also  check  the  subject  index  in  Markers  XXI 
(also  available  on-line  at  the  AGS  Markers  page).  Please  email  me  if  you  have 
an  idea  or  project  (or  manuscript)  underway —  at  glc@psu.edu. 

G.C. 


Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 

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reflect  i,wi......_v    j  .uder^— ^^^  x^  be  indulgent  parc^  '  -astor 


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Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children: 

Epitaph  Language  and  the  Construction  of 

Gender  and  Soclvl  Status  in 

Cumberland  County,  Maine,  1720-1820 

Joy  M.  Giguere 

At  the  beginning  of  Good  Wives,  Laurel  Thatcher  Ulrich's  study  on  the  lives 
of  women  in  northern  New  England,  Ulrich  cites  the  gravestone  epitaph  for 
Hannah  Moody  in  York,  Maine: 

Mrs.  HaiTnah  Moody,  Consort 

of  ye  Rev.nd.  Mr.  Samuel  Moody 

An  Early  &  There  Comfort  Eminent 

For  Holiness,  Prayerfulness,  Watchful-ness, 

Zeal,  Prudence,  Sincerity,  Humil- 
ity, Meekness,  Patience,  Tenderness,  From 
ye  World,  Publick  spirited- 
ness.  Diligence,  Faithfulness  &  Charity, 
Departed  this  life  in  Sweet 
Assurance  of  a  Better  Jan.  29 
1724  AE  51 

She  then  goes  on  to  note  that  the  modern  observer  of  such  an  epitaph  would 
in  all  likelihood  "smile,  wondering  what  she  was  really  like."'  Ulrich's  remark 
reminds  us  that  the  living  used  epitaph  and  inscription  language  not  just  to 
commemorate  the  dead  but  also  to  encourage  the  living  to  follow  gendered 
codes  of  moral  and  social  behavior  according  to  age,  sex,  and  marital  status. 
Epitaphs  lauded  women  again  and  again  for  having  been  faithful,  dutiful 
wives  and  mothers  — for  their  roles  in  the  home  and  family.  By  contrast, 
men's  epitaphs  tended  to  stress  social  position,  status,  and  occupation  — that 
is,  their  public  roles  and  achievements.  Both  wonien's  and  men's  epitaphs 
function  as  a  form  of  psychologically  driven  social  control.  Indicators  of 
social  or  economic  class  also  reveal  a  distinct  separation  of  the  sexes  in  both 
life  and  death.  For  example,  epitaph  language  reveals  that  a  woman's  social 
status  was  inextricably  tied  to  her  father  and  husband.  At  times,  however,  a 
man's  relationship  to  a  renowned  father  or  grandfather  aided  in  establishing 
his  own  social  standing.  Although  social  and  religious  standards  for 
children  differed  from  those  expected  of  their  parents,  epitaphs  on  children's 
gravestones  also  reflect  socially  constructed  gender  roles.  Regardless  of  the 
age  or  sex  of  the  deceased,  many  gravestone  texts  implicitly  or  explicitly 
urge  the  living  to  imitate  the  exemplary  qualities  of  the  deceased  in  order  to 
attain  a  heavenly  reward. 


2  Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 

While  much  New  England  gravestone  scholarship  has  focused  on  the 
significance  of  iconography  and  the  distribution  and  styles  of  carvers'  works, 
very  little  has  been  done  to  analyze  the  social  and  cultural  significance  of 
gender  and  age  in  epitaph  and  inscription  language.  Only  Lynn  Rainville's 
article  on  New  Hanipshire  mortuary  variability  has  more  than  touched  upon 
the  significance  of  epitaph  language  for  constructing  and  reinforcing  gender 
roles  in  society.-  Cumberland  County,  the  second  most  southern  county  in 
Maine,  functions  here  as  a  case  study  for  analyzing  epitaph  language  from 
1720  to  1820,  the  earliest  years  during  which  professionally  carved  headstones 
appeared  in  Maine. '  The  database  for  this  analysis  consists  of  1,150  gravestones. 
Conclusions  presented  here  may  apply  to  other  areas  of  New  England,  but  the 
timeline  for  the  appearance  of  certain  types  of  descriptive  language  in  Maine 
lagged  behind  southern  New  England  by  a  few  decades  because  Cumberland 
County  reniained  a  frontier  until  the  eighteenth  century."^ 

Wives  &  Widows,  Consorts  &  Relicts,  Esquires  &  Captains:  What's  in 
a  Title? 

Of  the  1,150  gravestones  catalogued  for  this  study,  559  memorialize 
women  and  girls,  551  commemorate  boys  and  men,  38  memorialize  both  male 
and  female  individuals,  and  2  were  too  illegible  to  discern  the  gender  of  the 
deceased.  As  shown  in  Figure  1,  the  number  of  gravestones  for  males  and 
females  per  decade  changed  over  time,  with  stones  for  males  outnumbering 
those  for  females  before  1760;  from  1760  onward,  the  reverse  was  true.  The 
steady  increase  over  time  for  both  genders  reflects  the  approximate  increase 
in  local  population. 


-n 

V- 

"- 

Jl    ^ 

D  Women 
QMen 
■  Both 

y  r-n 

M    „ 

— r-1             1           —        1 

1       ~ 

^ 

_a  _ 

1720     1730     1740     1750     1760     1770     1780     1790     1800     1810     ND 

Figure  1:  Gravestones  for  Males  and  Females 
in  Cumberland  County  by  decade. 


Joy  M.  Giguere  3 

Figure  2  shows  a  total  of  350  surviving  gravestones  for  men,  394  for 
women,  167  for  girls,  201  for  boys,  8  for  boys  and  girls,  and  30  for  a  mixture  of 
age  and  gender  groups.  Overall,  there  are  more  memorials  for  adult  women 
than  for  adult  men,  but  more  for  boys  than  girls  over  the  period  of  study.  It 
seems  reasonable  to  speculate  that  niore  girls  survived  to  maturity  than  boys, 
thus  dying  as  "adults,"  perhaps  following  childbirth,  whereas  many  boys 
and  unmarried  young  men  died  as  the  result  of  logging,  farming,  fishing  or 
hunting  accidents  or  in  the  military. 


i 

i 

r 

3             n  Hi    n 

n 

i 

r  ^   ' 

-.  fLn.iji  r  [h  L  I 

n  Women 

■  Men 

■  Men  &  Women 

D  Girls 

DBoys 

H  Boys  &  Girls 

Figure  2:  Adult  and  Child  Gravestones  by  Gender. 


Three  forms  of  gendered  identification  appear  on  the  Cumberland  County 
gravestones:  title,  character  description,  and  kinship.  Titles  indicated  the  role 
of  the  individual  in  society.  Because  women's  social  roles  were  primarily 
limited  to  home  and  church  activities  during  the  colonial  period,  titles  for  the 
most  part  were  reserved  for  men.  Descriptions  of  individuals  included  words 
reflecting  how  they  were  perceived  by  those  who  erected  their  nieniorials. 
In  addition  to  descriptive  language,  gravestone  inscriptions  often  identified 
women's  and  children's  family  relationships  using  such  kinship  terms  as 
"wife,"  "mother,"  "son,"  "daughter,"  "child  of"  and  so  on.  While  inscriptions 
would,  at  times,  indicate  a  man's  kinship,  such  as  "husband"  or  "son,"  his 
social  or  occupational  rank  was  typically  given  precedence.  In  total,  only 
fifteen  kinship  terms  and  variations  were  used  for  women,  while  twenty-five 
occupational  titles  and  kinship  designations  were  used  for  men  (Figure  3). 


Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 


Title  and/or  Kinship 
Designation  (Men  &  Boys) 

Number 

Title:  Male 

Number 

Kinship  Designation 
(Women  &  Girls) 

Number 

Brigadeer  General 

1 

Major  & 
Husband  & 
Parent 

1 

Consort 

29 

Captain 

40 

Monsieur 

1 

Consort  &  Daughter 

2 

Captain  &  Son 

5 

Mr. 

163 

Consort  &  Mother  & 
Friend 

1 

Colonal 

2 

Mr.  &  Friend  & 
Husband  & 
Father 

1 

Daughter 

165 

Deacon 

13 

Mr.  &  Husband 
&  Parent 

2 

Friend  &  Companion 

1 

Deacon,  Son 

1 

None 

69 

Miss 

17 

Deputy  Collector 

1 

None  &  Son 

1 

Mrs. 

13 

Doctor 

4 

Pastor 

1 

None 

12 

Elder 

1 

Printer 

1 

Relict 

12 

Ensign 

1 

Reverend 

8 

Widow 

41 

Esquire 

26 

Scout 

1 

Widow  &  Wife  &  Mother 
&  Friend 

1 

Esquire  &  Husband  &  Parent 
&  Christian 

1 

Son 

200 

Wife 

255 

Gentleman 

1 

Total 

550 

Wife  &  Daughter 

6 

Lieutenant 

7 

Wife  &  Mother 

3 

Major 

2 

Wife  &  Parent 

1 

Total 

559 

Figure  3:  Titles  For  Men  and  Women  on  Cumberland  County  Gravestones^ 


If  a  woman  was  married,  her  gravestone  typically  included  the  word 
"wife"  and/ or  "inother."  Some  young  married  women  were  listed  as  both 
the  "Wife  of"  and  the  "Daughter  of"  so-and-so.  Figure  3  shows  that  there  was 
a  total  of  eight  such  examples.  The  niost  common  terms  used  in  Cumberland 
County  to  describe  adult  women  on  their  gravestones  were  "Wife"  (255), 
"Mrs."  (13),  "Consort"  (29),  "Miss"  (17),  "Widow"  (41),  and  "Relict"  (12). 
Often  these  terms  were  combined  with  each  other  or  with  other  terms,  such  as 
"Mother"  or  "Parent."  Figure  5  shows  the  seriation  frequency  model  of  the  six 
most  dominant  terms  used  for  adult  women. 


Figure  4.  Examples  of  Words  Describing  Women's  Family  Relationships. 


Joy  M.  Giguere 


Wife 


Mrs. 


Consort 


Miss 


Relict 


Widow 


■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

1 

■ 

■ 

I 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■  ■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■  ■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■  ■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

1 

■ 

■ 

■ 

1   1 

I 

1 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

Figure  5:  Seriation  Frequency  Model  of  Kinship  Terms  for  Adult  Women. 

The  "wife"  category  includes  gravestones  that  refer  to  women  as  both 
"Mrs."  and  "Wife,"  as  well  as  those  that  only  refer  to  a  woman  as  the  "Wife 
of"  someone.  As  it  is  defined,  "Mrs.,"  the  written  abbreviation  of  "Mistress" 
or  its  vulgar  variations  "Missis"  or  "Missus,"  refers  specifically  to  a  wife.^  In 
this  study,  the  term  "Mrs."  appeared  alone  without  "Wife,"  "Consort,"  or 
the  name  of  the  deceased's  husband  thirteen  times.  All  266  examples  with 
"Wife"  give  the  husband's  name,  with  or  without  another  defined  role,  such 
as  "Daughter"  or  "Mother."  The  only  other  terms  used  to  describe  women 
without  reference  to  their  relationships  with  men  as  either  wives  or  daughters 
were  "Miss"  without  any  additional  kinship  terms,  of  which  there  were 
seventeen  examples,  and  no  title  whatsoever,  of  which  there  were  twelve. 

The  term  "consort"  has  its  roots  in  seventeenth-century  vocabulary  in  both 
New  England  and  England.  The  term  is  defined  as  a  "partner  in  wedded  or 
parental  relations;  a  husband  or  wife,  a  spouse  [and  is]  used  in  conjunction 
with  some  titles,  such  as  queen-consort."''  The  word  "Consort"  is  still  used 
today  among  English  royalty;  the  official  title  for  Philip,  the  husband  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  11,  is  "Prince-Consort."  While  the  term  was  used  for  both  men  and 
women,  its  appearance  on  Cumberland  County  gravestones  was  restricted 
to  women,  and,  for  the  purpose  of  this  study,  "Consort"  can  be  considered 
synonymous  with  the  term  "Wife."  In  describing  the  relationship  between 


6  Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 

men  and  women  in  early  New  England,  historian  Laurel  Ulrich  identifies 
the  meaning  of  consort  as  "based  on  a  doctrine  of  creation  which  stressed  the 
equality  of  men  and  women,  the  ideal  of  marriage  which  transcended  legal 
formulations,  and  a  concept  of  love  which  was  spiritual,  yet  fully  sexual."^ 
The  word  "consort"  was  common  in  the  late  seventeenth  century  in  parts  of 
New  England  but  did  not  make  its  first  appearance  in  Cumberland  County 
gravestone  epitaphs  until  relatively  late  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
earliest  example  in  the  county  dates  to  1761.  Of  the  thirty-two  gravestones 
that  identify  a  woman  as  "consort,"  twenty-one  (66%)  commemorate  women 
who  were  married  to  men  of  high  social  or  civil  standing  —  Captains,  Reverends, 
or  Esquires. 

Synonymous  with  "widow,"  the  term  "relict"  or  "relic,"  which  originated 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  indicates  something  or  someone  that  is  left  behind. 
"Relict"  was  used  occasionally  in  Great  Britain  and  early  New  England  as  a 
synonym  for  "Widow."''  Like  "consort,"  "relict"  did  not  appear  on  Cumberland 
County  gravestones  until  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  (1767).  It 
appears  that  this  rather  old-fashioned  term  was  also  reserved  for  women  who 
were  widows  of  men  with  higher  social  standing.  Ten  out  of  twelve  gravestones 
using  "Relict"  (83%)  list  husbands  who  had  been  captains,  preachers,  doctors, 
or  esquires.  By  contrast,  forty-one  gravestones  bear  the  title  "Widow,"  and 
of  these,  only  eleven  (27%)  commemorate  women  who  were  married  to 
prominent  men.  While  both  of  these  titles  appear  concurrently,  use  of  the  term 
"relict"  decreased  after  the  1770s  and  appeared  only  sporadically  thereafter. 
The  term  "widow"  began  to  appear  on  gravestones  in  the  1770s  and  its  use 
steadily  increased  over  time  (Figure  4). 

In  the  case  of  unmarried  daughters  or  males  who  died  before  the  age  to 
hold  an  occupation  or  attend  college,  inscription  language  was  restricted  to 
terms  denoting  kinship.  In  some  cases  where  the  deceased  was  especially 
young,  no  gender  qualification  was  made  and  the  deceased  was  simply 
referred  to  as  the  child  of  soineone.  Otherwise,  the  deceased  would  be 
memorialized  as  the  "Daughter"  or  "Son"  of  his  or  her  parents.  In  the  case  of 
death  during  infancy,  the  phrases  "infant  son,"  "infant  daughter,"  or  simply 
"infant"  were  employed. 

In  contrast  to  the  social  roles  named  on  women's  and  children's  gravestones, 
titles  for  men  typically  refer  to  their  occupations  or  social  standing  rather  than 
to  their  relationships  with  their  wives  and  children.  In  several  cases,  however, 
young  men  who  were  fully  grown  with  occupations  of  their  own  and  who 
were  the  sons  of  prominent  individuals,  such  as  ministers  or  captains, 
were  memorialized  as  the  sons  of  their  parents.  The  oldest  men  who  were 
commemorated  as  the  sons  of  their  parents  were  Captain  Stephen  Tukey  of 
Portland,  who  died  in  1819,  aged  29  years,  and  the  Reverend  Jonathan  Gould 


Joy  M.  Giguere  7 

of  Standish,  who  died  in  1795,  aged  33  years.  While  the  occupation  of  Tukey's 
father  was  not  given  in  his  epitaph,  we  know  that  Gould's  father  was  the  son 
of  Deacon  Jonathan  Gould  of  New  Braintree.  Jonathan  Gould's  inscription 
shows  that  a  man's  relation  to  a  notable  grandfather  could  emphasize  his  own 
socially  elite  status.  In  the  few  instances  when  a  man  was  described  as  "Father" 
or  "Husband,"  these  terms  appeared  within  the  body  of  a  lengthy,  descriptive 
epitaph.  The  epitaph  for  Samuel  Duning  of  Portland  (1811)  is  representative 
of  this  type: 

In  memory  of 

Mr  SAMUEL  DUNING, 

Who  died  Jan.  21, 

1811:  AEt.  37. 

In  him  was  the  good  citizen, 

patriot,  indulgent  husband,  & 

tender  parent.  In  him  the  social 

virtues  were  eminent.  Useful 

in  life,  in  death  lamented. 

The  busy  world  where  I  with  you  did  dwell, 

I've  bid  adieu,  &  took  my  last  farewell. 

Ye  living!  Learn  to  live  &  learn  to  die. 

Strive  to  enjoy  a  blest  eternity.'" 

In  total,  six  broad  title  categories  could  be  identified  on  gravestones  of 
men  in  Cumberland  County:  "Esquire,"  Mr.,"  "Captain"  (which  includes  both 
military  and  nautical),  religious  occupations  (including  "Deacon,"  "Pastor" 
and  "Reverend"),  military  occupations  (including  "Brigadeer  [sic]  General," 
"Colonal  [sic],"  "Ensigii,"  "Lieutenant,"  "Major,"  and  "Scout"),  and  no 
title  whatsoever  (Figure  6).  The  term  "Esquire"  appears  on  27  gravestones 
in  Cumberland  County  throughout  the  period  of  study,  though  its  usage 
diminished  by  the  begiiTning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Its  use  stretches  back 
to  the  age  of  chivalry  in  England,  during  which  tin^ie  it  referred  to  a  young 
man  who  aspired  to  the  knighthood  and  who  carried  a  knight's  shield  and 
performed  other  services.  During  later  periods,  the  term  "Esquire"  referred 
to  a  man  belonging  to  the  higher  order  of  the  English  gentry,  and  by  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  functioned  as  a  title  accompanying  a 
man's  name.  In  all  periods  during  which  "Esquire"  was  used,  it  denoted  rank 
or  status  above  common  laborers  or  artisans."  "Esquire"  indicated  higher 
status,  often  by  virtue  of  a  higher  degree  of  education,  and  was  used  rather 
infrequently.  In  Cumberland  County,  its  use  appears  to  be  associated  with 
men  who  were  justices  of  the  peace,  civil  magistrates,  lawyers,  or  young  men 
who  were  attending  college  at  the  time  of  their  death. 


Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 


Esquire  Mr.  Captain       Religious       IVIilitary  None 


Figure  6:  Titles  for  Adult  Men,  Cumberland  County,  Maine,  1720-1820 


The  title  "Mister,"  always  abbreviated  as  "Mr.,"  and  still  the  most  com- 
mon term  used  to  address  adult  men  today,  appeared  most  frequently  on 
gravestone  inscriptions.  Given  that  the  men  who  held  religious,  military,  or 
maritime  occupations  or  positions  held  separate  titles,  it  can  be  assumed  that 
a  man  who  was  simply  referred  to  as  "Mr."  held  another  type  of  occupation, 
such  as  a  merchant,  craftsman  or  artisan.  However,  Joshua  Shirley's  memorial 
in  Portland  specifically  identifies  him  as  a  "Printer,"  without  any  additional 
title  such  as  "Mr."  This  is  the  only  example  for  a  man  that  does  not  conform  to 
the  seriation  model  in  Figure  6. 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  whether  all  of  the  men  identified  by  their 
epitaphs  as  "Captains"  were  sea  or  military  captains,  but  given  the  high  level 
of  importance  of  seafaring  in  coastal  Maine,  it  is  likely  that  the  majority  of 
men  commemorated  with  the  title  of  "Captain"  were  sea  captains.  Of  the  40 
examples  that  cite  the  deceased  as  "Captain,"  only  three  specifically  identify 
military  (1)  or  sea  (2)  captains.  These  gravestones  commemorate  Captains 
Jacob  Adams  and  Daniel  Bragdon,  of  Portland,  and  Captain  Nehemiah  Curtis 
of  Harpswell. 

CAPT.  JACOB  ADAMS, 
of  Schr  Charles, 
was  wrecked  on 


Joy  M.  Giguere 


Richmond's  Island 

July  12, 1807; 

where  he  &  his  wife, 

with  14  others  perished 

AEt.  35. 


To  the  memory  of 

CAPT  NEHEMIAH  CURTIS. 

who  died  Dec.  26, 1816: 

AEt.  83 

A  true  Patriot  commanded  the  Militia 

before  &  during  the  Revolutionary  war 

discharged  with  honor  &  fidelity  the 

several  offices  he  held  and  hath  left  an 

iini table  pattern. 

You  that  pass  by,  see  here  I  lie, 

[Inscription  illegible] 


GOD's  noblest  work,  an  honest  man 

Moor'd 

from  the  storms  of  life, 

here  rest  the  remains  of 

CAPT.  DANIEL  BRAGDON; 

whose  spirit 

Death  sunimon'd  aloft 

on  the  16*  April,  1819, 

after  a  voyage  of 

57  years. 

The  PORTLAND  MARINE  SOCIETY,  of  which 

he  was  an  early  Patron,  and  useful  member, 

have  erected  this  stone  as  a  just  tribute  to  his  memory. 

Cumberland  County  gravestone  inscriptions  that  specified  other  iTiilitary 
titles,  such  as  "Ensign,"  "Major,"  or  "Lieutenant,"  were  rare. 

A  total  of  eighty-one  gravestones  for  both  sexes  bore  no  title  or  kinship 
designation  whatsoever.  Of  the  eighty-one  examples,  thirty-eight  (47%) 
commemorate  individuals  who  were  aged  thirty  years  or  younger  at  the 
time  of  death,  and  thirty-five  (43%)  commemorate  those  over  the  age  of  fifty. 
The  remaining  eight  examples  (10%)  were  for  individuals  between  the  ages 
of  thirty  and  fifty.  This  seems  to  indicate  that,  in  general,  the  vast  majority 


10  Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 

of  those  who  died  between  the  ages  of  thirty  and  fifty  possessed  definitive 
social  titles  or  kinship  designations  by  which  to  be  remembered.  As  for 
the  rest,  with  no  titular  information,  it  is  nearly  impossible  to  tell  the  social 
position  of  the  individual  unless  the  nearby  gravestone  of  his  or  her  spouse 
reveals  status  or  family  relationship.  Gravestone  inscriptions  lacking  titles 
or  kinship  designations  were  often  simple  and  succinct,  providing  only  the 
name,  date  of  death,  and  age.  However,  twenty-nine  examples  (36%)  included 
verse  epitaphs  or  additional  biographical  information.  Additionally,  fifty-nine 
examples  (73%)  have  inscriptions  that  begin  with  "In  memory  of,"  "Sacred  to 
the  memory  of,"  or  some  other  variation. 

The  grandest  monuments  with  the  lengthiest,  most  laudatory  inscriptions 
were  those  that  commemorated  the  death  of  a  man  who  held  a  religious 
office.  This  may  be  due,  in  part,  to  the  central  public  role  of  Congregational 
ministers  in  most  New  England  towns  during  the  seventeenth,  eighteenth,  and 
nineteenth  centuries.  In  Under  the  Cope  of  Heaven:  Religion,  Society  and  Politics  in 
Colonial  America,  Patricia  Bonomi  asserts  that  "the  idiom  of  religion  penetrated 
all  discourse,  underlay  all  thought,  marked  all  observances,  gave  meaning  to 
every  public  and  private  crisis.  There  was  hardly  a  day  of  the  week  .  .  .  when 
colonial  Americans  could  not  repair  to  their  churches  .  .  .  which  gave  a  certain 
tone  to  everything  they  did  in  their  collective  and  communal  capacity."'-  The 
types  of  language  we  see  on  1720  to  1820  gravestones  reflect  the  messages 
often  preached  by  ministers  to  their  congregations  during  this  period.  Given 
the  social  importance  of  a  minister  to  his  community,  it  therefore  seems  logical 
that  any  Reverend  or  Pastor  who  was  considered  particularly  talented  at  his 
ministry  or  zealous  in  his  faith  was  commemorated  by  his  family,  congregation, 
or  town  with  a  memorial  that  dominated  the  landscape.  Memorials  for  fully 
recognized  ministers  and  pastors  (9  examples)  were  especially  large,  whereas 
gravestones  for  deacons  (14)  were  often  smaller,  with  simpler  epitaphs.  The 
following  lengthy  epitaphs  came  from  three  such  large  monuments: 

Here  lyes  Interr'd  the  Body  of 

the  Revd  Mr  ELISHA  EATON 

first  Pastor  of  the  Church  in  Harpswell, 

who  triuniphantly  Departed  this 

Life  the  22d  of  April  A.D.  1764 

In  the  62d  Year  of 

his  Age. 

Est  commune  mori 

Mors  nulli  Parcit  Honori 

Neque  ulli  Aetati 
Ergo  MEMENTO  MORI. 


Joy  M.  Gigiiere  11 

Here  are  deposited 

the  Remains 

of  OTIS  CROSBY,  AB. 

A  Candidate  for  the  Gospel  Ministry 

&  PASTOR  ELECT  of  ye  Church  &  Congregation 

in  this  Town,  who  after  having  sustained  with 

Christian  Patience  &  pious  resignation  a  long  & 

distressing  Consumption  calmly  in  hope  of 

Blessed  Eternity  fell  asleep  in  Christ  May  29th 

1795 

hi  the  30th  Year  of  his  age. 

To  Perpetuate  his  remembrance  &  their  affection. 

His  relatives  have  erected  this  monument. 

Beneath  this  Stone  Death's  Pris'ner  lies. 

The  stone  shall  move  -  the  Pris'ner  rise 

When  Jesus  with  Almighty  word 
Call  his  dead  saints  to  meet  the  Lord. 


My  Friends  be  exorted  to  prepare  for  Death 

In  Memory  of 

the  Rev.  JONATHAN  GOULD 

late  pastor  of  the  Church 

in  Standish  son  of  Deacon 

JONATHAN  GOULD  of  New  Braintree, 

&  ABIGAIL  his  wife  departed 

this  Life  July  26th  1795,  In  the  33d 

year  of  his  age,  &  2d  of  his  Ministry. 

He  was  a  fervent  &  zealous  preacher  of 

the  Gospel,  very  exemplary  in  his  Life  & 

conversation,  &  bid  fair  to  adorn  the 
Ministerial  character  with  peculiar  honour 

So  sleep  the  saints  &  cease  to  mourn. 

When  sin  &  death  have  done  their  worst, 

Christ  has  a  glory  like  his  own 

That  wants  to  clothe  their  sleeping 

dust. 

According  to  the  epitaphs,  Elisha  Eaton  of  Harpswell,  Otis  Crosby  of  New 
Gloucester,  and  Jonathan  Gould  of  Standish  exemplified  the  qualities  expected 
of  ministers.  In  the  case  of  the  inscription  for  the  Reverend  Jonathan  Gould,  the 
opening  line,  "My  friends  be  exorted  [sic]  to  prepare  for  Death"  (a  common 
exhortation  on  gravestones  even  for  laypersons),  gives  the  appearance  of  the 


12  Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 

minister  continuing  to  preach  to  his  flock  from  beyond  the  grave.  Likewise, 
the  Latin  inscription  on  the  Reverend  EHsha  Eaton's  monument  urges  viewers 
to  "remember  death." 

In  sum,  an  individual's  title,  occupation  or  kinship  status  was  often  an 
integral  part  of  inscription  language.  Analysis  of  the  types  and  distribution 
of  different  titles  reveals  how  men's  and  women's  social  status  was  based 
primarily  on  their  relegation  to  separate  spheres  of  interaction  — women 
according  to  their  kinship  bonds  to  their  husband  or  father  and  men  according 
mostly  to  their  occupations.  Figures  4  and  6  both  show  this  differentiation: 
the  most  prominent  titles  for  women  were  kinship-based,  including  "Mrs.," 
"Wife,"  "Consort,"  "Widow,"  "Relict"  and  "Miss,"  but  for  men,  there  was  a 
distinct  scarcity  of  kinship  terms.  Since  gravestone  inscription  language  was 
prescriptive  as  well  as  descriptive,  the  differentiation  in  titles  for  social  status 
seems  to  have  been  a  way  to  reinforce  the  social  and  occupational  separation 
between  the  public  and  private  spheres. 

"Useful,  Wise  &  Just":  The  Significance  of  Descriptive  Language 

Even  more  than  specific  titles  given  to  men  and  women,  descriptive 
language  in  epitaphs  and  biographical  inscriptions  reaffirmed  socially 
defined  gender  roles.  The  words  chosen  to  describe  an  individual  after  death 
established  whether  that  person  had  lived  according  to  prescribed  codes 
of  behavior.  During  the  seventeenth  and  early  eighteenth  centuries,  when 
orthodox  Puritanism  reigned  as  the  dominant  religion  in  New  England,  men 
were  expected  to  adhere  to  strict  moral  codes  of  their  Christian  faith,  as  well 
as  to  exhibit  qualities  that  reflected  their  achievements  and  prominence  as 
upstanding  members  of  their  communities.  Women,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
expected  to  exhibit  qualities  of  piety,  faithfulness,  purity,  and  devotion  to  God 
and  their  husbands.  Laurel  Ulrich  has  noted  that  "[s]ubn"iission  to  God  and 
submission  to  one's  husband  were  part  of  the  same  religious  duty." '' 

In  Cumberland  County,  most  inscriptions  are  consistently  simple  and 
biographical  in  nature,  as  in  the  case  of  the  gravestone  inscription  for  Andrew 
Ring  (d.  1744)  in  Yarmouth: 

Here  Lyes  Buried 

The  Body  of 
Mr  Andrew  Ring 

Aged  48  Years 

Died  Novr  Ye  17"^ 

1744 

However,  eighty-seven  gravestones  (roughly  8%)  provide  descriptive  words 
and  phrases  about  personal  qualities,  religious  virtue,  and  moral  character. 
Descriptive  words  and  word  combinations  appear  in  fifty-one  different  varia- 
tions between  the  1750s  and  1820  (Figure  7).  Many  gravestones  include  reli- 
gious verses  alone  that  stress  death  and/ or  the  hope  of  resurrection  and  meet- 
ing one's  loved  ones  in  heaven. 


Joy  M.  Giguere 


13 


Description  Combinations 
&  Variation  (Women) 

Count 

Description  Combinations  & 
Variations  (Men) 

Count 

Amiable 

2 

Benevolent,  Sincere,  Kind, 
Friendly,  Just,  Industrious, 
Enterprising 

1 

Amiable,  Meekly  Submissive 

Fervent,  Zealous,  Exemplary, 
Honour 

Amiable,  Tender 

Good,  Faithful 

Exemplar^'  Character 

Honest 

Kind,  Sincere 

Honest,  Prudent,  Industrious 

Lo\  ing.  Tender 

Honest,  Useful 

Pious 

Honorable 

2 

Pleasant,  Happy 

Patience 

Religious,  Wise,  Just 

Patience,  Pious 

Saint 

Patriot 

Tender,  Sincere 

Patriot,  Indulgent,  Tender, 
Useftil 

Virtue,  Piety 

Patriot,  Just 

Virtuous 

8 

Promising 

Virtuous,  Pious 

Pure,  Just,  Dear,  Kind 

Virtuous,  Tender 

3 

Purity 

Wisdom 

Triumphantly 

Worthy 

Useful 

Youth,  Beauty 

Useful,  Kind,  Indulgent 

Virtue,  Just 

Virtuous,  Just 

Wise,  Just 

Wise,  Peaceable 

Description 
(Children) 

Count 

Description  (Children) 

Count 

Bloom  (Descriptive) 

5(4F,  IM) 

Loving,  Kind,  Pleasing 

1(M) 

Flower  (Descriptive) 

8(4F,4M) 

Rose  (Descriptive) 

3(1F,2M) 

Happy 

2(M) 

Sweet,  Lovely 

1(F) 

Lovely 

KM) 

Sweet 

KM) 

Lovely,  Beautiful 

1(F) 

Virtue 

KM) 

Figure  7:  Descriptive  Words  and  Word  Combinations  Listed 
Alphabetically  by  Gender  and  Age 

Gravestones  bearing  language  describing  virtue  and  piety  did  not  begin  to 
appear  on  the  Cumberland  County  landscape  until  the  1760s,  during  which 
time  the  strict  tenets  of  the  Puritan  faith  had  begun  to  wane  significantly. 
Despite  this,  from  1759  to  1819,  references  to  virtue  appear  on  twenty-one 
occasions  (24%  of  the  gravestones  bearing  descriptive  language).  The  terms 
"virtue"  and  "virtuous,"  the  most  popular  descriptive  terms,  appear  on 
gravestones  for  both  men  and  women.  However,  the  connotations  of  the  terms 
differ  according  to  gender.  For  men,  references  to  virtue  often  implied  that 
it  was  a  public  quality  or  one  pertaining  to  religious  devotion  or  republican 
sentiment.  For  women,  the  descriptive  "virtue"  most  often  appeared  before 


14  Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 

her  kinship  title  (e.g.  "Virtuous  Consort"),  thus  suggesting  that  this  quality 
was  restricted  to  the  private  sphere.  However,  as  with  men,  it  could  also  refer 
to  a  woman's  religious  devotion.  The  earliest  example  to  note  a  man's  virtue 
dates  to  1759  for  Reverend  Stephen  Minot  of  Brunswick: 

Here  Lyes  Interred  ye  Remains  of  Mr 

STEPHEN  MINOT  A.M.  Son  of  ye  Revd 

Mr  TIMOTHY  &  Mrs  MARY  MINOT  of 

Concord)  Who  Died  Sep.  3: 1759  An  AEt.  28 

He  was  one  of  uncommon  natural  and 

acquired  Parts  In  his  Publick  Character,  as  a 

Preacher  he  was  Esteemed  &  admired  In  his 

moral  Character  unreproachable,  [Illegible] 

a  Steady  abhorrence  of  vice  [Illegible] 

adherance  to  virtue  in  [Illegible] 

[Bene]volent  &  obliging.  The  [Illegible]  Scholar  &  the 

Christian  were  [Illegible]  Conspicuous  in  his  Life. 

that  he  was  Greatly  respected  whilst  Living 

&  at  his  Death  Generally  &  Sincerly  Lamented. 

The  earliest  example  for  a  woman,  representative  of  most  epitaphs  for  women 
that  include  the  term  "virtuous,"  bears  the  date  1761  and  commemorates 
"Virtuous  Consort"  Sarah  Cocks  of  Portland: 

Here  lies  Buried  the  Body  of 

Mrs  SARAH  COCKS 

the  Virtuous  Consort  of 

Capt  JOHN  COCKS 

who  Departed  this  Life 

Octr  Ye  25th  1761 

In  the  40th  Year 

of  her  Age 

The  addition  of  "consort,"  "wife,"  or  "relict"  before  a  woman's  husband's 
name  (e.g.  "virtuous  consort,"  "virtuous  relict,"  "virtuous  wife")  is  typical, 
as  on  the  gravestone  for  Mrs.  Tabitha  Longfellow  (d.  1777),  the  "virtuous 
Consort  of  Stephen  Longfellow,  Esq[uire]"  (Fig.  8).  There  were  no  instances  in 
which  a  young  woman  was  referred  to  as  the  "virtuous  daughter"  of  someone, 
suggesting  that  only  a  mature  —  that  is,  married  —  woman  could  be  considered 
a  model  of  virtuous  conduct.  The  implication  seems  to  be  that  unwed  young 
women  may  have  been  considered  virtuous,  but  without  having  faced  the 
challenges  of  adult  life,  they  did  not  have  enough  experience  and  maturity  to 
be  models  for  other  women. 

In  the  colonial  and  early  national  periods,  the  concept  of  virtue  for  women 
tended  to  differ  significantly  from  that  for  men,  though  there  was  some 


Joy  M.  Giguere  15 

overlap.  Whereas  women  were  expected  to  exercise  virtue  in  the  Christian 
sense  primarily  through  "temperance,  prudence,  faith  [and]  charity," 
historian  Ruth  Bloch  asserts  that  it  was  "specifically  public  virtue  — active, 
self-sacrificial  service  to  the  state  on  behalf  of  the  common  good  — that  was 
an  essentially  male  attribute."'"*  Bloch  adds  that  while  exceptional  women 
were  capable  of  exhibiting  public  virtue,  "it  was  never  an  inherently  feminine 
characteristic."'"  Given  what  appears  to  have  been  the  politicized  meaning 
of  "virtue"  to  describe  men,  especially  in  the  period  during  and  immediately 
after  the  Revolutionary  War,  gravestones  bearing  this  term  for  men  did  not 
appear  until  the  1790s.  Similarly,  references  to  men  as  having  been  patriots 
date  from  the  1790s  onward.  Other  words  that  were  used  on  gravestones  to 
describe  the  admirable  characteristics  of  men  include  "useful,"  "industrious," 
"honest,"  and  "honorable."  These  qualities  describe  important  civic  virtues 
connected  to  the  occupational  world.  Unlike  in  the  Old  World,  where  bloodline 
often  dictated  a  person's  social  status,  a  man's  social  position  in  America  was 
more  likely  based  on  his  work  ethic  and  utility  to  society,  as  illustrated  clearly 
by  the  inscription  on  the  gravestone  for  Major  Paul  Randall  (d.  1807), 
memorialized  first  as  "a  useful  member  of  civel  [sic]  society"  (Fig.  9).  A  man 
who  was  both  an  honest  and  a  successful  businessman,  tradesman,  or  artisan 
was  doubly  respected  by  his  peers. 

By  contrast,  "virtue"  and  "virtuous"  on  women's  gravestones  from  the 
1760s  onward  rarely  refer  to  patriotic  virtue.  Social  historians  have  referred 
to  the  postwar  cult  of  "Republican  Motherhood"  and  have  discussed  the 
ways  during  and  after  the  war  that  prescriptive  literature  exhorted  women  to 
exhibit  simultaneously  their  virtue  as  Christians,  wives  and  mothers  and  their 
patriotism,  political  awareness,  and  sense  of  equality.'^'  However,  as  Laurel 
Ulrich  notes  in  A  Midwife's  Tnle,  even  after  the  establishment  of  the  Republic, 
most  women  in  all  likelihood  continued  to  live  solely  within  the  sphere  of 
colonial  housewives  rather  than  as  republican  mothers  actively  promoting 
democratic  values  and  civic  duties.'^ 

Virtue  as  a  personal  quality  remained  important  well  into  the  nineteenth 
century,  even  when  the  most  important  qualities  for  women  included  being 
an  amiable  or  loving  wife  and  a  tender  mother.  Descriptions  of  the  deceased 
as  having  been  "Virtuous"  or  possessing  "Virtue"  were  more  common  for 
women,  with  six  examples  for  men  and  eighteen  for  women.  The  latest  example 
used  for  this  study  describing  a  woman  as  "virtuous"  commemorates  Dorcas 
Fickett  in  Portland,  and  likewise  alludes  to  the  burgeoning  public  roles  for 
women  during  the  early  nineteenth  century: 

In  memory  of 
MRS.  DORCAS. 

wife  of 

Mr.  Asa  Fickett, 

Died  Dec.  11, 1819; 


16 


Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 


Fig.  8.  Gravestone  of  Mrs.  Tabitha  Longfellow  (d.  1777),  Eastern  Cemetery, 

Portland,  memoralizing  her  as  the  "virtuous 

Consort  of  Mr.  Stephen  Longfellow,  Esq[uire]." 


AEt.  53. 

She  stretched  out  her  hand  to  the  poor: 

yea,  she  reached  forth  her  hands  to  the  needy. 

A  tender  mother  and  a  virtuous  wife. 

Through  all  the  various  scenes  of  life. 

The  first  two  lines  of  Dorcas  Pickett's  epitaph  come  from  Proverbs  31  of  the 
Old  Testament.  Doing  good  works  was  one  form  of  public  activity  that  was 
sanctioned  and  encouraged  for  women,  especially  those  from  the  middle  class, 
throughout  the  nineteenth  century.  By  the  1810s  and  1820s,  white  middle  class 
women  had  formed  benevolent  societies  around  the  United  States  to  help  the 
poor,  encourage  temperance,  and  convert  fallen  women  to  the  Protestant 
faith. '*^  This  kind  of  social  mobilization  among  these  wonien  was,  as  described 
by  historian  Nancy  Cott,  the  "redeployment  of  domestic  values  as  they  tried 
to  exert  social  power  through  reform  organizations  such  as  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  and  women's  clubs."'''  The  last  two  lines  of  the 
epitaph  include  the  type  of  descriptive  language  comnionly  used  for  niarried 


Joy  M.  Giguere 


17 


Fig.  9.  Gravestone  of  Major  Paul  Randall  (d.  1807),  Old  Common 

Burying  Ground,  Harpswell,  memoralizing  him  as  both  "a  useful  member 

of  civel  [sic]  society"  and  a  "kind  husba[n]d  and  indulgent  parent." 


18  Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 

women.  While  it  seems  that  "virtuous"  encompasses  the  desirable  qualities  of 
a  wife  such  as  dutifulness  or  fidelity  towards  her  husband,  the  niost  important 
motherly  qualities  were  those  of  tenderness  and  care.  The  ideal  married 
woman  was  one  who  was  both  a  virtuous  wife  and  tender  mother. 

Only  one  other  Cumberland  County  gravestone  conimeniorates  the  bene- 
ficence of  an  individual,  in  this  case  a  man,  to  the  poor.  Also  found  in  Portland, 
it  memorializes  Zachariah  Marston: 

ZACHARIAH  MARSTON  ESQ. 

departed  this  life  on  the  7*'^  of  Nov.  1813: 

in  the  34*  year  of  his  age. 

He  was  benevolent,  sincere,  kind 

&  friendly  to  the  poor: 

just  in  his  dealings,  industrious  &  enterprising.  He  closed 

this  life  in  full  expectation  of 

an  immortal  rest. 

In  Marston's  epitaph,  his  personal  qualities  take  precedence  over  his  pro- 
fessional traits.  That  he  was  "just  in  his  dealings,  industrious  &  enterprising" 
gives  the  impression  that  he  may  well  have  been  a  businessman  or  trader  of 
some  kind.  The  term  "virtue"  is  not  explicitly  used  on  this  epitaph,  but  the 
profusion  of  other  complimentary  terms  implies  that  this  man  exhibited  a 
great  deal  of  both  public  virtue  as  an  honest  businessman  and  alms-giver, 
and  private  virtue  through  his  benevolence,  sincerity,  and  kindness.  As  with 
many  other  epitaphs  for  men,  Marston's  does  not  indicate  whether  he  was  a 
husband.  Just  as  we  know  little  of  the  private  lives  and  qualities  of  men,  we 
know  little  of  the  qualities  women  possessed  aside  from  those  related  to  their 
religious  and  family  roles.  This  basic  gender  difference  in  descriptive  language 
for  men  and  women,  as  revealed  in  Figure  7,  reinforced  expectations  for  the 
living  to  confine  themselves  to  their  male  and  female  designated  spheres. 

Descriptive  language  on  children's  epitaphs  during  the  late-eighteenth 
and  early-nineteenth  centuries  was  inherently  different  from  the  language 
used  to  describe  adults.  Children  of  the  colonial  period  were  not  assigned 
gendered  identities  until  the  age  of  six  or  seven.  Infants  and  toddlers  wore 
gowns  and  dresses,  regardless  of  sex.  By  six  or  seven  years  of  age,  boys 
began  to  wear  breeches  while  girls  remained  in  dresses.  As  noted  by  Karin 
Calvert  in  Children  in  the  House:  The  Material  Culture  of  Early  Childhood,  1600- 
1900,  changes  in  a  boy's  costume  marked  his  progress  in  society  toward 
manhood  and  "age  only  became  noteworthy  in  the  case  of  small  boys  as  they 
progressed  to  greater  and  greater  independence."-"  Evidence  for  the  creation 
of  separate  gender  identities  in  childhood  is  apparent  from  eighteenth  and 
nineteenth  century  portraiture,  which  depicted  children  in  the  clothing  that 
was  appropriate  to  their  age.  It  was  also  at  this  age  that  girls  began  to  help 
their  mothers  with  household  tasks  and  learn  the  skills  they  would  need  to 


Joy  M.  Giguere  19 

know  in  the  future  to  run  their  own  households,  while  boys  would  either 
help  their  fathers  with  their  work,  or  attend  school.  Children  were  not  held 
to  the  same  moral  standards  as  their  parents  until  they  reached  six  or  seven 
and  generally  were  not  truly  considered  adults  until  they  married.  Epitaph 
language  for  very  young  children  was  likewise  non-gender-specific  until  they 
reached  their  early  to  mid-teens,  indicating  that  they  were  close  to  adulthood. 
Even  young  married  women  were  at  times  still  defined  as  the  "daughter  of" 
someone  on  their  epitaphs,  an  indication  of  the  continued  subordinate  and 
dependent  status  of  even  mature  unmarried  women. 

Descriptive  language  memorializing  children  and  youths  did  not  begin  to 
be  used  until  the  1790s  in  Cumberland  County,  and  in  most  cases  the  child  was 
compared  to  a  withered  flower,  or  the  epitaph  noted  that  the  bloom  of  youth 
haci  faded  too  soon  (Figure  7).  Flower  imagery  was  also  used  in  epitaphs  often 
taken  from  hymns  for  young  women  in  their  teens  and  early  twenties,  as  in  the 
case  of  Betsey  Lane  of  Cape  Elizabeth: 

In  memory  of 

BETSEY  LANE, 

youngest  dautr  of  Mr  Eben 

&  Mrs  Mary  Lane,  who 

died  April  7, 1803:  Aged 

20  years  &  6  months. 

So  fades  the  lovely  blooming  flower 

Frail  smiling  solace  of  an  hour 

So  soar  our  transient  comforts  fly 

And  pleasure  only  blooms  to  die. 

The  inscription  on  the  Jane  F.  Clark  gravestone  in  Portland  also  shows  how 
children  were  memorialized  as  cut  or  withered  flowers: 

Jane  F.  Clark, 

Daur  of  Peter  T.  Clark 

&  Eleanor  his  wife, 

died  Feb.  4, 1819: 

aged  6  years. 

Cropt  like  a  flow'r  she  wither'd  in  her  bloom 

Tho'  flatt'ring  life  had  proinis'd  years  to  come. 

This  type  of  language  is  consistent  with  the  ways  in  which  children  and  young 
women  appeared  in  contemporary  portraiture:  very  often,  the  individual 
appears  posed  holding  a  flower  such  as  a  rose.  Flower  imagery  was  used 
in  epitaphs  for  both  girls  and  boys,  though  there  are  no  references  to  young 
men  as  flowers  after  the  age  of  fourteen;  the  disappearance  of  such  language 
undoubtedly  indicated  the  point  at  which  a  boy  had  started  to  be  considered 
a  young  man.  Other  references  for  children  and  youths  included  allusions  to 


20  Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 

youth  and  beauty,  or  indicated  that  the  child  had  been  happy,  lovely,  or  loving 
(Fig.  6).  Such  qualities  as  piety,  virtue,  and  wisdom  came  with  age,  experience 
and  knowledge  of  the  world.  The  innocence  and  inexperience  of  children 
generally  precluded  their  having  been  held  up  as  models  of  behavior  —  at  least 
until  the  Romantic  era  began  to  idealize  children  as  paragons  of  purity  and 
virtue  — and  in  any  case,  such  descriptive  language  was  not  used  for  children 
who  had  barely  begun  to  enter  into  life.-^ 

The  few  references  to  the  virtue  of  unmarried  youths  were  restricted  to 
those  between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  eighteen  years.  Still  children  in  our  eyes, 
in  colonial  times  they  would  have  assumed  adult  work  roles  by  then  and  been 
subject  to  adult  expectations  of  moral  behavior.  For  example,  the  inscription 
for  fifteen-year-old  Cornelius  Barnes  in  Portland,  dated  1820,  refers  to  virtue: 

CORNELIUS, 
only  son  of 
Cornelius  &  Lydia  Barne[s] 
died  July  10, 1820. 
AEt.  15  yrs  &  11  mos 
Mortals,  forbear  to  weep  —  twas  God 
who  gave  that  call'd  from  earth  the  spi- 
rit of  a  youth  inured  to  toil  in  virtue's  cause 
To  the  enjoyment  of  happiness  without  / 

allay,  among  the  spirits  of  the  just 

Given  the  age  of  Cornelius  at  his  death  (nearly  sixteen  years),  he  was  very 
near  to  having  been  considered  an  adult  by  nineteenth-century  standards. 
Additionally,  according  to  the  language  of  his  epitaph,  he  was  "inured  to  toil 
in  virtue's  cause."  This  inscription  indicates  that  he  had  been  accustomed 
to  living  a  virtuous  life,  and  thus  suggests  that  had  he  lived,  he  would  have 
grown  up  to  be  a  virtuous  man. 


The  Last  Word 

In  addition  to  gravestone  inscriptions,  many  forms  of  material  culture  from 
the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  articulate  the  ways  in  which  men  and 
women  were  expected  to  look,  behave,  perform  daily  activities,  and  interact 
with  the  opposite  sex.  Paintings  and  portraiture,  samplers,  clothing,  popular 
prescriptive  literature,  novels  and  serialized  fiction,  as  well  as  published 
sermons  are  but  a  few  examples  of  material  and  print  culture  that  reveal 
these  differences.  As  we  have  seen,  the  epitaph  language  used  by  people  in 
Cumberland  County  between  1720  and  1820  reflected  socially  constructed 
contemporary  assumptions  about,  and  expectations  of,  behavior.  Epitaph 
language  stressed  time  and  again  the  importance  of  being  a  virtuous  and  loving 
wife  and  tender  mother,  or  an  accomplished  nian,  in  order  to  be  considered  by 


Joy  M.  Giguere  21 

society  as  having  earned  commemoration  and  heavenly  reward.  It  is  evident 
from  the  data  from  Cumberland  County  that  kinship  designations  played  a 
particularly  important  role  in  identifying  a  woman's  status  in  society.  We  most 
often  know  who  a  woman's  husband  was,  and  also,  at  times,  what  he  did. 
Her  function  was  defined  almost  entirely  by  kinship  —  wife,  niother,  widow, 
daughter.  In  contrast,  inscriptions  for  men  reveal  that  they  stood  on  their  own, 
and  relationships  to  wife  or  parents  were  infrequently  acknowledged. 

Descriptive  language  patterns  on  Cumberland  County  gravestones  that 
stress  virtue,  tenderness,  friendliness,  and  other  qualities  echo  those  that 
appear  tliroughout  the  rest  of  New  England  earlier  and  in  the  same  period. 
Though  certain  variations  may  occur  depending  upon  geographic  location, 
the  basic  linguistic  trends  are  the  same,  indicating  a  certain  level  of  uniformity 
in  social  expectations  of  behavior  throughout  New  England.  While  certain 
qualities  such  as  tenderness  or  coinpassion  gained  precedence  over  others 
as  the  eighteenth  century  drew  to  a  close,  all  the  characteristics  described  in 
epitaphs  were  obviously  important.  When  we  read  the  inscriptions  on  these 
monuments,  we  may  in  fact  wonder  whether  these  men  and  women  had  been 
as  virtuous  and  pious  as  their  epitaphs  say.  However,  the  significance  lies  in 
the  embedded  message,  which  remained  constant  during  this  period  of  New 
England  history  —  that  is,  to  follow  the  socially-approved  patterns  of  behavior 
set  by  the  deceased  and  strive  to  emulate  those  who  had  gone  before. 


NOTES 

All  illustrations  are  by  the  author  unless  otherwise  noted. 

I  would  like  to  acknowledge  with  immense  gratitude  the  help  of  my  MA  advisor. 
Professor  Alaric  Faulkner  and  my  doctoral  advisor.  Professor  Marii  F.  Weiner  of  the 
University  of  Maine,  for  their  guidance  and  assistance  during  the  research  and  editing 
process  of  this  article.  I  would  also  like  to  thank  the  following  people  for  their  ongoing 
love  and  encouragement  for  my  cemetery-related  research  endeavors:  my  parents,  Jerry 
and  Pat  Giguere;  my  fiance,  Ben  Proud;  my  uncle,  Richard  Siembab;  my  grandparents, 
Raymond  and  Marie  Siembab;  and  my  dear  departed  friend,  Nancy  Lizotte. 

^  Laurel  Thatcher  Ulrich,  Good  Wives:  Images  and  Reality  in  the  Lives  of  Women  in  Northern 
Neio  England,  1650-1750  (New  York:  Vintage  Books,  1991),  3. 

^  Lynn  Rainville,  "Hanover  Deathscapes:  Mortuary  Variability  in  New  Hampshire, 
1770-1920,"  Ethnohistory,  46.3  (Summer,  1999):  570-1. 

^  I  chose  1820  as  a  terminal  date  since  gravestone  types  and  materials  changed  about 
then.  Also,  language  had  begun  to  become  more  romanticized. 


22 


Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  &  Lovely  Children 


^This  paper  was  originally  the  final  chapter  in  a  Master's  thesis  project,  which  entailed 
the  systematic  collection  of  information  on  1,150  gravestones  in  22  out  of  the  25  towns 
that  comprise  Cumberland  County  in  southern  Maine  (see  Map  below).  The  temporal 
parameters  of  this  research  included  the  years  between  the  earliest  dated  stone,  1717, 
until  Maine's  incorporation  as  a  state  in  1820.  I  visited  nearly  200  cemeteries  during 
the  data  collection  process,  but  in  the  end,  70  cemeteries  yielded  gravestones  within 
the  selected  time  period  of  study  (see  Figure  below).  The  object  of  the  research  as  a 
whole  was  to  determine  the  historical  and  archaeological  significance  of  gravestones 
in  southern  Maine,  the  extent  to  which  markers  were  imported  from  other  colonies 
and,  later,  states,  and  the  manner  in  which  iconography  and  language  was  used  and 
mampulated  to  express  certain  beliefs  and  expectations  of  the  society  that  produced 
them. 


Town 

Cemeteries  w/ 1720-1820  Gravestones 

#  of  Gravestones 

Scarborough 

2 

46 

Falmouth 

4 

36 

North  Yarmouth 

1 

8 

Brunswick 

^ 

96 

Hai-pswell 

1 

70 

Windham 

5 

09 

Gorham 

7 

65 

Cape  Elizabeth 

2 

7 

New  Gloucester 

1 

43 

Grav 

1 

9 

Stand  ish 

3 

13 

Portland 

1 

.543 

Freeport 

8 

60 

Bridiiton 

1 

9 

Baldwin 

2 

2 

Raymond 

1 

1 

Harrison 

0 

0 

Pownal 

2 

5 

Westbrook 

1 

6 

Cumberland 

3 

16 

Sebago 

0 

0 

Naples 

14 

0 

Casco 

1 

1 

Yarmouth 

9 

54 

South  Portland 

1 

45 

Total 

70 

1150 

^  Does  not  include  gravestones  on  which  two  or  more  people  of  the  opposite  sex  (such 
as  husband  and  wife  together,  or  soil  and  daughter  together)  are  memorialized;  total 
number  of  examples  in  Figure  3  is  1,109,  but  the  total  number  of  gravestones  in  this 
study  is  1,150. 

^J.A.  Simpson  and  E.S.C.  Weiner,  eds.,  Oxford  English  Dictionary  (Oxford:  Clarendoii 
Press,  1989),  5:891. 


^Oxford  English  Dictionary,  2:780. 
^V\vich,Goodivives,W9. 


Joy  M.  Giguere  23 


'^Oxford  English  Dictionary,  9:563. 

^^  All  gravestone  inscriptions  have  been  transcribed  and  appear  in  this  paper  exactly 
as  they  are  found  on  the  monuments,  including  misspellings  and  parentheses  (single 
or  double).  Any  information  appearing  inside  square  brackets  is  supplemental 
information  provided  bv  the  author. 

^'  Oxford  English  Dictionary,  4:398. 

^"Patricia  U.  Bonomi,  Under  the  Cope  of  Heaven:  Religion,  Society  and  PoUtics  in  Colonial 
America  (Oxford:  Oxford  University  Press,  2003),  3. 

^•^  Ulrich,  Goodwives,  6. 

"Ruth  H.  Bloch,  Gender  and  Morality  in  Anglo-American  Culture,  1650-1800  (Berkeley: 
University  of  California  Press,  2003),  140. 

^^Ibid. 

^^See  Mary  Beth  Norton,  Liberty's  Daughters:  Tlie  Revolutionan/  Experience  of  American 
Women,  1750-1800  (Ithaca:  Cornell  University  Press,  1980);  Ruth  Bloch,  Gender  and 
Morality;  and  Joan  Hoff  Wilson,  "The  Illusion  of  Change:  Women  and  the  Revolution," 
in  Alfred  F.  Young,  ed.,  Tlie  American  Revolution:  Explorations  in  the  History  of  American 
Radicalism  {1976),  383-U5. 

^"Laurel  Thatcher  Ulrich,  A  Midwife's  Tale:  The  Life  of  Martha  Ballard,  Based  on  Her  Diary, 
1785-1812  (New  York:  Vintage  Books,  1990),  32. 

^^  For  further  reading  on  mneteenth-century  benevolent  societies,  see  Lori  D.  Ginzberg, 
Women  and  the  Work  of  Benevolence:  Morality,  Politics  and  Class  hi  the  19"'  Century  United 
States  (New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1990),  and  Peggy  Pascoe,  Relations  of  Rescue: 
Tlie  Search  for  Female  Moral  Authority  in  the  American  West,  1874-1939  (Oxford  &  New 
York:  Oxford  University  Press,  1990). 

■^^  Nancy  Cott,  Tlie  Bonds  of  Womanhood:  "Woman's  Sphere"  in  Neiv  England,  1780-1835, 
2"''  ed.  (New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1997),  xxiii. 

-°  Karen  Calvert,  Children  in  the  House:  Tlie  Material  Culture  of  Early  Childhood,  1600-1900 
(Boston:  Northeastern  University  Press,  1994),  45-47. 

^^  There  were,  however,  pre-Romantic  ideas  about  children  and  their  virtue  and 
holiness,  such  as  James  Janeway's  1675  treatise,  "A  Token  for  Children,"  the  subtitle 
of  which  was,  "Being  an  Exact  Account  of  the  Conversion,  Holy  and  Exemplary  Lives 
and  Joyful  Deaths,  of  Several  Children." 


24 


New  Netherland's  Gravestone  Legacy 


VERMONT 


MASSACHUSETTS 


TI-IE  UPPER  MID- ATLANTIC  STATES 
and  Selected  Colonial  Era  Burial  Grounds 

■    plank  /  post-like  marker  sites 
trapezoidal  /  ponited  marker  sites 
other  sites  mentioned  in  text 


Frontispiece:  The  upper  mid- Atlantic  states  and 
selected  colonial  era  burial  grounds. 


Brandon  Richards  25 

New  Netherland's  Gravestone  Legacy: 

An  Introduction  to  Early  Burial  Markers  of 

THE  Upper  Mid-Atlantic  States 

Brandon  Richards 

Introduction 

The  colonial  era  gravemarkers  of  the  upper  Mid-Atlantic  states  (frontis- 
piece) have  been  the  focus  of  limited  research  to  date.  That  which  has  been 
conducted  primarily  concerns  the  New  York/ New  Jersey  gravestone  carving 
tradition,  established  prior  to  the  1720s,  and  its  skillfully  crafted  sandstone 
markers.  The  work  of  Sherene  Baugher  and  Fredrick  Winter  (1983),  for  exam- 
ple, touched  upon  the  tradition  in  examining  motif  preferences  among  vari- 
ous groups  in  three  ethnically  diverse,  early  New  York  City  burial  grounds; 
Richard  Welch  (1987)  took  a  more  in-depth  look  into  its  history,  motifs,  and 
carvers;  and  Gaynell  Stone  (1991)  conducted  perhaps  the  most  thorough  lo- 
cal study  of  early  markers  in  highlighting  the  ideological  and  ethnic  differ- 
ences in  gravestone  choices  on  Long  Island.'  Stone's  findings  as  they  relate 
to  Dutch/ English  gravestone  distinctions  are  also  in  line  with  the  author's 
2005  M.A.  thesis,  "Comparing  and  Interpreting  the  Early  Dutch  and  English 
Gravemarkers  of  the  Lower  Hudson  Region."- 

Although  locally  produced  sandstone  and  New  England  slate  gravestones 
were  erected  in  the  upper  mid- Atlantic  colonies  as  early  as  the  1680s,  the  vast 
majority  of  the  earliest  markers  were  either  made  of  wood  or  were  simple  stone 
non-artisanal  markers.  This  study  examines  the  rough-hewn  stone  traditions 
of  colonial  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Delaware;  more  specifically,  those 
markers  erected  by  and  for  the  descendants  of  the  New  Netherland  colonists. 
The  selected  burial  grounds  are  a  sample  from  Dutch  cultural  area  sites  where 
there  had  been  a  history  of  cultural  isolation. 

Researchers  have  claimed  that  other  than  the  possible  uninscribed 
fieldstones,  the  early  Dutch,  who  in  1624  first  colonized  the  region,  did  not 
use  gravemarkers  until  they  were  introduced  by  the  English  following  the 
1664  annexation  of  New  Netherland.'  The  main  reason  for  this  claim  is  the 
fact  that  surviving  markers  from  the  New  Netherland  period  have  never  been 
identified  or  documented.  Moreover,  extant  Dutch  language  gravemarkers 
appear  decades  later  than  the  English  in  the  archaeological  record  of  the 
American  northeast.  However,  evidence  suggests  that  centuries-old  marker 
traditions  were  in  use  before  English-inspired  headstones  were  adopted. 
Unfortunately,  most  of  the  earliest  markers  have  been  lost  over  the  centuries 
to  development  pressures,  neglect,  and  misidentification.  Because  of  this,  the 
final  resting  places  of  many  of  America's  first  colonists  have  been,  and  risk 
continuing  to  be,  disturbed.  It  is  therefore  important  that  remaining  early  stones 
are  properly  identified,  not  only  for  their  own  archaeological  significance,  but 
also  to  protect  the  remains  they  mark. 


26  New  Netherland's  Gravestone  Legacy 


Early  Dutch  Burial  Grounds  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Delaware 

Although  the  Dutch  language  and  culture  predominated  until  the  mid- 
1700s  in  many  communities  established  by  New  Netherland  colonists  and 
their  descendants,  this  group  was  by  no  n"ieans  homogeneous.  For  example, 
the  Swedes,  along  with  a  contingent  of  Finns,  founded  Fort  Christina  (near 
present-day  Wilmington,  Delaware)  in  1638.  New  Sweden  was  amiexed  by 
New  Netherland  in  1655.  The  Dutch  colony  also  absorbed  large  numbers  of 
Norwegian,  Danish,  German,  and  Walloon  immigrants  from  a  comparatively 
early  date.  In  addition,  French  Huguenots  arriving  in  the  years  before  and 
after  New  Netherland  was  ceded  to  the  English  (1664)  were  assimilated  as 
well."*  These  various  groups  utilized  churchyards,  public  burial  grounds,  and 
private  family  grounds  throughout  the  region  for  burials;  but  unfortunately, 
many  of  these  sites  have  been  and  remain  threatened  due  to  their  proximity 
to  densely  settled  areas.  The  earliest  burial  grounds  were  established  in  New 
York's  oldest  settlements  (i.e.  Albany,  Manhattan,  Brooklyn)  and  had  largely 
succumbed  to  development  pressures  during  the  1800s.  Graves  in  many  cases 
were  relocated  to  new  sites  in  park-like  cemeteries  to  accommodate  urban 
growth.^  Gravemarkers,  however,  did  not  always  make  the  journey.  For 
example,  the  gravestones  of  one  of  New  York's  earliest  burial  grounds,  the 
Old  Dutch  Churchyard  of  New  York  City,  were  destroyed  when  the  property 
was  sold  off  to  real  estate  developers.^' 

Rural  plots  did  not  fare  much  better.  Many  of  the  stones  of  the  old  private 
and  family  grounds  have  either  fallen  apart,  been  discarded,  or  become 
buried.  In  writing  on  the  colonial  town  of  Bushwick  in  1884,  Henry  Stiles 
commented  that  the  ancient  graveyard  of  this  settlement  had  been  unused 
and  neglected  for  many  years  before  its  remnants  were  ultimately  deposited 
under  the  Bushwick  Dutch  Reformed  Church.^  And  in  1929,  as  a  member  of 
the  Saugerties  Chapter  of  the  D.A.R.,  Lila  James  Roney  described  the  state 
of  early  Ulster  County,  New  York,  family  plots  as  "fast  disappearing,  due  to 
farms  passing  into  alien  hands."  She  also  wrote  that  "the  stones  .  .  .  where 
the  earliest  settlers  of  Saugerties  were  buried,  were  thrown  in  the  Hudson 
[Rjiver,"  adding. 

The  resting  place  of  the  earliest  settlers ...  is  conipletely  overgrown 
with  large  trees  and  dense  underbrush.  Many  of  the  stones  have 
fallen  to  the  ground,  and  are  almost  buried  from  sight.  The 
inscriptions  on  many  of  the  old  field  stones  have  been  worn  away 
by  the  storms  of  years  and  the  names  lost  to  posterity.^ 
Thus,  neglect  is  another  factor  contributing  heavily  to  the  loss  of  many  early 
gravemarkers. 

Although  churchyards  are  some  of  the  most  well-maintained  of  surviving 
colonial-era  burial  grounds  and  are  frequently  home  to  excellent  examples  of 
early,  crudely-cut  gravemarkers,  churchyards  dating  to  the  Dutch  dominion 
are  limited  in  number.  This  is  due  not  just  to  later  development  but  also  to  their 


Brandon  Richards  27 

original  scarcity.  Prior  to  1654,  there  were  only  two  Dutch  churches  in  the  entire 
colony.  It  was  not  until  the  final  decade  of  Dutch  rule  that  permanent  structures 
and  churchyards  were  more  widely  established.''  Over  tinie,  many  of  the  first 
churchyard  burials  were  obliterated  when  congregation  growth  necessitated 
enlarging  the  church  building,  frequently  over  the  adjacent  graveyards.'"  Such 
was  the  case  at  Flatbush,  Hackensack,  Kingston,  and  elsewhere,  resulting  in 
an  absence  of  markers  identifying  the  earliest  churchyard  burials. 

Indirect  Evidence  of  Early  Marker  Use 

There  is  good  indirect  evidence  for  the  use  of  burial  markers  in  some 
form  prior  to  an  English  introduction.  Because  they  help  to  identify  previous 
interments,  gravemarkers  are  a  very  practical  tool.  While  excavating  near  the 
site  of  Albany's  Old  Dutch  Church,  archaeologists  found  that  the  earliest  New 
Netherland  settlers  were  buried  in  coffins  stackeci  directly  above  each  other 
in  tiers."  This  practice  requires  knowledge  of  each  previously  dug  grave, 
particularly  when  there  is  a  desire  to  bury  people  together  who  have  died 
years  apart.  In  the  Netherlands,  as  was  the  case  in  colonial  America,  it  was  not 
uncommon  for  spouses  or  family  members  to  be  buried  in  the  same  location 
and  icientified  on  a  single  marker. 

Another  strong  piece  of  evidence  supporting  colonial  New  Netherland 
marker  use  is  the  presence  of  burial  markers  in  the  Netherlands,  as  well  as 
elsewhere  in  northern  Europe,  from  an  early  date.  Although  stone  was  scarce, 
gravestones  like  the  one  shown  in  Figure  1  were  erected  in  the  Netherlands 
during  the  1600s.  Many  of  the  earliest  surviving  "Dutch"  gravemarkers  found 
in  the  study  area  appear  to  be  simple  versions  of  the  same.  In  addition,  there 
are  some  colonial  marker  forms  that  resemble  traditions  common  throughout 
Scandinavia  during  the  Middle  Ages.  These  burial  markers,  referred  to  as 
runestones  for  the  runic  characters  carved  on  them,  were  known  all  over  the 
Germanic  World.'-  Although  further  research  is  necessary  to  link  colonial 
gravestone  traditions  to  those  of  Scandinavia  during  the  same  period, 
Scandinavians  constituted  a  large  minority  segment  of  New  Netherland' s 
population,  and  gravemarker  evidence  suggests  a  strong  likelihood  that  these 
particular  colonists  played  a  part  in  the  diffusion  of  runestone-like  marker 
fornis  into  America. 

New  Netherland's  Scandinavian  Influence 

Estimates  place  the  1664  population  of  New  Netherland  at  as  much  as  9000 
colonists,  with  roughly  half  representing  ancestries  other  than  Dutch. '  -^  At  New 
Amsterdam  (New  York  City),  13  %  of  marriages  between  1639  and  1649  involved 
a  partner  from  Schleswig-Holstein  (then  part  of  Denmark),  and  5%  from  other 
Scandinavian  regions,  according  to  Dutch  Reformed  Church  records.'^  In 
places  like  Fort  Christina,  the  Scandinavian  element  was  inuch  greater  due 
to  the  origins  of  the  settlement.  Most  of  these  colonists  were  Lutherans,  as 
opposed  to  Calvinists  like  the  Dutch.'"  Fort  Orange,  near  present  day  Albany, 


28  New  Netherland's  Gravestone  Legacy 


Fig.  1.  Seventeenth-century  gravestone  memorializing  Oolee  Pieterszkuyte 
and  an  unidentified  individual,  1692,  Den  Helder,  The  Netherlands. 


reported  "from  70  to  80  [Lutheran]  families"  in  1659.  Equal  numbers  were 
documented  on  Long  Island  as  well.'"  This  sizable  Scandinavian  presence 
should  come  as  no  great  surprise  to  those  familiar  with  Dutch  history.  During 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  many  Scandinavians,  particularly 
Norwegian  and  Danish  sailors  and  their  families,  lived  in  the  Netherlands.'^ 
This  period  of  contact  between  the  Dutch  and  Scandinavian  peoples  could 
have  provided  ample  opportunities  for  the  exchange  of  cultural  traditions, 
including  grave  monument  forms. 

Common  Colonial  Marker  Forms 

From  Schenectady,  New  York,  to  Wilmington,  Delaware,  non-artisanal 
gravemarkers  still  stand  in  many  of  the  grounds  established  by  the  early  Dutch, 
Huguenot,  and  Scandinavian  colonists.  Two  common  forms,  plank  and  post- 
like in  appearance,  resemble  cuts  of  wood  and  were  possibly  skeuomorphs 
carved  in  stone  for  permanence.  Additional  support  for  this  claim  comes 
from  documentary  evidence  revealing  that  wood  markers  were  erected  at 
the  Knickerbocker  Burying  Grounds  in  Albany.  A.J.  Weise,  writing  in  1880, 
mentioned  to  this  effect,  "[t]he  durability  of  wood  is  practically  exhibited 
by  the  excellent  preservation  of  a  pitch  pine  head  board  standing  in  this 
graveyard."'^  Wood  was  also  more  commonly  used  to  mark  gravesites  in  the 


Brandon  Richards 


29 


Netherlands,  as  stone  was  scarce  and  expensive.'''  There,  such  gravemarkers 
were  erected  well  into  the  twentieth  century  (Fig.  2).  It  is  important  to  note 
that  any  wood  markers  erected  during  the  New  Netherland  period  would  not 
have  survived  to  the  present  due  to  the  decomposing  nature  of  the  material. 

In  the  British  communities  of  the  upper  mid-Atlantic  colonies,  it  was 
not  uncommon  for  non-artisanal  gravemarkers  to  be  hewn  in  the  likeness  of 
the  professionally  carved  markers  found  in  the  more  urban  settlements.  For 
example,  tympanums,  such  as  those  found  on  the  bedstead  gravemarkers  of 
the  New  England  and  New  York/ New  Jersey  carving  traditions,  are  present 
on  many  early  rough-hewn  stones  in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard  in  Mount  Vernon, 
New  York.  At  times,  the  English  and  New  Englanders  who  settled  in  this  area 
carved  symbols  on  the  tympanums  as  well  (Fig.  3).  These  surviving  markers, 
which  date  back  to  1704,  have  inscriptions  varying  from  simple  initials  and  a 
year  of  death,  to  a  complete  name  and  date  of  death  (Fig.  4). 

The  earliest  actual  Dutch  language  gravemarker  identified  in  the  study  area 
was  erected  around  1690  in  the  Schenectady  Dutch  Reformed  Churchyard. 
Incidentally,  it  was  found  and  removed  during  the  late  1800s  from  a  cellar 
wall  into  which  it  had  been  built.-°  The  marker  was  plank-like  in  appearance, 
measuring  14  x  7  x  4  inches,  and  inscribed: 


Fig.  2.  Wooden  gravemarker  erected  for  Elbertje  Van  De  Kolk,  1930, 
Elspeet,  The  Netherlands.  Photograph  courtesy  of  Leon  Bok. 


30 


New  Netherland's  Gravestone  Legacy 


h 


Fig.  3.  Example  of  a  non-artisanal  marker  from  a  colonial  British 

settlement  featuring  a  heart  carved  on  the  tympanum,  John  Obren, 

1755,  Mount  Vernon,  New  York. 


Fig.  4    Colonial  British,  non-artisanal  marker  hewn  in  the  likeness 

of  a  professionally-carved  gravestone,  Rechel  Gee, 

1752,  Mount  Vernon,  New  York. 


Brandon  Richards 


31 


ANNO  1690  /  DEN  8  MAY  /  IS  MIN  SOON  /  IN  DEN  HEERE 
/  GERUST  /  HENDRICK  /  lANSEN  /  VROOMAN  /  IAN 
VROOMAN 

Which  translates  to: 

ANNO  1690  /  THE  8™  OF  MAY  /  MY  SON  IS  /  IN  THE  LORD 
/  AT  REST  /  HENDRICK  /  JANSEN  /  VROOMAN  /  JAN 
VROOMAN 

The  marker  was  cut  with  a  characteristic  top-end  slant  common  among  early 
Dutch  gravestones  of  its  type.  Facing  the  marker,  the  slant  ran  from  the  left 
down  to  the  right,  sloping  at  an  approximately  30°  angle. 

Similar  gravestones  were  erected  in  Kingston,  New  York,  where  the 
earliest  date  to  the  1710s.  At  New  Paltz,  where  Huguenots  had  established 
themselves,  these  markers  are  found  as  well.  Although  the  markers  at  both 
sites  are  similar  and  feature  the  top-end  slant,  the  inscriptions  vary.  In  the 
Old  Dutch  Churchyard  at  Kingston,  most  do  not  include  much  more  than  the 
initials  of  the  individual  and  a  date  of  death  (Fig.  5),  while  some  New  Paltz 
markers  were  more  creative  with  inscriptions  in  acronym  form.  For  example, 
the  fifth  line  of  the  marker  in  Figure  6,  IDHOS,  reads  in  Dutch  In  Den  Heere 
Ontslapen,  which  translates  to  "Sleeping  in  the  Lord." 


Fig.  5.  Colonial  Dutch,  plank-like  marker  featuring  top-end  slant, 
WHM,  1713,  Kingston,  New  York. 


32  New  Netherland's  Gravestone  Legacy 


'<  »"  '"I 


.  »*>j 


Fig.  6.  Example  of  a  plank-like  marker  with  additional  carved  details, 
Margaret  Van  Bommel,  1747,  New  Paltz,  New  York. 


Excellent  examples  of  another  type  of  burial  marker,  the  post-like 
gravestones,  stand  in  Kingston  (from  the  1720s)  and  New  Paltz  (from  as  early 
as  the  1740s).  The  markers  at  Kingston  are  the  earliest  identified  surviving  of 
their  kind  and  include  the  top-end  slant  (Fig.  7).  In  addition,  the  churchyard 
features  an  extant,  rounded-top  marker  dating  to  1737  (Fig.  8).  Gravestones 
like  this  have  been  found  with  either  initials  only  or  lacking  inscriptions 
altogether  in  West  Nyack,  New  York,  and  in  northern  New  Jersey  at  the  Old 
Paramus  Burial  Ground.  At  Neshanic  in  New  Jersey's  Raritan  Valley,  there  is 
at  least  one  rounded-top,  post-like  marker  from  a  later  date,  1763,  which  was 
carved  with  the  full  death  date  and  name  of  the  deceased. 

The  rounded-top  feature  is  characteristic  among  gravemarkers  in  the 
Netherlands  from  the  same  period,  which  suggests  that  it  might  have  been 
introduced  to  the  upper  mid-Atlantic  colonies  via  the  Dutch.  Interestingly, 
Viking  Age  runestones  bearing  both  rounded  (Fig.  9)  and  slanted-tops  (Fig. 
10,  left)  were  carved  and  erected  centuries  earlier  in  Scandinavia  as  well.  Some 
runestone-like  markers,  such  as  the  Viele  stone  from  rural  Ancram,  New  York, 
in  Figure  11,  combine  the  rounded  and  slanted-top  features.  This  combination 
is  also  present  on  the  example  in  Figure  12  from  Uppsala,  Sweden,  circa  the 
eleventh  century.  As  discussed  previously,  these  factors,  combined  with 


Brandon  Richards 


33 


Fig.  7.  Colonial  Dutch  post-like 

marker  possibly  identifying 

burial  plot  for  Van  Wyk  family, 

1724,  Kingston,  New  York. 


Fig.  8.  Example  of  a  post-like 

marker  with  a  rounded  top, 

HKS,  1737,  Kingston,  New  York. 


Fig.  9.  Eleventh-century  runestone 

carved  by  the  rune  master 

Asmund  for  Svarthovde,  Uppsala, 

Sweden.  Photograph  courtesy  of 

Jack  Ammerman. 


Fig.  10.  Sketch  by  Robert  Miller 

of  late  12*-/  early  13"^-century 

gravestones  at  the  Raisio  Church 

in  Raisio,  Finland.  The  marker  on 

the  left  features  the  top-end 

slant  also  common  among 

the  colonial  Dutch. 


34 


New  Netherland's  Gravestone  Legacy 


Fig.  11.  Sketch  by  Robert  Miller  of 
a  non-artisanal  grave- 
marker  with  a  rounded  and 
slanted  top  resembling  a  Viking 
runestone.  It  is  inscribed  "Here, 
1749,  May  3rd  day,  was  the  child 
of  G  Viele  buried,"  Ancram, 
New  York. 


Fig.  12.  Lieventii  ceriiuiy  milestone 

carved  by  the  rune  master 

Opir  for  Igulfast,  Uppsala,  Sweden. 

Photograph  courtesy  of 

Jack  Ammerman. 


knowledge  that  the  Dutch  and  Scandinavians  were  in  early  contact  with  each 
other,  also  open  up  the  possibility  of  diffusion  via  colonists  of  Scandinavian 
descent.  However,  again,  further  research  on  the  European  end  is  necessary  in 
order  to  connect  these  markers  to  those  found  in  Anierica. 

It  should  be  noted  that  similar  non-artisanal  gravestones  are  present  in 
New  England  burial  grounds  as  well.  Figures  13  and  14  represent  examples 
of  plank  and  post-like  markers  with  both  rounded  and  slanted  tops  from 
Lancaster,  Massachusetts.  While  professionally  carved  stones  in  many  areas 
of  New  England  superseded  markers  such  as  these  by  the  late  1600s,  non- 
artisanal  marker  use  persisted  as  the  primary  form  in  the  Dutch  communities 
until  the  1740s.  -'  At  this  time,  colonial  Dutch  carvers  like  John  Zuricher 
began  crafting  gravestones  to  their  clients'  ethnic  preferences  (i.e.  language) 
and  helped  to  bring  the  New  York/ New  Jersey  carving  tradition  to  the 
linguistically  isolated  Dutch  communities  of  the  lower  Hudson.  Similarly, 
John  Solomon  Teetzel,  albeit  some  time  later,  was  involved  in  the  spread  of 
the  Anglo-German  carving  tradition  among  the  German  settlements  of  New 
Jersey's  northwestern  frontier,  where  fieldstone  markers  were  common  into 
the  1780s." 


Brandon  Richards 


35 


!^>- 


Fig.  13.  Example  of  a  plank-like 

marker  from  colonial  British 
New  England,  Thomas  Sawyer, 
1706,  Lancaster,  Massachusetts. 

Photograph  courtesy  of  the 
American  Antiquarian  Society. 


Fig.  14.  Example  of  a  plank-like 

marker  from  colonial 

British  New  England  circa  1700, 

John  Bowers,  Lancaster, 

Massachusetts.  Photograph 

courtesy  of  the  American 

Antiquarian  Society. 


In  the  initial  decades  following  New  Netherland's  English  takeover,  there 
had  been  little  progress  in  integrating  the  Dutch  and  English.  The  major 
settlements  of  Albany  and  Kingston  were  almost  exclusively  Dutch,  while 
Long  Island  was  divided  between  five  Dutch  communities  in  the  west  and 
twelve  English  communities  in  the  east.  The  Dutch  had  also  concentrated  in 
the  Raritan  Valley  and  Bergen  County,  New  Jersey,  as  well  as  Delaware,  where 
the  population  included  many  Swedes.  By  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
New  York  City  was  the  only  place  in  the  former  New  Netherland  where  the 
Dutch  and  English  really  came  close  together,  and  even  there  assimilation 
was  limited.-^  Throughout  the  eighteenth  and  on  into  the  nineteenth  century, 
various  aspects  of  Dutch  culture,  such  as  architecture,  Dutch-language  church 
services,  and  Dutch-language  gravestone  inscriptions,  continued  despite 
large-scale  assimilation  into  the  Anglo-American  mainstream  and  no  real  new 
Dutch  immigration. 

In  addition  to  the  plank  and  post-like  markers,  a  third  common  form,  often 
trapezoidal  (Fig.  15)  or  pointed  in  shape  (Fig.  16),  has  been  identified  in  the 
Dutch  communities  of  the  study  area.  Like  the  aforementioned  non-artisanal 
types,  these  markers  have  runestone-like  counterparts  as  well.  Inscriptions 


36 


New  Netherland's  Gravestone  Legacy 


Fig.  15.  Sketch  by  Robert  Miller  of  a  trapezoidal  gravemarker  inscribed 

"BC  1726,"  Wilmington,  Delaware.  Many  of  the  individuals 

interred  here  in  the  Old  Swedes'  Churchyard  descend  from  the 

original  colonists  of  New  Sweden. 


t' 


.mK, 


S'iHSQki'M. 


*'§?C-'S5 


tig.  16.  hxample  of  a  non-artisanal  marker  with  a  pointed  top, 
GA,  1773,  Ridgewood,  New  Jersey. 


Brandon  Richards 


37 


on  the  earliest  of  these  markers,  which  date  to  the  1710s  at  Hackensack,  the 
1720s  at  Old  Swedes,  and  the  1730s  at  Old  Paramus,  include  the  initials  of  the 
deceased  and  a  year  of  death.  Stone  (1991)  also  mentions  that  similar  markers 
were  popular  among  the  Dutch  on  Long  Island,  where  they  were  50%  more 
likely  to  erect  non-artisanal  gravestones  than  the  non-Quaker  English.-^ 

Most  of  the  early  rough-hewn  markers  examined  had  small  "+"  or  other 
niarks  separating  the  initials.  It  was  also  not  uncommon  for  some  later  stones 
to  include  these  separators  between  words  in  text  inscriptions,  as  shown  in  the 
exaniple  from  Neshanic  (Fig.  17).  Unlike  Old  World  runestones  and  carved 
British  colonial  fieldstones,  artwork  was  very  rare  on  non-artisanal,  colonial 
Dutch  markers.  Figure  18  from  Hackensack,  bearing  symbols,  is  a  rare  example. 
The  marker  is  believed  to  identify  the  gravesite  of  a  Native  American  woman, 
and  the  symbol  thought  to  have  tribal  sigiiificance.-- 

Conclusion 

In  summary,  evidence  suggests  that  New  Netherland  colonists  and  their 
descendants  knew  of  and  used  gravemarkers  prior  to  the  arrival  of  the  English 
in  1664.  Gravestones  were  erected  in  the  Netherlands  from  a  comparatively 
early  date  and,  for  practical  purposes,  were  likely  utilized  by  colonists  as  well. 
However,  factors  such  as  development  pressures,  neglect,  misidentification 
and  the  fact  that  many  were  made  of  wood  have  all  contributed  to  their 
absence  from  the  archaeological  record.  As  a  result,  the  final  resting  places  of 
many  of  America's  earliest  colonists  remain  unknown. 


EL(24BE 


Fig.  17.  Sketch  by  Robert  Miller  of 

Elisabeth  De  Mot, 

post-like  gravemarker,  1763, 

Neshanic,  New  Jersey. 

Notice  the  "+"  between  her 

first  and  last  name,  as  well  as  the 

day  and  year  of  death. 


Fig.  18.  A  trapezoidal  marker 

featuring  an  arrow  through 

the  initials  "IIB,"  1713,  Hackensack, 

New  Jersey.  Carved  symbols  were 

a  rarity  on  non-artisanal  stones  in 

colonial  Dutch  settlements. 


38  New  Netherland's  Gravestone  Legacy 

Extant  gravestones  from  the  late  17"'  century  do  exist  in  the  upper-Mid- 
Atlantic  region;  however,  they  are  few  in  number.  Those  that  reniain  were 
professionally  carved  and  erected  in  British  colonial  burial  grounds.  The 
oldest  surviving  crudely-cut  Dutch  markers  identified  during  this  study  date 
to  the  first  few  decades  of  the  18*  century.  Although  there  is  variation  among 
the  carved  stone  forms,  the  m.ore  comnion  types  are  distinguishable  from 
their  colonial  British  counterparts.  These  stones  include  the  plank  and  post- 
like markers,  as  well  as  the  trapezoidal  and  pointed  markers.  They  are  distinct 
from  English-inspired  gravestones  of  the  New  York/ New  Jersey  carving 
tradition,  and  it  is  highly  likely  that  the  markers  represent  examples  of  New 
Netherland  gravestone  forms.  The  possibility  also  exists  that  these  forms  were 
inspired  by  the  runestones  of  Northern  Europe  and/ or  were  introduced  via 
colonists  of  Scandinavian  descent.  In  any  event,  identifying  these  fieldstones 
and  crudely-cut  stones  as  gravemarkers  will  aid  in  identifying  early  colonial 
burial  grounds  for  further  study,  and,  it  is  hoped,  will  stimulate  preservation 
efforts  based  on  their  historic  significance. 


NOTES 

^  Sherene  Baugher  and  Fredrick  A  Winter,  "Early  American  Gravestones,"  Arclmeology 
36:5  (September/ October  1983):  46-53;  Richard  F.  Welch,  "The  New  York  and  New 
Jersey  Gravestone  Carving  Tradition,"  Markers  IV  (1987):  1-54;  Gaynell  Stone,  "Material 
Evidence  of  Ideological  and  Ethnic  Choice  in  Long  Island  Gravestones:  1670-1800," 
Material  Culture  23:3  (1991):  1-29. 

■^  Brandon  K.  Richards,  "Comparing  and  Interpreting  the  Early  Dutch  and  English 
Gravemarkers  of  New  York's  Lower  Hudson  Region"  (MA  Thesis:  University  of 
Leicester,  Leicester,  2005). 

^  Welch,  "NY/NJ  Carving  Tradition,"  1. 

4  Louis  B.  Wnght,  The  Cultural  Life  oftlie  American  Colonies:  1607-1 763,  V  ed.  (New  York: 
Harper  &  Row,  1962),  47-56. 

^  Peter  D.  Shaver,  "A  Guide  to  Researching  and  Preserving  New  York's  Burial 
Grounds,"  The  Preservationist:  NYS  Office  of  Parks,  Recreation  and  Historic  Preservation  7:2 
(Fall/Winter2003):7. 

^  Welch,  "NY/NJ  Carving  Tradition,"  33. 

^  Henry  R.  Stiles,  Tlie  Civil,  Political,  Professional  and  Ecclesiastical  Histon/  and  Commercial 
and  Industrial  Record  of  the  County  of  Kings  and  the  City  of  Brooklyn,  NY  from  1683  to  1884, 
vol.  1  (New  York:  W.W.  Munsefl  &  Company,  1884)',  15. 

^  Lila  J.  Roney,  Gravestone  Inscriptions  of  Ulster  County,  NY,  vol.  1  (Copied  and  Compiled 
by  the  Author,  1924),  1. 


Brandon  Richards  39 

^  Martha  B.  Flint,  Enrh/  Long  Islnuii:  A  Colonial  Study  (New  York:  G.P.  Putnam's  Sons, 
1896),  95. 

^"  Janice  K.  Sarapin,  Old  Burial  Grounds  of  New  Jersey:  A  Guide  (New  Brunswick,  NJ: 
Rutgers  University  Press,  2002),  14-15. 

^^  Hartgen  Archaeological  Associates,  Dutch  Reformed  Church  Burial  Ground,  cl656-1882 
(Report  prepared  by  Hartgen  Archaeological  Associates,  Inc.,  1986),  5. 

^-  "Runestones,"  Wikipedia,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rune_stone. 

^^  "The  New  Netherland  Dutch,"  The  Colonial  Albany  Social  History  Project, 
www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/nnd.html. 

^^  Annals  of  New  Netherland:  Tlie  Essays  ofAJF  van  Laer,  ed.  Charles  T.  Gehring  (Albany, 
NY:  New  Netherland  Project,  1999),  15. 

^^  Robert  Alexander,  "Religion  in  Rensselaerswijck,"  Selected  Rensselaerswijck  Seminar 
Papers  (Albany,  NY:  The  New  Netherland  Institute,  1986),  311. 

^^  A.J.F.  Van  Laer,  Tlie  Lutheran  Church  in  Nezv  York,  1649-1772  (New  York,  NY:  The 
New  York  Public  Library,  1946),  39. 

^^  Theodore  C.  Blegen,  Norwegian  Migration  to  America,  1825-1860  (Northfield,  MN:  The 
Norwegian-American  Historical  Association,  1931),  332. 

^^  A.J.  Weise.  Histoni  of  the  Seventeen  Towns  of  Rensselaer  County  from  the  Colonization  of 
the  Manor  of  Rensselaerwyck  to  the  Present  Time  (Troy,  NY:  J.M.  Francis  &  Tucker,  1880), 
65. 

^^  Leon  Bok,  personal  communication,  August  13,  2005. 

-°  Jonathan  Pearson,  Contributions  for  the  Genealogies  of  the  First  Settlers  of  the  Ancient 
County  of  Albany,  from  1630  to  1800  (Baltimore:  Genealogical  Publishing  Company, 
1978),'372. 

^^  A.I.  Ludwig,  Graven  Images:  New  England  Stone  Cawing  and  its  Symbols,  1650-1815 
(Middleton,  CT:  Wesleyan  University  Press,  1966),  461-463;  Richards,  "Comparing  and 
Interpreting,"  32. 

~  Richard  F.  Veit,  "John  Solomon  Teetzel  and  the  Anglo-German  Gravestone  Carving 
Tradition  of  18"^  Century  Northwestern  New  Jersey,"  Markers  XVII  (1997):  124-161. 

^  Richard  Middleton;  Colonial  America:  A  Histoty,  1565-1776,  3"-^  edition  (Oxford: 
Blackwell  Publishers  Ltd.,  2002),  122, 145, 151. 

-^  Stone,  "Material  Evidence,"  18. 

-^  Sarapin,  Old  Burial  Grounds,  73. 


40 


Myths  and  Realities  of  Laurel  Hill's  "Mother  and  Twins"  Monument 


41 
"If  YOU  LOST  EVERYTHING  YOU  LOVED  THE  MOST  IN  THIS 

world":  Myths  and  Realities  of  Laurel  Hill's 
"Mother  and  Twins"  Monument 

Janet  McShane  Galley 

On  an  isolated  rocky  outcropping  overlooking  the  Schuylkill  River, 
at  the  far  southern  end  of  Philadelphia's  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery  (1836),  the 
second  "rural"  cemetery  in  the  United  States,  sits  a  beautiful  and  poignant 
gravemarker  (Fig.  1).'  Facing  away  from  the  center  of  the  crowded  cemetery, 
the  monument  is  separated  from  the  other  gravemarkers  by  at  least  twenty 
feet  in  each  direction  and  is  slightly  downhill  from  the  closest  graves.  Visitors 
who  draw  close  discover  a  four-foot  statute  sitting  atop  a  three-foot-high 
brownstone  base.  Locally  known  as  "The  Mother  and  Twins"  or  more  simply 
as  "The  Twins,"  it  has  captured  the  imaginations  of  visitors  to  Laurel  Hill 
since  its  installation  in  1859.-  With  the  passage  of  time,  the  beauty  of  the  statue 
and  its  location  in  the  cemetery  have  sparked  numerous  stories  that  attempt 
to  explain  the  monument's  existence  and  meaning.  Yet,  the  truth  is  more 
complex,  and  just  as  fascinating,  as  any  of  the  myths. 

The  marble  sculpture  on  its  brownstone  pedestal  is  an  exceptional 
monument  to  idealized  motherhood.  The  life-size  sculpture  depicts  a  barefoot 
woman  in  flowing  robes  seated  on  a  tree  stump.  Her  hands  clasp  her  right 
knee,  her  left  leg  rests  on  the  toes  and  ball  of  her  foot,  and  her  right  foot  is 
tucked  behind  her  left  ankle.  Cradled  between  her  outstretched  arms,  two 
sleeping  infcmts  rest  their  backs  against  her  chest,  their  small  bodies  leaning 
against  each  other.  Tilted  slightly  forward,  the  woman's  face  is  calm,  her  half- 
closed  eyes  appearing  to  gaze  lovingly  on  the  two  infants.  To  the  left  of  her 
feet  rests  a  stringless  lyre,  a  wilted  flower  lying  across  its  frame  (Fig.  2).  Carved 
into  the  right  side  of  the  tree  stump  are  the  profile  of  a  man  and  the  image  of 
a  hammer  and  chisel  (Fig.  3). 

Unlike  most  gravemarkers,  which  evoke  a  sense  of  motionless  permanence, 
the  sculpture  of  the  woman  and  children  has  a  distinct  sense  of  tension, 
movement,  and  life.  The  woman's  posture,  the  positions  of  her  legs  and  feet, 
and  the  draping  of  her  classically-styled  clothing  portray  the  sense  of  a  back 
and  forth  rocking  motion  as  she  gazes  down  on  the  children  (Fig.  4).  In  their 
much  eroded  condition  today,  the  infants  may  look  restless,  especially  as 
their  small  open-mouthed  faces  appear  contorted  and  distressed.  However, 
the  earliest  photograph  (Fig.  1)  shows  fairly  conclusively  that  the  infants  are 
depicted  as  being  sound  asleep,  cradled  by  the  mother's  protective  arms.  Their 
mouths  are  open,  their  eyes  are  closed,  and  their  heads  are  leaning  backwards 
on  the  woman's  breast  and  arms.  The  fact  that  the  figures  are  elevated  by 
the  pedestal  so  that  viewers  look  upwards  into  the  woman's  face  gives  the 
sculpture  added  dignity  and  poignancy. 


42 


Myths  and  Realities  of  Laurel  HilTs  "Mother  and  Twins"  Monument 


Fig.  2.  Right  side  of  monument  showing  stringless  lyre  and  wilted  bundle 

of  flowers.  Photograph  courtesy  of  Gwendolyn  Kaminski, 

Manager  of  Outreach,  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery. 


Fig.  3.  Left  side  of  monument  showing  medallion  bas-relief  portrait  of 

sculptor  and  his  tools.  Photograph  courtesy  of 

Gwendolyn  Kaminski,  Manager  of  Outreach,  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery. 


Janet  McShane  Galley  43 

Below  the  statue,  carved  into  the  four  sides  of  the  three-foot  high 
brownstone  base,  are  a  series  of  engraved  inscriptions.  The  inscription  on  the 
front  of  the  brownstone  base  remains  clearly  visible: 

TO  THE  MEMORY 

OF 

HELENA  SCHAAFF 

WIFE  OF 

HENRY  DMOCHOWSKI  SAUNDERS 

BORN  IN  NEUSTADT  ON  THE  RHINE  MAY  24, 1823 

DIED  IN  PHILADELPHIA  JULY  8, 1857 

HER  CHILDREN  REPOSE  WITH  HER^ 

On  the  right  side  below  the  lyre  and  wilted  flower,  these  words  appear: 

WE  LIVE  IN  DEEDS  NOT  YEARS 

IN  THOUGHTS  -  NOT  BREATHS 

IN  FEELINGS  NOT  IN  FIGURES  ON  A  DIAL. 

WE  SHOULD  COUNT  TIME  BY  HEART  THROBS. 

HE  MOST  LIVES  WHO  THINKS  MOST 

FEELS  THE  NOBLEST 

ACTS  THE  BEST 

On  the  back  of  the  base,  the  side  first  seen  by  visitors  to  the  site,  is  a  date:  NOV. 
29, 1858  (Fig.  4).  The  words  engraved  on  the  left  side  of  the  base  are  in  Polish 
(Fig.  5).  Translated  into  English,  the  poigiiant  inscription  reads: 

PASSERBY! 

IF  YOU  LOST  EVERYTHING  YOU  LOVED  THE  MOST  IN  THIS  WORLD 

YOUR  HOMELAND,  PARENTS,  FRIENDS,  WIFE  AND  CHILDREN 

SHED  A  TEAR  OF  SYMPATHY  FOR  MY  DARLING  HELENA^ 

Above  this  inscription,  carved  onto  the  left  side  of  the  sculpture  just  below 
where  the  woman  is  seated,  is  a  medallion  with  a  bas-relief  portrait  bust  of  a 
bearded  man. 

The  isolation  of  the  gravesite,  the  beauty  of  the  statue,  and  the  emotional 
words  on  the  memorial's  base  have  long  sparked  the  interest  and  imagin- 
ation of  Laurel  Hill  visitors.  Who  was  Helena?  Is  the  statue  a  likeness  of  her? 
How  did  she  and  the  infants  die?  Whose  face  is  carved  into  the  left  side  of 
the  tree  stump  on  which  Helena  sits,  and  why  is  the  statue  set  apart  from  the 
other  graves? 

In  the  first  few  years  after  the  monument  was  erected,  it  is  quite  possible 
that  many  visitors  to  the  site  knew  the  answers  to  these  questions,  but  as 


44 


Myths  and  Realities  of  Laurel  Hill's  "Mother  and  Twins"  Monument 


Fig.  4.  Back  of  monument  with  "Nov.  29, 1858  "  engraved  on  the  base. 


Janet  McShane  Galley 


45 


Fig.  5.  Left  side  of  monument  base  with  inscription  in  Polish. 

Photograph  courtesy  of  Gwendolyn  Kaminski, 

Manager  of  Outreach,  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery. 


years  passed,  romanticized  stories  began  to  emerge  to  fill  the  void  left  by 
lost  memories.  Some  of  these  myths  continue  to  be  told  today,  while  others 
have  almost  faded  from  public  memory.  Tliree  main  stories  have  emerged 
to  explain  the  deaths  of  Helena  and  the  children.  All  three  are  still  being  told 
today.  According  to  one  of  the  myths  about  the  deaths,  the  infants  drowned  in 
a  boating  accident  on  the  Schuylkill  River  despite  Helena's  best  efforts  to  save 
them,  and  Helena  died  sometime  soon  after.  The  implication  of  this  story  is 
that  Helena  died  from  the  grief  of  not  being  able  to  save  her  children.  A  second 
version  of  the  story  about  the  deaths  is  that  the  infants  were  stillborn  twins 
and  soon  after  their  births  Helena  drowned  in  the  river.  Again,  the  underlying 
and  unspoken  assumption  of  the  story  is  that  she  may  have  taken  her  own  life 
in  her  grief.  According  to  the  third  story  in  circulation,  Henry  Dmochowski 
Saunders,  Helena's  husband,  witnessed  the  drowning  deaths  of  his  wife  and 
two  children  and,  in  his  grief,  carved  the  monument  as  a  memorial  to  his  lost 
family.  In  all  three  myths,  the  statue  is  supposed  to  have  been  placed  on  the 


46  Myths  and  Realities  of  Laurel  Hill's  "Mother  and  Twins"  Monument 

hillside  so  that  it  looked  out  over  the  spot  in  the  Schuylkill  River  where  the 
drownirig  or  drownings  occurred.  In  some  variations  of  these  three  stories,  the 
iiifants  are  referred  to  as  twin  daughters,  but  others  make  110  mention  of  the 
sexes  of  the  children. 

One  additional  story  purports  to  explain  the  sculptor's  identity  and 
motives.  Told  as  late  as  the  1940s,  it  has  almost  faded  from  public  memory. 
It  declares  that  the  sculptor  was  Saunders  and  that  when  the  moiiument  was 
firially  put  into  place  over  the  gravesite,  he  threw  his  sculpting  tools  into  the 
Schuylkill  River,  declaring  that  he  hoped  they  would  float  back  to  Poland.  All 
the  stories  about  the  monument  share  a  common  ending:  Saunders  returned 
to  Poland  to  fight  for  his  homeland  and  was  killed  in  battle  soori  after  landing 
on  his  native  soil.'  Questions  about  the  accuracy  of  these  orally-transmitted 
stories  have  persisted  uritil  today.  What  parts  are  truth  arid  what  parts  are 
myth? 

A  variety  of  sources,  including  biographical  articles,  coiTfirm  that  Helena's 
husband,  Henry  Dmochowski  Saunders,  was  ii"i  fact  the  sculptor  who  created 
the  moiiument  and  the  man  depicted  in  the  medalliori  portrait  on  the  right 
side  of  the  sculpture.  Born  in  Wilno,  Poland,  in  1810,  Saunders  grew  up  to  be 
a  passionate  believer  in  the  cause  of  Polish  freedom  from  Russian  rule.  For 
his  participation  in  the  1830-1834  Polish  Insurrectiori,  he  served  niore  than 
six  years  in  jail.  In  1839,  he  moved  to  Paris  to  study  sculpture  at  the  Ecole 
des  Beaux  Arts  under  the  tutelage  of  David  d' Angers  arid  Frangois  Rude. 
Returning  to  Poland  in  1848  to  resume  his  fight  against  Russiari  occupation, 
he  was  eventually  forced  to  flee  to  America  in  1851  to  avoid  being  arrested 
again.  A  year  later,  he  moved  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  began 
working  as  a  professional  sculptor.  Betweeri  1853  and  1857,  the  Pennsylvania 
Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  displayed  sixty-seven  of  Saunders'  busts,  medallions, 
and  bas-reliefs.  Many  of  these  were  also  exhibited  in  Washirigton,  D.C.,  by 
the  Washington  Art  Association.  A  number  of  Saunders'  pieces  remain  on 
display  in  Washington  today,  including  his  busts  of  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  George 
Dallas  Miffliii  (displayed  in  the  Senate  rotundo),  and  Thaddeus  Kosciuszko 
and  Casimir  Pulaski,  two  Polish  patriots  who  fought  in  the  Anierican  War  of 
Independence.  Although  Sauriders  achieved  a  degree  of  success,  his  work  as  a 
sculptor  never  brought  him  financial  security,  and  money  worries  continually 
plagued  him  during  his  time  in  America.'' 

In  1852,  Saunders  met  and  married  Helena  Schaaff,  a  young  German 
woman  who  lived  in  the  same  boardinghouse.  An  accomplished  pianist  and 
music  teacher,  Helena  helped  support  the  couple  after  their  marriage.  In 
February  1855,  Helena  gave  birth  to  a  stillborn  child  whose  body  was  buried 
ill  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery.  After  the  birth,  she  had  to  restrict  her  teaching  and 
performance  schedule  because  the  difficult  delivery  took  a  toll  on  her  health. 
In  July  1857,  after  an  even  more  difficult  delivery,  Helena  gave  birth  to  another 
stillborn  child.  Half  an  hour  later,  she  died  from  complications.  Helena  and  the 


Janet  McShane  Galley  47 

baby  were  buried  together  in  a  single  grave  on  a  rocky  outcrop  in  Laurel  Hill 
Cemetery  along  with  the  exhumed  remains  of  the  first  stillborn  child.  Soon 
afterwards,  Saunders  began  work  on  his  monument.  Completed  in  November 
1858,  the  monument  was  placed  on  the  grave  in  1859.  hi  June  1861,  four 
years  after  Helena's  death,  Saunders  returned  to  Poland,  where  he  continued 
to  work  as  a  sculptor  and  where  he  resumed  his  fight  against  the  Russian 
occupation  of  his  homeland.  He  died  in  battle  fighting  the  Russian  army  on 
May  14, 1863." 

These  facts  reveal  that  the  story  about  Saunders  —  that  he  threw  his 
sculptor's  tools  into  the  river  in  a  fit  of  grief  — is  romantic,  dramatic,  and 
highly  implausible.  That  Saunders  might  have  done  so  is  unlikely,  or,  in  any 
case,  not  supported  by  any  factual  information.  It  makes  little  sense  that  an 
artist  whose  financial  situation  was  tenuous  would  toss  away  the  very  tools 
that  allowed  him  to  earn  his  living  and  express  his  creativity.  The  fact  that 
Saunders  continued  to  earn  his  livelihood  as  a  sculptor  until  the  time  of  his 
death  further  undermines  the  story  of  the  sacrificed  tools.  Additionally,  of  all 
the  stories  that  have  emerged,  this  myth  is  the  least  relevant  to  the  monument 
itself.  It  does  nothing  to  answer  the  questions  about  the  true  story  behind  the 
monument. 

Other  myths  about  Laurel  Hill's  "Mother  and  Twins"  sculpture  mix  fantasy 
and  truth.  Most  versions  of  the  story  refer  to  the  infants  as  twins,  and  indeed 
the  sculpture  appears  to  depict  twins  of  about  six  months  to  one  year  of  age. 
Some  versions  even  specifically  identify  the  infants  as  girls.  Again,  known 
facts  debunk  these  elements  of  the  stories.  Cemetery  records  and  copies  of 
letters  that  Saunders  wrote  to  his  friends  confirm  that  the  two  infants  were 
born  at  least  sixteen  months  apart.  Whether  the  infants  were  female  remains 
unknown.  No  official  documents  appear  to  have  survived  that  indicate  the  sex 
of  the  stillborn  infants,  and  in  the  absence  of  such  information,  myths  again 
have  filled  the  void.^  Yet,  the  belief  that  the  sculpture  depicts  Helena's  face  and 
body  appears  to  be  correct.  An  article  in  a  popular  Philadelphia  newspaper 
describing  the  statue  at  the  time  of  its  completion  in  November,  1858,  noted 
that  "the  chief  figure  is  intended  as  a  portrait,  and  the  likeness  is  said,  by  those 
who  knew  the  subject,  to  be  excellent."'' 

While  the  myths  about  the  "Mother  and  Twins"  monument  purport  to 
answer  questions  of  location,  identity,  and  the  reasons  for  the  deaths,  none 
focus  on  its  design.  The  unspoken  assumption  is  that  Saunders'  personal  grief 
was  the  catalyst  behind  the  memorial;  no  one  has  questioned  where  his  ideas 
originated  and  why  he  depicted  the  images  as  he  did.  A  sculpture  in  France 
provides  an  important  clue.  Sculptor  and  painter  Auguste-Hyacinthe  Debay's 
sculpture,  "Le  Berceau  primitif:  Eve  et  ses  deux  enfants,"  or  in  English,  "The 
First  Cradle:  Eve  and  Her  Two  Children"  (Fig.  6),  was  completed  in  1845  and 
was  on  display  at  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  in  Paris  for  the  next  two  years. '°  It 
was  one  of  the  most  popular  sculptures  of  its  time.  Saunders  must  have  not 


48 


Myths  and  Realities  of  Laurel  Hill's  "Mother  and  Twins"  Monument 


iiillilliilB'UllBii* 


Fig.  6.  W.  Rolfe  engraving  (1856)  of  Auguste-Hyacinthe  Debay's  "The  First 

Cradle:  Eve  and  Her  Two  Children"  (1845),  which  undoubtedly 

influenced  Saunders.  Private  collection. 


Janet  McShane  Galley  49 

only  seen  Debay's  work  when  he  and  Debay  studied  together  at  the  school 
during  the  1840s,  but  he  probably  saw  examples  of  its  many  reproductions  in 
bronze,  plaster,  and  terra  cotta."  The  siniilarities  in  form  and  posture  between 
the  two  statues  are  too  great  to  be  a  matter  of  coincidence.  Saunders  depicts 
his  wife  cradling  two  infants  in  the  same  position  that  Debay  used  for  Eve 
holding  her  two  children.  Both  mothers  sit  with  their  arms  clasped  around 
their  right  knees,  their  right  feet  anchored  behind  their  left  ankles.  Both 
women's  faces  are  down-turned  as  they  watch  over  their  sleeping  infants. 
The  children  are  nestled  in  their  niother's  arms  and  lean  against  each  other 
for  support.'-  More  generally,  both  sculptures  belong  to  the  popular  tradition 
of  "ideal"  sculpture  that  depicted  abstract  ideas  and  ideals  (motherhood, 
sorrow,  joy,  justice,  thought  — as  in  Rodin's  "The  Thinker")  or  important 
historical  or  literary  figures  (Eve,  George  Washington,  etc.)  Debay's  work 
was  in  the  tradition  of  imaginative  "history"  painting  and  sculpture  as  well 
as  of  Romantic  emotionalism  and  the  celebration  of  life  force.'^  Mrs.  Jameson, 
a  thoughtful  observer  of  the  time,  noted  that  "the  form  of  Eve  has  all  the 
amplitude  and  vigor  which  ought  to  characterize  the  first  parent"  and  cites 
Michangelo's  similar  treatment  of  Eve.'^  However,  Saunders'  work,  while  also 
depicting  an  idealized  figure,  has  a  personal  emotional  content  that  Debay's 
lacks  because  it  was  intended  as  a  memorial  to  his  wife. 

While  the  basic  form  of  the  two  statues  is  remarkably  similar,  other  aspects 
of  Saunders'  statue  depart  significantly  from  Debay's  work.  Debay's  Eve  is 
nude  in  the  Romantic  style  that  was  popular  in  Paris  during  the  1840s.  Her 
physique  is  a  celebration  of  strength  and  health.  Saunders  garbed  the  image 
of  his  deceased  wife  in  flowing  garments.  As  she  apparently  was  in  life,  the 
woman  in  Saunders'  memorial  is  more  finely-featured  and  more  frail  looking 
than  Debay's  Eve.'^  Saunders'  decision  to  clothe  the  image  of  his  wife  as  he  did 
was  likely  based  on  a  number  of  factors.  As  a  portrayal  of  a  beloved  spouse, 
his  choice  reflected  mid-nineteenth-century  American  attitudes  about  female 
modesty  and  its  connection  to  the  ideals  of  purity,  worthy  womanhood,  and 
motherhood.  His  choice  also  fit  the  ideals  of  restrained  neo-classicism  popular 
among  the  American  public,  and  it  mirrored  contemporary  taste  in  funerary 
art,  especially  as  it  related  to  portrayals  of  women.  Saunders  knew  that  if  he 
had  depictedi  his  wife  with  bared  legs,  let  alone  in  the  nude,  for  display  in  a 
public  setting  in  America,  his  work  would  have  been  considered  outrageous, 
if  not  obscene.  In  regards  to  nudity  in  art,  American  taste  was  far  behind  that 
of  Europe.'^ 

Saunders  also  departed  from  Debay's  sculpture  in  other  ways.  Debay's 
Eve  rests  on  a  pile  of  rocks,  but  Saunders'  wife  sits  on  a  tree  stump.  In  the 
mid-nineteenth  century,  images  of  trees  in  funerary  art  were  recognized 
as  symbols  of  life,  family,  and  regeneration.  A  tree  stump  was  understood 
by  nineteenth-century  cemetery  visitors  as  a  sign  of  the  death  of  a  mature 
person  or  of  a  family.'-'  There  are  also  differences  in  how  the  children  in  the 
two  statues  are  depicted.  The  sizes  of  the  children  in  Debay's  work  reflect 


50  Myths  and  Realities  of  Laurel  Hill's  "Mother  and  Twins"  Monument 

the  age  difference  between  Cain  and  Abel.  The  infants  in  Saunders'  sculpture 
are  both  younger  than  the  children  in  Debay's  sculpture,  but  clearly  they  are 
not  newborns.  Saunders'  depiction  of  two  maturing  infants  suggests  that  he 
did  not  necessarily  intend  to  memorialize  his  two  stillborn  children  but  was 
intent  on  memorializing  his  wife  in  a  pose  of  ideal  motherhood.  His  letters  to 
a  friend  after  each  of  the  births  support  the  idea  that  Saunders  was  coi^cerned 
almost  exclusively  with  honoring  his  wife's  memory.  In  his  letters,  Saunders 
made  no  mention  of  the  first  stillborn  child  other  than  to  say  that  it  was  overly 
large  when  it  was  delivered.  After  the  second  stillbirth  resulted  iri  the  death 
of  his  wife,  Saunders  wrote,  "I  curse  the  hour  in  which  the  damiied  baby  was 
conceived.""' 

Sauriders  also  departed  front  Debay's  design  by  incorporating  a  wilted 
flower  and  a  lyre  with  the  broken  string  into  his  statue.  Both  of  these  images 
were  recognized  symbols  of  death  during  the  nineteenth  century;  the  wilted 
flower  often  signified  the  death  of  a  child,  while  the  lyre  with  the  broken  string 
usually  marked  the  death  of  an  artist.  By  including  these  images  in  his  design, 
Saunders  signaled  not  only  that  a  child's  death  had  occurred  but  also  that  the 
world  had  lost  a  talented  musician. 

Finally,  Saunders  further  diverged  from  Debay's  design  by  incorporating 
his  own  image  in  the  form  of  a  bas-relief  medallion  into  the  sculpture 
(Fig.  6).  There  are  a  number  of  reasons  why  he  may  have  done  this.  One 
possible  explanation  is  that  by  carving  his  profile  into  the  statue,  Saunders  was 
demoristrating  his  everlasting  comiection  to  his  wife  and  childreri.  Mourning 
customs  and  rituals  of  the  mid-niiieteerith  century  urged  mourners  to  find 
tangible  ways  to  connect  themselves  with  their  deceased  loved  ones.  Mourners 
wore  special  clothing  that  amiounced  their  loss,  and  many  also  wore  mourning 
jewelry.  Mourning  rings  with  the  nanies  of  the  deceased  engraved  inside  or 
brooches  and  lockets  that  contained  some  of  the  hair  of  the  departed  loved 
ones  were  very  popular  in  the  mid-  to  late-nineteenth  century.'^  By  carving  a 
medallion  with  his  own  bust  in  profile  onto  the  sculpture,  Saunders  found  a 
permanent  way  of  linking  himself  with  his  deceased  family. 

A  less  romantic  and  more  practical  reasori  that  Saunders  incorporated 
his  own  image  into  the  sculpture  may  be  that  it  was  his  way  of  signing  and 
advertisii"ig  his  work.  By  carving  his  profile  into  the  statue  along  with  the 
image  of  a  hammer  and  chisel,  he  proclaimed  himself  as  the  artist  behind  the 
sculpture.  The  work  was  his  creation.  As  a  professional  sculptor  who  seemed 
to  have  always  struggled  finaricially,  this  was  his  way  to  demonstrate  his 
varied  talents  to  the  general  public.  As  was  true  of  other  American  sculptors 
of  the  time,  Saunders  made  his  living  selling  his  bas-relief  medallions,  busts, 
and  other  "ideal"  sculptures,  the  three  main  types  of  sculptural  work  that 
American  sculptors  depended  on  for  income.'^  He  may  have  hoped  that  future 
commissions  would  result  from  his  memorial  sculpture  to  his  wife  and  his 
bas-relief  of  himself. 


Janet  McShane  Galley  5 1 

A  central  difference  between  Debay's  statue  and  Saunders'  memorial, 
other  than  the  fact  that  one  was  inspired  by  a  Biblical  story  and  the  other 
by  the  intimate  personal  experience  of  love  and  loss,  is  that  Debay  patterned 
his  sculpture  so  that  it  remained  true  to  the  events  of  the  story  behind  it. 
According  to  the  Bible,  Cain  was  the  older  of  Eve's  two  sons.  The  figures  of  the 
infant  Cain  and  Abel  in  Debay's  statue  clearly  reflect  their  difference  in  age. 
Saunders,  however,  drawing  on  his  Romantic  leanings,  depicted  an  event  that 
never  was  and  sculpted  the  image  of  his  wife  and  chikiren  in  a  scenario  that 
never  happened.  Helena  never  had  the  opportunity  to  cradle  her  two  children 
or  to  rock  them  to  sleep  in  her  arms.  She  never  heard  their  cries  nor  calmed 
their  tears.  Saunders'  memorial  of  his  wife  is  all  the  more  touching  because  it 
depicts  his  wife  for  an  eternity  in  a  pose  that  he  and  she  only  dreamed  of. 

Saunders'  sculpture  of  his  idealized  wife  exemplifies  Romanticisni  and 
contemporary  mourning  customs.  Memorial  paintings  and  statuary  became 
very  popular  during  the  mid-nineteenth  century  and  often  depicted  the 
deceased  in  lifelike  situations.  While  most  memorial  artwork  was  created 
by  hireti  artisans  rather  than  by  family  members  of  the  deceased,  Saunders' 
tribute  to  his  wife  would  have  been  well  within  the  bounds  of  socially 
accepted  practice.  Popular  literature  of  the  time  encouraged  people  to  act  out 
their  grief  in  appropriate  ways.  For  a  man  of  Saunders'  talents,  these  words 
from  a  contemporary  advice  manual  on  mourning  seem  especially  fitting: 
"The  smitten  heart  will  bleed;  the  workings  of  nature  must  have  vent.  It  is 
right.  Tears  were  not  made  that  they  should  never  be  shed:  nor  the  passion  of 
grief  implanted  only  to  be  stifled."''^  In  drawing  on  his  artistic  talents  and  his 
imagination  to  create  the  statue,  Saunders  found  a  socially  approved  outlet 
for  his  grief.  And  by  sculpting  an  idealized  portrait  of  his  wife  cradling  two 
living  infants  in  her  lap,  he  transformed  his  personal  tragedy  into  a  moving 
and  poignant  work  of  art. 

Why  Saunders  choose  such  a  remote  plot  as  the  final  resting  place  for 
his  family,  and  why  he  oriented  the  memorial  the  way  he  did,  remain  open 
to  question.  Perhaps  Saunders  chose  the  site  overlooking  the  Schuylkill  for 
his  wife  and  children's  final  resting  place  because  of  its  privacy  (it  is  not 
easily  visible  from  the  road)  and  its  beautiful  setting.  Perhaps,  also,  he  chose 
it  because  it  had  pleasant  memories  for  him.  The  cemetery  was  one  of  the 
most  visited  public  spaces  in  Philadelphia  between  the  1840s  and  the  Civil 
War.  In  one  six-month  period  in  1848,  more  than  30,000  visitors  wandered  its 
paths  and  roadways,  and  more  than  140,000  people  paid  the  twenty-five  cent 
admission  price  for  the  privilege  of  strolling  the  grounds  in  I860.-"  Based  on  the 
popularity  of  Laurel  Hill  as  a  tourist  attraction  in  the  1850s,  it  is  highly  likely 
that  Saunders  and  his  wife  had  been  to  the  cemetery  before  the  births  of  their 
children.  If  they  had  not  gone  to  the  cemetery  as  a  cultural  excursion  before 
the  stillbirth  of  their  first  child,  they  almost  certainly  visited  the  cemetery  after 
their  first  stillborn  child  was  buried  there.  Perhaps  Saunders  and  his  wife  had 
wandered  along  the  isolated  outcrop  in  happier  times  and  had  stopped  to 


52  Myths  and  Realities  of  Laurel  Hill's  "Mother  and  Twins"  Monument 

admire  the  scenic  view  of  the  Schulykill  River. 

Corisidering  that  it  has  been  exposed  to  the  elements  for  more  than  140 
years,  the  "Mother  and  Twins"  sculpture  is  in  remarkably  good  coi^dition 
today.  Its  isolated  location,  and  perhaps  its  subject  matter,  have  kept  it  safe 
from  vandals.-'  The  faces  of  the  two  infants  are  badly  eroded  because  they  are 
upturned  ai"id  thus  have  been  fully  exposed  to  the  elements.  Some  of  Helena's 
toes  and  fingers  have  worn  away  or  have  broken  off.  Her  nose  had  been 
almost  worn  away  but  has  been  restored  as  part  of  the  preservation  work  that 
was  completed  iii  2004.  The  statue's  preservation  project  was  jointly  funded 
by  Preservation  Pennsylvania  and  the  Philadelphia  Chapter  of  the  Kosciuszko 
Foundation.--  The  Kosciuszko  Foundation  also  established  a  trust  fund  to  pay 
for  the  on-going  care  of  the  moriument.  Despite  some  deterioration,  the  statue 
today  still  evokes  strong  emotions.  The  beauty  and  poignancy  of  Saunders' 
work  guarantee  that  the  idealized  sculpture  of  his  wife  Helena  with  two 
childreri  will  continue  to  move  and  fascinate  visitors  to  Laurel  Hill  for  years 
to  come. 

NOTES 

I  offer  my  sincere  thaiiks  to  the  four  anonymous  readers  who  thoughtfully  critiqued 
an  earlier  version  of  this  work.  Thanks,  too,  to  Gary  Collison  for  his  on-going 
interest  in  this  project.  Tereska  Wojcik  of  the  Philadelphia  Chapter  of  the  Kosciuszko 
Foundation  and  Matthew  Szczepanowski  of  the  Conservation  Studio  for  Art  were 
very  generous  with  their  time  in  explaining  how  the  recent  preservation  work 
on  the  monument  came  to  be  completed.  The  staff  at  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,  and 
most  especially  Gwendolyn  Kaminski,  Manager  of  Education  and  Outreach, 
deserve  a  special  note  of  thanks  for  their  assistance  and  for  allowing  me  easy  access  to 
the  cemetery's  records.  A  final  thanks  to  Professor  Charlene  Myers;  it  was  as  a  student 
in  one  of  her  classes  at  Temple  University  that  I  first  encountered  this  wonderful 
monument,  and  it  was  from  this  exposure  that  I  came  to  appreciate  the  beauty  of 
cemeteries. 

^  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery  opened  in  1836  and  was  the  culmination  of  the  dream  of  its 
founder,  John  Jay  Smith.  Created  by  Scottish  landscape  architect  John  Notman,  Laurel 
Hill  was  the  second  "rural"  cemetery  in  America  and  reflected  the  growing  trend 
in  cemetery  design  that  blended  the  beauty  of  nature  in  park-like  settings  with  the 
reality  of  human  mortality.  Notman' s  plans  were  strongly  influenced  by  Pere  Lachaise 
cemetery,  Paris,  and  Mount  Auburn  Cenretery,  Cambridge.  Colleen  McDannell,  "The 
Religious  Symbolism  of  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,"  in  Materinl  Oiristianiiy:  Religion  and 
Popular  Culture  in  America  (New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1995),  103;  and  Michael 
Brooks,  A  Walking  Tour  at  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery  (Philadelphia:  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,  n. 
d.),2. 

^  Joseph  Direso,  general  manager  of  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,  and  other  staff  members 
used  these  terms  to  refer  to  the  marker  during  my  visits  to  the  site  between  January 
and  June  2001  and  in  August  2006.  The  terms  also  appear  on  the  internet.  See  Ron 
Avery,  "Mother  and  Twins  Monument,  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,"  Philadelphia  Oddities, 
http://www.ushistory.org/oddities/mother.htm.  The  monument  has  also  been 
referred  to  less  frequently  as  "The  Mother  with  Infants"  monument.  For  examples 
using  this  name,  see  "Another  Successful  Year  for  the  Philadelphia  Intervention  Fuird," 


Janet  McShane  Galley  53 


Preseroing  Peunsylvmua  17.1  (Winter  2004):  2;  and  Teresa  G.  Wojcik,  "Dmochowski 
Monument  Preservation  Complete,"  Pliilndelphia  Chapter  of  the  Kosduszko  Foundation 
Newsletter  (May-July  2004):  2.  In  one  instance,  the  monument  is  referred  to  as  "The 
Crying  Mother."  See  "The  Crying  Mother,"  DIGESTezine:  Pliiladelphia,  America's  Most 
Haunted  City,  http://www.angeIfire.com/zine/digest/mom.htmI. 

^  Some  sources  mistakenly  give  the  name  on  the  monument  as  Mary  rather  than 
Helena.  See  Avery,  "The  Mother  and  Twins  Monument";  and  Walendowski,  "A  Story 
Found  on  Laurel  Hill,"  97. 

"*  The  translation  used  here  is  from  copies  of  a  letter  on  file  at  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery. 
\x\  her  footnotes.  Sister  M.  Liguori  includes  a  different  translation  of  the  inscription: 
"Friend,  who  hast  lost  everything  that  is  dearest  on  Earth  — Country,  Parents,  Friends, 
Wife,  Children  — sacrifice  a  tear  of  sympathy  to  my  Helen."  In  his  footnotes,  Tadeusz 
Walendowski  uses  the  terni  "Homeland"  instead  of  "Country."  See  Letter  to  Mr. 
Proud,  December  29, 1976,  from  Erma  Perry.  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,  Burial  Plot  Records, 
File  for  Section  7  Number  375;  Sister  M.  Liguori,  "Henry  Dmochowski  Saunders: 
Soldier-Sculptor,"  PolisJi  American  Studies  6.  2  (January-June  1949):  24;  and  Tadeusz 
Walendowski,  "A  Story  Found  on  Laurel  Hill,"  Polish  American  Studies,  63.  2  (Autumn 
2001):  104. 

-  The  first  version  was  told  to  me  by  Joseph  Direso  in  March  2001  during  a  visit  to 
the  cemetery.  This  version  also  appears  on  Ron  Avery's  web  page.  The  second  was 
told  to  me  by  Dr.  Joseph  Edgette,  a  folklorist  and  past  board  member  of  the  cemetery, 
at  the  Amiual  Meeting  of  the  Popular  Culture  Association  that  was  held  in  Toronto 
in  March  2002.  The  third  story  is  reported  by  Tadeusz  Walendowski  in  his  article, 
but  he  makes  no  mention  of  the  gender  of  the  children.  The  fourth  story  was  told  to 
Sister  M.  Liguori  in  1948.  The  myths  even  appear  on  a  United  States  Senate  webpage, 
in  the  Art  and  History  section,  which  recounts  the  story  of  Helena  dying  following 
the  drowning  deaths  of  the  couple's  two  daughters.  Additionally,  two  letters  from 
Laurel  Hill  Cemetery  staff  to  people  who  had  visited  the  monument  refer  to  the 
"twin  daughters,"  but  no  official  documents  detail  the  sex  of  the  children.  See  Avery, 
"Mother  and  Twins  Monument.";  Walendowski,  "A  Story  Found  on  Laurel  Hill,"  97; 
Liguori,  "Henry  Dmochowski  Saunders:  Soldier-Sculptor,"  23;  United  States  Senate: 
Art  &  History,  "Tadeusz  Kosciuszko,"  http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/ 
artifact/Sculpture_21_00012.htm;  Letter  to  Ms.  Danuta  A.  Boczar  from  Louis  M.  Proud, 
Superintendent,  dated  July  1,  1975;  and  unsigned  copy  of  the  letter  to  Ms.  Laurie  B. 
Piatt,  February  25, 1981,  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,  "Lot  #  375  Section  7." 

"^  Liguori,  "Henry  Dmochowski  Saunders:  Soldier-Sculptor,"  18-25;  Walendowski, 
"A  Story  Found  on  Laurel  Hill,"  98-105;  Postacie  historyczne,  Historia  sztuki,  Polska, 
"Dmochowski  Henryk,"  http://wiem.onet.pl/wiem/014cb.html,  translated  by 
Katarzyna  Kirylczuk;  and  United  States  Senate:  Art  &  History,  "Tadeusz  Kosciuszko." 

^  Liguori,  "Henry  Dmochowski  Saunders:  Soldier-Sculptor,"  18-25;  Walendowski, 
"A  Story  Found  on  Laurel  Hill,"  98-105;  Postacie  historyczne,  Historia  sztuki,  Polska, 
"Dmochowski  Henryk,"  http://wien"i. onet.pl/wiem/014cb. html,  translated  by 
Katarzyna  Kirylczuk;  and  United  States  Senate:  Art  &  History,  "Tadeusz  Kosciuszko." 

^  Neither  birth  was  recorded  in  any  official  registers,  but  this  was  not  uncommon 
for  stillbirths  during  this  period.  In  the  newspaper  notices  of  Helena's  death,  no 
mention  was  made  of  the  stillbirth  of  the  second  infant.  Saunders'  letters  to  Henryk 
Kalussowski,  February  22,  1855,  and  July  11,  1857,  provide  details  about  the  dates  of 


54  Myths  and  Realities  of  Laurel  Hill's  "Mother  and  Twins"  Monument 


birth.  Handwriting  in  the  corner  of  the  Laurel  Hill  burial  permit  for  Helena  and  the 
second  infant  reads:  "Latter  [body]  from  a  single  grave  — Buried  Mar.  6,  1855.  See  no. 
677."  See  [Pliiladelpliia]  Public  Ledger,  July  10,  1857,  and  PJuladelpJiia  Evening  Bulletin, 
July  9,  1857;  Walendowski,  "A  Story  Found  on  Laurel  Hill,"  100-101;  and  "Permit  for 
Interment  at  South  Laurel  Hill,"  July  27, 1857,  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,  "Lot  #  375. 

'^Fitzgerald's  City  Item,  November  13, 1858,  as  cited  in  Walendowski,  "A  Story  Found 
on  Laurel  Hill,"  103.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  date  of  the  newspaper  item  as  it  appears 
in  Walendowski's  footnote  and  text  is  incorrect;  it  should  read,  "November  13, 1858." 

^° Maurice  Rheims,  19"'  Century  Sculp^ture,  trans.  Robert  E.  Wolf  (New  York:  Harry 
N.  Abrams,  Inc.  1972),  46;  Dahesh  MuseunT  of  Art,  "  Auguste-Hyacinthe  Debay, 
Maquette  for  The  First  Cradle:  Eve  and  Her  Two  Cluldren  (he  Berceau  priinitif:  Eve  et 
ses  deux  enfants),"  http://www.daheshmuseum.org/collection;  and  Joy  A.  Kasson, 
Marble  Queens  and  Captives:  Wonioi  in  Nifieteejitli-Centuty  American  Sculpture  (New 
Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1990),  190.  Debay's  statue,  with  its  tliree  scenes  from 
the  later  lives  of  Cain  and  Abel  on  its  pedestal,  was  also  displayed  in  Philadelphia  in 
1876  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition. 

■'^  See  http://www.daheshmuseum.org/collection/index.html 

^-In  European  art  and  sculpture  from  at  least  the  sixteenth  century,  the  image 
of  a  woman  with  infants  in  her  arms,  at  her  breast,  or  by  her  side  symbolized  the 
Christian  virtue  of  Charity.  These  representations  highlighted  the  amor  proxini  (love  of 
other  people  in  the  material  world)  aspect  of  the  dual  ineaning  of  Charity,  rather  than 
that  of  a}nor  Dei,  or  the  love  of  God.  As  a  result  of  their  formal  training  at  the  Ecole 
des  Beaux  Arts  in  Paris,  both  Debay  and  Saunders  would  have  been  very  familiar 
with  the  symbolism  inherent  in  their  sculptures.  Nineteenth-century  Americans  who 
saw  either  of  these  sculptures  were  also  likely  to  have  recognized  the  symbolisni. 
Joy  A.  Kasson  argues  that  Americans  actively  engaged  in  interpreting  artistic  works 
during  this  period  and  that  they  fully  understood  the  symbolisni  that  artists  of 
all  types  incorporated  into  their  works.  See  Debra  Dienstfrey  Pincus,  "A  Hand  by 
Antonio  Risso  and  The  Double  Caritas  Schenie  of  the  Tron  Tomb,"  Art  Bulletin  51.3 
(Sept.  1969):  252-55;  and  Kasson,  Marble  Queens,  21-45. 

^''For  a  detailed  discussion  of  "ideal"  sculpture  of  women  during  the  nineteenth 
century  in  America,  see  Kasson,  Marble  Queens,  21-45. 

^'^  Quotation  taken  from  the  original  description  accompanying  the  1856  engraving 
shown  in  Fig.  6  (see  ebay  entry  for  item,  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll7Vie 
wltem&item=280072456188). 

'^  Chester  County  Historical  Society,  "Remember  Me:  Mourning  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,"  Exhibit  (West  Chester,  Pennsylvania,  April  —November  2001);  and  Ciregna, 
"Museum  in  the  Garden,"  110. 

^^Walendowski,  "A  Story  Found  on  Laurel  Hill,"  101. 

'^Martha  V.  Pike  and  Janice  Gray  Armstrong,  A  Time  to  Mourn:  Expressions  of  Grief 
in  NineteentJi  Century  America  (Stony  Brook,  NY:  The  Museums  at  Stony  Brook,  1980), 
132-36, 155. 

^^  Julia  Rowland  Myers,  "Robert  Wylie:  Philadelphia  Sculptor,  1856-1863,"  Archives  of 
American  Art  journal  40.  1-2  (2000):  11-12;  Ciregna,  "Museum  in  the  Garden,"  107-10; 


Janet  McShane  Galley  55 

and  Kasson,  Marble  Queens,  21. 

''^ Karen  Halttunen,  "Mourning  the  Dead:  A  Study  in  Sentimental  Ritual,"  in  Confidence 
Men  and  Painted  Women:  A  Studi/  of  Middle-Class  Culture  in  America,  1830-1870  (New 
Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1982),  127-28. 

-"  Blanche  Linden-Ward,  "Strange  but  Genteel  Pleasure  Grounds:  Tourists  and 
Leisure  Uses  of  Nineteenth-Century  Rural  Cemeteries,"  in  Cemeteries  and  Gravemarkers: 
Voices  of  American  Culture,  ed.  Richard  E.  Meyer  (Ami  Arbor:  UMI  Research  Press, 
1989),  309;  and  Rosa  and  Stewart  B.  Harkness  Jr.,  A  Driving  Tour  of  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery 
(Philadelphia:  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,  n.  d.),  1. 

-^  Although  guide  books  for  both  the  walking  and  driving  tours  of  the  cemetery  do  not 
include  stops  at  the  memorial,  staff  members  have  told  me  they  frequently  tell  visitors 
to  the  cemetery  office  about  the  statue,  and  a  framed  copy  of  an  early  photograph  of 
the  statue  hangs  just  inside  the  office  door.  See  Michael  Brooks,  A  Walking  Tour  of  Laurel 
Hill  Cemeterxj  (Philadelphia:  Friends  of  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,  undated);  and  Harkness, 
A  Driving  Tour  of  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery. 

--  "Another  Successful  Year,"  Preserving  Pennsylvania;  Wojcik,  "Dmochowski 
Monument  Preservation  Complete,"  2;  and  telephone  interview  with  Teresa  Wojcik, 
August,  2006.  In  2004,  Matthew  Szczepanowski  of  the  Conservation  Studio  for  Art  in 
Philadelphia  completed  the  four-part  preservation  process:  1)  cleaning  the  marble  with 
distilled  water  and  non-abrasive  cleaners;  2)  eliminating  all  micro-vegetation  growing 
on  the  surface  and  in  the  crevices  (crucial  because  tiny  plants  release  acids  that  speed  up 
corrosion);  3)  applying  multiple  layers  of  a  poultice  to  draw  out  destructive  salts;  and  4) 
applying  a  thin  layer  of  dispersed  lime  into  the  crevices  of  the  statue  to  help  minimize 
further  damage  from  micro-vegetation  and  the  elements.  According  to  Szczepanpwski, 
the  entire  process  should  be  repeated  every  two  or  three  years  to  maintain  the 
statue  in  its  current  condition.  Telephone  interview  with  Matthew  Szczepanowski, 
August  2006. 


56 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Hattie  A.  Burr  gravemarker  (detail),  c.1860, 
Allegheny  Cemetery,  Pittsburgh,  PA. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  57 

Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  In 
America's  Rural  Garden  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 

Elisabeth  L.  Roark 

Angels  have  always  played  an  active  role  in  Christian  perceptions  of 
death.  As  images,  they  first  appeared  carved  on  early  Christian  sarcophagi 
in  ancient  Rome.  Based  on  the  winged  Greco-Roman  Nike  or  Victory,  their 
form  thus  embodied  Christianity's  promised  triuniph  over  death.  Medieval 
and  Renaissance  tombs  often  featured  angels  that  attended  images  of 
the  deceased.  Baroque  angels  functioned  similarly  but  grew  in  size  and 
extravagance.  However,  in  colonial  America,  winged  skulls  and  faces  were 
the  dominant  motifs  on  early  New  England  gravestones,  but  images  of  angels 
with  bodies  were  rare.  Thus  little  prepares  us  for  the  explosion  of  full-bodied, 
three-dimensional  angel  monuments  that  accompanied  America's  "rural"  (or 
garden)  cemeteries,  the  park-like  burial  grounds  established  on  the  outskirts  of 
nearly  every  Eastern  and  Mid- Western  city  beginning  in  the  1830s  (Fig.  1).  The 
earliest  monuments  erected  in  the  new  landscaped  cemeteries  tended  toward 
the  neoclassical  —  geometric  stones,  shafts,  columns,  and  sarcophagi.  After 
1850,  however,  sculpted  figures  increasingly  populated  the  rural  cemeteries, 
indicating  a  growing  emphasis  on  consolation  rather  than  commemoration, 
on  the  future  and  heaven  rather  than  the  past  and  history.  These  sculptures 
include  mourning  figures  called  weepers  or  pleurants,  usually  in  classical 
dress;  female  allegories  of  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity;  and,  less  often,  effigies 
of  the  deceased.  Among  the  most  common  sculptures  were  bas-reliefs  and 
sculptures  of  angels. 

It  is  easy  to  dismiss  cemetery  angels  as  simply  another  example  of  the 
Romantic  attempt  to  beautify  death.  While  this  was  part  of  their  appeal, 
angel  monuments  are  far  more  complex  in  meaning  and  can  act  to  reveal 
manifestations  of  popular  Christian  belief.  What  can  this  phenomenon  teach 
us  about  nineteenth-century  perceptions  of  death  and  the  afterlife?  In  light 
of  the  traditional  ambivalence  of  many  Protestants  toward  visual  art  and  the 
rampant  anti-Catholicism  of  nineteenth-century  Protestant  Anierica,  why 
would  Protestants,  the  founders  and  chief  patrons  of  the  rural  cemeteries, 
embrace  angel  imagery,  a  subject  with  pronounced  Catholic  associations? 
How  can  we  understand  the  implications  of  angels  for  nineteenth-century 
cemetery  visitors? 

Studying  angel  sculptures  erected  before  1900  in  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery  in 
Philadelphia  (1836),  Green-Wood  Cemetery  in  Brooklyn  (1838),  and  twelve 
other  representative  landscaped  cemeteries  in  the  Northeast,  Mid-Atlantic, 
South,  and  Midwest  reveals  that  the  majority  of  angels  fall  into  eight  categories 
defined  by  the  tasks  they  perform.'  Some  point,  others  pray  or  bear  souls  to 
heaven.  Seven  of  the  types  parallel  biblical  references  to  angels  that  were 


58 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Fig.  1.  Multiple  angel  sculptures  stand  above  graves  in  this  view  of 
Green  Mount  Cemetery  in  Baltimore. 


elaborated  in  nineteenth-century  hymns,  epitaphs,  poetry,  and  consolation 
literature.  One  type,  those  that  watch  over  the  gravesite  and  decorate  it  with 
flowers,  appears  to  be  new  to  the  nirieteenth  century.  The  most  comnion 
or  "stock"  angel  sculptures  — those  that  appear  repeatedly  in  the  rural 
cemeteries  —  best  reveal  widespread  beliefs  about  angels.  In  some  instances, 
exact  duplicates  are  found  in  cemeteries  as  distant  as  Chicago  and  Boston  or 
Pittsburgh  and  Atlanta,  but  more  importantly,  the  angels  play  the  same  eight 
roles  from  one  cemetery  to  the  next.  This  is  not  to  suggest  that  these  eight 
types  include  all  garden  ceinetery  angels.  Other  forms  exist.  For  example,  at 
Laurel  Hill,  an  angel  in  relief  covers  a  baby's  cradle  with  a  cloth;  at  Atlanta's 
Oakland  Cemetery,  an  angel  holds  a  torch  upside-down  to  douse  the  flame  of 
life;  and  at  Green  Mount  Cemetery  in  Baltimore,  an  angel  clings  to  a  cross.  But 
these  types  are  comparatively  rare  in  the  fourteen  cemeteries  examined  here. 
Each  cemetery  studied  has  multiple  examples  of  most  if  not  all  of  the  eight 
more  common  angel  types,  suggesting  a  widespread  interest  in  the  messages 
they  conveyed  and  the  experiences  they  fostered.  Stock  angel  sculptures  ably 
demonstrate  how  graven"iarkers  can  non-verbally  but  vividly  communicate 
the  beliefs  and  thoughts  of  the  community  at  large. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark.  59 

Focusing  on  common  angel  types  excludes  those  monuments  commis- 
sioned from  well-known  artists  that  deliberately  depart  from  stock  types. 
Examples  include  Erastus  Dow  Palmer's  dramatic  seated  angel  at  Albany  Rural 
Cemetery,  Tlie  Angel  nt  the  Sepuldier,  1862.  Only  a  few  seated  angels  appear 
in  the  cemeteries  included  in  this  analysis.  Daniel  Chester  French's  1889-93 
Milmore  Memorial  in  Forest  Hills  Cemetery,  Boston,  includes  another  atypical 
angel.-  Titled  Tlie  Angel  ofDeatli  and  tlie  Sciilpytor,  it  depicts  a  large  winged  and 
hooded  figure  that  reaches  out  to  stay  the  hand  of  a  sculptor.  The  monument 
commemorates  sculptor  Martin  Milmore  and  his  brothers.  Few  hooded  angels 
appear  in  cemeteries  before  1900;  this  type  was  undoubtedly  too  mysterious 
to  attain  widespread  popularity.  Although  sculptor  William  Wetmore  Story's 
acclaimed  Angel  of  Death,  created  for  his  wife's  grave  in  Rome's  Protestant 
Cemetery  in  1894,  depicted  an  angel  prostrate  with  grief  bent  over  a  classi- 
cal altar.  Story's  sculpture  did  not  inspire  copies  in  American  cemeteries 
before  1900.  Perhaps  because  its  meaning  is  ambiguous,  its  emotion  too  extreme 
(traditionally  angels  are  not  shown  displaying  grief  at  death  because  heaven 
awaited  the  deceased),  and  the  figure's  bare  shoulders  too  sensuous  for  pre-1900 
American  tastes.  Story's  grieving  angel  remained  an  isolated  type  of  angel 
until  the  early  twentieth  century. ' 

As  the  first  American  burial  grounds  planned  with  enough  space  to 
allow  large  memorials,  landscaped  rural  cemeteries  were  ideal  venues  for 
the  emergence  of  a  new  form  of  sepulchral  sculpture  in  America.  They  also 
provided  distinctive  settings  that  expanded  the  meanings  of  the  monuments 
erected  there."*  Designed  in  the  English  picturesque  garden  style  with 
winding  pathways,  varied  flora,  and  a  range  of  topographical  features,  these 
consciously  enhanced  Romantic  environments  augmented  the  meanings 
that  the  angel  markers  conveyed.  Although  the  Rural  Cemetery  Movement 
was  fueled  by  practical  difficulties  such  as  the  scarcity  of  urban  burial  space 
and  the  fear  of  over-crowded  imier-city  graveyards  engendering  desecration 
and  disease,  ideological  reasons  were  equally  motivating.  Consistent  with 
Romantic  ideas  developed  in  reaction  to  cool  eighteenth-century  rationalism, 
rural  cemeteries  embodied  new  concepts  about  the  harmonious  relationship 
between  man  and  nature.  They  were  promoted  as  places  of  exceptional 
natural  beauty  that  could  bring  one  closer  to  God  and  help  cultivate  correct 
emotions  and  taste.  In  keeping  with  the  nineteenth-century  emphasis  on  the 
family  as  the  central  institution  of  society,  cemetery  founders  and  designers 
prioritized  large  family  lots,  frequently  relegatnig  single  burials  often  to 
cemetery  margins.  Encouraged  by  the  idealization  of  nature  in  the  works  of 
Romantic  writers  and  artists,  and  aided  by  cemetery  guidebooks,  residents 
and  tourists  flocked  to  rural  cemeteries  by  the  thousands  to  experience  the 
first  large  cultivated  urban  green  spaces  —  pre-dating  the  opening  of  similarly 
designed  city  park  landscapes  such  as  Central  Park  in  New  York  City  (1858) 
and  Fairmount  Park  in  Philadelphia  (1849-57).  They  were  often  the  first  public 
places  where  middle  class  Americans  could  view  sculpture."  The  idealized. 


60  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 

carefully  desigiied  landscapes  of  the  rural  cemeteries  were  family-oriented 
Eden-like  gardens,  with  striking  works  of  art,  far  removed  from  the  grim 
reality  of  coi"itemporary  urban  life  and  death.  As  oiie  visitor  wrote  in  1876, 

Reader,  have  you  ever  walked  slowly  and  thoughtfully  through 
a  cemetery?  I  know  you  have.  There  on  one  tombstone  was 
a  finger  pointing  upward.  ...  a  lamb,  or  a  dove,  symbol  of  in- 
nocence. Here,  too,  were  choice  flowers,  expressions  of  love, 
emblems  of  the  soul's  immortality.  As  you  strolled  beneath  the 
weeping  willows,  and  read  the  epitaphs  and  saw  the  emblems 
of  hope  and  love,  you  felt  a  strong  drawing  toward  the  bet- 
ter life  which  lies  beyond  the  boundary  of  our  present  vision.*' 

Such  a  resonant  environment  intensified  the  angels'  iniplications. 

Although  organized  as  nonsectarian  and  secular,  the  landscaped  cemeter- 
ies were  predominantly  used  by  Protestants  before  1900  (Jews  and  Catholics, 
who  had  religion-specific  rules  for  burial  that  discouraged  their  patronage 
of  secular  cemeteries,  developed  their  own  burial  groui^ds).^  Wealthy  urban 
Protestants  typically  were  the  purchasers  of  angel  gravemarkers  and  monu- 
ments (even  stock  sculptures  were  far  more  expensive  than  headstones).  The 
monuments,  moreover,  were  viewed  largely  by  Protestants,  and  so  should  be 
interpreted  in  the  context  of  Protestant  belief  and  attitudes  toward  the  arts. 
Rural/ garden  cemeteries  represented  a  wide  variety  of  Protestant  denomina- 
tions, front  liberal  Unitarians  to  conservative  Episcopalians.  Although  some 
denominations  had  evolved  from  earlier  iconoclastic  sects  by  the  1830s,  when 
the  Rural  Cemetery  Movement  began,  American  Protestants  exhibited  a  range 
of  perspectives  on  the  visual  arts,  accepting  sonie  forms  and  rejecting  others. 
In  the  rural  or  garden  cemeteries,  ecumenical  symbols  and  images  emerged 
that  spoke  to  all,  erasing  differerices  between  denominations.  Those  who  se- 
lected the  niarkers  could  be  confident  that  their  messages  would  be  commonly 
uriderstood."^ 

One  challenge  in  constructing  art  historical  account  of  cemetery  angels 
and  their  rise  in  popularity  is  the  difficulty  assigning  precise  dates  to  the 
monuments.  A  main  difficulty  in  dating  sculptural  monuments  is  that  many 
were  erected  long  after  the  deceased  was  buried,  or  at  some  ii"ideterminable 
date  as  a  central  feature  surrounded  by  individual  family  gravemarkers  in  a 
family  plot  (Fig.  2).  It  was  not  uncommon  to  place  family  monuments  ante- 
mortem  or  after  several  burials,  so  one  cannot  confidently  date  the  monument 
from  the  lot's  earliest  burial.'*  In  addition,  although  the  markers  examined 
for  this  study  suggest  an  increase  in  numbers  each  decade,  reaching  a  peak 
of  popularity  in  the  1880s  and  1890s,  counting  the  number  of  monuments 
is  complicated  by  the  fact  that  many  monumeiits  are  now  missing.  Severely 
decayed  or  damaged  angel  monuments  were  often  removed.  For  example, 
photographs  from  an  1873  report  on  Allegheny  Cemetery,  Pittsburgh,  depict 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


61 


Fig.  2.  Bradley  family  lot  (c.l860s)  in  Allegheny  Cemetery, 

Pittsburgh,  in  1873.  The  angel  has  since  disappeared. 

Courtesy  of  Allegheny  Cemetery. 


two  monumental  angel  sculptures,  one  of  which  has  since  disappeared  (Fig.  2), 
and  the  other  is  no  longer  identifiable  as  an  angel  (Fig.  3).'"  All  this  encourages 
a  thematic  approach  to  analyzing  angel  sculptures. 

The  Evolution  of  Angels  in  Art  and  Thought:  From  the  Bible  to  the 
Romantic  Era 

Winged  angel  imagery  first  appeared  in  Italy  after  325  CE,  when  the 
Council  of  Nicea  accepted  angels  into  the  dogma  of  the  church,  and  increased 
in  frequency  after  392,  when  pagan  religions  were  outlawed  and  Christianity 
triumphed.  Although  only  a  few  biblical  passages  characterize  angels  as 
winged  (Exodus  15:20,  Isaiah  6:2),  others  note  their  ability  to  fly  between 
heaven  and  earth  (Luke  2:15,  Revelation  14:6).  Late  fourth-  and  fifth-century 
artists  appropriated  the  winged  Nikes  (known  as  Victories  in  ancient  Rome), 
female  divinities  the  goddess  Athena  sent  to  the  battlefield  to  crown  victors." 
Emulating  Nike/ Victory  was  appropriate  symbolically,  encouraging  viewers 
to  see  angels  as  emblematic  of  Christianity's  victory  over  pagan  cults  and 
over  death.'-  The  earliest  images  of  winged  Christian  angels  are  nearly 
indistinguishable  from  classical  Nikes,  although  without  breasts  and  wearing 
a  slightly  different  style  of  robe.  Nikes  wore  chitons,  long  gowns  gathered 
at  both  shoulders  or  at  one  shoulder,  leaving  a  breast  exposed,  often  with 


62 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Fig.  3.  Angel  sculpture  on  the  Shoenberger  lot  in  1873, 

Allegheny  Cemetery,  Pittsburgh.  The  angel 

has  since  lost  its  wings,  head,  arms,  and  the  child  it  comforts. 

Courtesy  of  Allegheny  Cemetery. 

girdles  under  the  bust  that  accentuated  their  feniininity.  Atigels  were  depicted 
wearing  tunics  and  pnlliuins,  similar  to  the  dress  used  in  Christian  religious 
ceremonies.'^ 

Depending  on  cultural  and  theological  developments  as  well  as  changing 
artistic  styles,  depictions  of  angels  and  beliefs  about  the  roles  they  played 
varied  over  time.  The  most  important  patristic  text  on  angels,  On  the  Celestial 
Hierarchy,  was  written  around  500  CE  by  a  Greek  writer  known  as  Pseudo- 
Dionysus  the  Areopagite.  Drawing  on  both  biblical  and  apochryphal  references 
to  angels,  Pseudo-Dionysus  organized  a  hierarchy  of  nine  orders  in  groups 
of  three.'''  They  are,  in  declining  order  of  importance:  seraphim,  cherubim, 
and  thrones;  dominions,  powers,  and  virtues;  principalities,  archangels,  and 
angels.  The  nine  levels  were  intended  to  reflect  the  human  spiritual  journey 
toward  God.'^  The  top  three  orders  were  forever  in  God's  presence.  The  lower 
orders,  archangels  and  angels,  were  charged  with  communicating  between 
God  and  humans.  The  English  word  "angel,"  in  fact,  is  based  on  the  Greek 
word  for  messenger  or  herald,  aggelos. 

On  the  Celestial  Hierarchy  had  a  profound  influence  on  medieval  angelology, 
becoming  part  of  the  traditional  teachings  of  the  Christian  church.  Translated 
into  Latin  in  the  ninth  century,  it  was  revived  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries  by  theologians  who  mistook  the  author  for  Dionysus,  a  disciple  of 


Elisabeth  L.  Roaik  63 

Paul  (hence  Psei/rfo-Dionysus),  giving  him  ahiiost  apostolic  authority.  Pseudo- 
Dionysus' s  text  stimulated  detailed  treatments  by  the  scholastics,  including 
Bonaventure,  called  the  "Seraphic  Doctor,"  and  Thomas  Aquinas  (c.l225- 
1274),  called  the  "Angelic  Doctor"  (c. 121 7-74).  They  asked  myriad  questions 
about  the  nature  of  angels.  At  the  University  of  Paris,  the  study  of  angels 
became  a  central  part  of  the  theological  curriculum,  and  many  medieval  saints 
and  prophets  reported  encounters  with  angels."'  By  1300,  angels  permeated 
medieval  society.  Although  few  laypeople  read  the  scholastics'  angelologies, 
they  encountered  angels  in  hymns,  sermons,  drama,  prayer,  and  the  stone  and 
glass  of  churches  and  cathedrals.'^  As  medievalist  David  Keck  notes,  "Perhaps 
the  most  common  of  angelic  motifs  in  medieval  Christianity  was  the  presence 
of  angels  at  the  moment  of  death  and  in  the  life  of  the  soul  after  separation  from 

the  body No  other  aspect  of  angels  seems  to  have  been  so  well  represented 

in  medieval  stories,  doctrines,  and  art."'^^  Since  the  Bible  emphasized  angels' 
roles  in  the  Last  Judgment  and  Resurrection,  a  close  association  between 
angels  and  salvation  developed  in  medieval  art.  This  is  particularly  apparent 
in  medieval  tomb  sculpture.  With  the  exception  of  the  archangels  Michael 
(usually  shown  in  armor),  and  Gabriel  (usually  shown  in  liturgical  robes, 
with  lilies),  and  cherubim  and  seraphim  (occasionally  depicted  with  multiple 
wings),  few  images  of  angels  actually  distinguished  visually  between  the  nine 
orders.  Instead,  most  medieval  angel  images  were  generic  in  appearance, 
typically  rendered  as  heavily  robed  men  (although  they  often  had  small  chins 
like  women)  playing  their  Bible-defined  roles. 

Intellectual  curiosity  concerning  angels  has  long  been  believed  to  be  in 
decline  in  the  early  modern  period.  Some  scholars  suggest  that  the  introduction 
of  child-like  cherubs  and  feminized  angels  in  fifteenth-century  painting  and 
sculpture  signaled  their  waning  theological  significance.'''  In  fact,  as  the  book 
Angels  in  the  Early  Modem  World,  edited  by  Peter  Marshall  and  Alexandra 
Walsham,  convincingly  demonstrates,  angels  remained  a  vital  component 
of  Christian  thought  during  the  Renaissance,  Reformation,  and  even  in  the 
"enlightened"  eighteenth-century,  and  were  often  at  the  center  of  religious 
tensions.  During  the  Renaissance,  angels  occupied  Christians'  visible  and 
invisible  worlds.  Their  presence  is  most  evident  in  painting  and  sculpture, 
from  the  grand  cathedrals  to  the  smallest  parish  churches,  where  angels  were 
represented  in  familiar  roles  yet  with  new  meanings  introduced  by  humanist 
trends  in  thought.-^'  While  the  angels  of  Fra  Angelico  and  Raphael,  among 
others,  do  appear  feminine  to  modern  viewers,  their  form  was  most  likely 
an  attempt  to  represent  their  androgyny  as  naturalistically  as  possible.  As 
spiritual  beings,  angels  were  believed  to  be  without  gender. 

The  Reformation  challenged  existing  beliefs  about  angels.  Martin  Luther 
frequently  addressed  the  nature  of  angels  over  the  course  of  his  long  career, 
although  he  became  less  enthusiastic  about  the  hierarchy  of  angels  and  the 
writings  of  medieval  scholastics  as  he  aged.-'  Eventually  he  dismissed  them 


64  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 

as  "nothing  but  idle  and  useless  human  ideas  .  .  .  [and]  hodge-podge."--  John 
Calvin  considered  Pseudo-Dionysus' s  hierarchy  of  angels  "niere  babble"  and 
"idle  talk."-^  Dismayed  by  cults  of  angels,  the  attention  paid  angels  in  Catholic 
ritual,  and  their  role  as  mediators  between  God  and  humans,  Reformation 
leaders  sought  to  redefine  their  significance  by  refocusing  attention  on  Christ. 
Angels  could  not  be  dismissed  outright  like  Catholic  saints,  however,  because 
they  appear  more  than  270  times  in  the  Bible,  with  61  references  in  the  Book 
of  Revelation  alone,  and  Protestants  considered  the  Bible  the  center  of  their 
faith.  Thus  attitudes  toward  angels  in  Protestant  belief  remained  "profoundly 
ambivalent."-"*  Prominent  Puritan  minister  Cotton  Mather,  for  example, 
famously  received  a  visitation  from  an  angel  "whose  face  shown  like  the 
noonday  sun,"  and  whose  "garments  were  white  and  shining,"  despite  his 
father  Increase  Mather's  insistence  that  angels  were  invisible.-' 

Nor  were  in^ages  of  angels  treated  with  any  consistency  at  this  time.  Angel 
imagery  was  often  embroiled  in  iconoclastic  controversies.  Whether  angels 
had  bodies  and  therefore  could  be  painted  or  sculpted  was  a  serious  question 
for  theologians  of  the  early  church,  medieval  scholastics,  and  Protestants, 
particularly  during  the  English  Civil  War  of  the  1640s.-''  Iconoclasts  noted 
that  Psalms  104:4  describes  angels  as  spirits  of  fire  and  light;  they  were 
never  incarnate,  like  Jesus,  and  therefore  should  not  be  represented.  Long- 
running  arguments  about  the  impossibility  of  representing  incorporeal  beings 
complimented  Protestant  fears  of  idolatry  and  their  iconoclastic  orientation. 
Extreme  Protestant  sects  like  England's  Puritans  rejected  all  religious  art  as 
counter  to  the  Second  Commandment.  Depicting  angels  was  especially  fraught 
with  difficulty  for  Calvinists,  who  viewed  them  not  as  symbols  of  divine 
providence  but  as  an  invitation  to  idolatry.  Other  denominations,  particularly 
the  Lutherans  of  Germany  and  Scandinavia,  tolerated  images  of  angels  in 
their  churches,  in  part  because  they  seemed  less  likely  to  inspire  idolatry  than 
depictions  of  the  Trinity,  Mary,  or  the  Crucifixion.-^ 

In  America,  the  earliest  winged  forms  that  appear  on  gravestones  are 
winged  skulls  and  winged  faces,  which  dominated  northeastern  gravestone 
decoration  from  the  mid-seventeenth  to  the  late  eighteenth  centuries.-''  Yet 
they  may  not  have  been  recognized  as  angelic  forms  by  their  original  viewers. 
The  first  winged  skulls  appeared  on  the  rounded  top  portion  of  rectangular, 
upright  stones  in  the  last  half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Also  called  "winged 
death's  heads"  and  variously  interpreted  by  scholars,  one  of  the  more 
convincing  suggestions  is  that  they  represented  a  liminal  state  between  death 
and  resurrection,  reflecting  the  Puritans'  uncertainty  about  salvation,  which 
was  not  assured  for  all  because  of  the  Calvinist  doctrine  of  predestination. 
According  to  Peter  Marshall,  "predestination  had  immense  consequences 
for  the  symbolic  representations  of  death. "-'^  The  skull  acknowledged  the 
moldering  remains  below  while  the  wings  suggested  the  soul's  transition, 
combining  the  grim  reality  of  death  and  the  hoped-for  but  not  assured  glory 
of  heaven  in  a  single  image. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  65 

Although  winged  skulls  can  be  found  in  some  areas  until  the  last  years  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  beginning  in  its  first  decades  and  accelerating  during 
the  Great  Awakening  of  the  1730s-1740s,  winged  human  faces  increasingly 
competed  with  winged  skulls.'"  The  appearance  of  winged  faces  corresponded 
with  a  surge  in  angel  sightings  and  stories  of  deathbed  angels. ""  Many  have 
debated  the  reasons  why  Protestant  New  Englanders  permitted  such  sculpted 
forms  on  their  gravestones,  given  their  distaste  for  religiously  oriented  visual 
art.  It  is  possible  that  they  viewed  the  winged  heads  as  secular,  as  they  did 
the  winged  skulls.^-  Also,  this  form  emphasized  their  immateriality,  perhaps 
making  it  more  acceptable  to  iconoclasts.  The  bodiless  truncated  heads  with 
wings  signified  their  supernatural  character,  speed,  and  ethereality.  Often 
defined  by  simple  incised  lines,  the  resulting  flatness  of  the  forms  accentuated 
their  incorporeal  nature.  They  are  a  pointed  contrast  with  the  fleshy,  sensual 
angels  that  emerged  at  the  same  time  in  the  Counter-Reformation  art  of  the 
Baroque  period.  This  contrast  is  consistent  with  Puritan  portraiture,  which 
rejected  the  fashionable  Baroque  style  of  the  court  of  Charles  I  for  the  direct, 
realistic,  flattened  forms  of  the  older  Elizabethan-Jacobean  style.  The  flat, 
winged  faces  eventually  rounded  into  plump  child-like  heads  carved  in  higher 
relief,  reminiscent  of  Renaissance  and  Baroque  decorative  details  and  forms 
found  on  English  tombs  after  1600.''  They  resemble  classical  putti,  children 
with  wings  related  to  the  ancient  god  Eros  (Cupid),  revived  during  the  fifteenth 
century  in  Italian  Renaissance  painting,  sculpture,  and  architecture  and  often 
represented  acting  mischievously.  While  putti  are  secular,  according  to  Charles 
Dempsey,  author  of  Inventing  the  Renaissance  Piitto,  identical  forms  referred  to 
as  "cherubs"  appeared  at  the  same  time.  '^  The  chubby  winged  babies  associated 
with  the  term  cherub  represent  a  distortion  of  the  Bible's  cherubim  —  fierce, 
powerful,  multi-winged  beings  second  only  to  the  seraphim  in  the  hierarchy 
of  angels.  Only  context  enables  one  to  tentatively  distinguish  between  putti 
and  cherubs.  Presumably,  winged  heads  that  accompany  a  religious  scene 
are  cherubs.  Putti  appear  in  classical  contexts,  such  as  Greco-Roman  revival 
Renaissance,  Baroque,  and  neoclassical  architecture  and  sculpture  or  paintings 
of  pagan  content. 

Eighteenth-century  Americans  may  not  have  identified  the  winged  faces 
as  classical  revival  putti  or  happy  cherubs.  Evidence  suggests  that  while 
some  may  have  been  recognized  as  angels,  the  majority  were  regarded  as 
soul  effigies,  symbols  of  the  soul  winging  its  way  to  heaven.'-'  The  confidence 
in  salvation  expressed  by  this  form  is  in  keeping  with  the  changes  that 
accompanied  the  Great  Awakening,  which  altered  perceptions  of  death.  Some 
Protestant  denominations,  including  Congregational,  Methodist,  Baptist, 
and  Presbyterian,  split  over  the  doctrine  of  predestination  at  this  time. 
Many  repudiated  it,  substituting  the  belief  that  grace  was  a  gift  available  to 
all.  Gloomy  Puritan  epitaphs  like/wgiY  hora  ("time  flies")  and  memento  niori 
("remember  death")  gave  way  to  hopeful  epitaphs  such  as. 


66  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1 850- 1 900 

Here  cease  thy  tears,  suppress  thy  fruitless  mourn 

His  soul  —  the  immortal  part  —  has  upward  flown 

On  wings  he  soars  his  rapid  way 

To  yon  bright  regions  of  eternal  day.''' 

This  metaphor  supports  the  suggestion  that  souls  fly  to  heaven  on  wings. 
However,  fear  of  idolatry  continued  in  some  areas.  Stones  exist  where  the 
faces  seem  to  be  deliberately  excised,  possibly  by  iconoclasts." 

Painted  winged  heads  identified  as  cherub  heads  appeared  as  early  as 
1717  in  Boston  Anglican  churches  and,  late  in  the  century,  in  the  churches  and 
meeting  houses  of  other  denominations. '"^  Perhaps  the  motif  paved  the  way  for 
the  full-bodied  angels  of  the  rural  cemeteries.  Winged  faces  and  skulls  were 
less  common  on  early  nineteenth-century  gravestones,  replaced  by  popular 
neoclassical  designs,  particularly  the  urn  and  willow.  However,  winged 
faces  reappear  early  in  the  rural  cemeteries,  usually  as  secondary  details  on 
neoclassical  sarcophagi  and  other  classically  based  forms.  An  1848  guidebook 
for  Boston's  Mount  Auburn,  America's  first  rural  cemetery  (founded  1831) 
includes  illustrations  of  several  monuments  with  winged  heads  carved  in 
high  relief.  Their  meaning  is  unclear.  Are  they  classical  putti  or  were  they 
interpreted  as  angels  or  soul  effigies?  Given  the  classical  context,  the  former 
is  more  likely,  although  perhaps  most  nineteenth-century  viewers  saw  them 
simply  as  angels. 

An  Invasion  of  Angels,  1850-1900 

Blanche  Linden- Ward's  comprehensive  study  of  Mount  Auburn  establish- 
es that  the  neoclassical  monuments  of  the  1830s  and  1840s  were  chiefly  com- 
meniorative  in  function  and  represented  an  attempt  to  create  a  "landscape  of 
memory"  or  history  for  the  new  nation.^*^  Yet  as  the  rural  cemeteries  evolved 
and  religious  sentimentalism  grew,  accompanying  the  spread  of  Romanticism 
and  the  Second  Great  Awakening  of  the  n^iid-nineteenth  century,  neoclassi- 
cism's  cool,  stark  geometry  offered  visitors  minimal  consolation  and  little 
assurance  of  their  loved  one's  fate.  The  angel  sculptures  that  appeared  after 
1850  transformed  the  space,  adding  a  nearly  human  but  also  divine  presence. 
Symbols  of  heaven  and  immortality  abound  in  rural  cemeteries,  but  angel  bas- 
reliefs  and  full-bodied  sculptures  were  the  most  direct  and  forceful  reminders 
of  the  promise  of  eternal  life.  Sculpted  angels  erased  the  boundary  between 
heaven  and  earth  and  physically  embodied  immortality,  recalling  Luke  20:36, 
where  Jesus  states  that  the  blessed  are  "equal  unto  the  angels"  for  "neither  can 
they  die  anymore.""*"  The  popularity  of  angel  sculptures  after  1850  not  only  re- 
flects a  reaction  against  the  dominance  of  neoclassicism  but  also  can  be  seen  as 
a  reaction  against  the  introduction  of  neo-Egyptian  monuments  like  obelisks 
and  pyramids  into  cemeteries.  Some  commentators  described  both  styles  as 
inappropriately  pagan  for  a  Christian  space,  a  sentiment  that  may  have  led  to 
a  rash  of  neo-Gothic  markers  with  sculpted  angels  (Fig.  3)."" 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  67 

Also  significant  for  the  popularity  of  angel  monuments  was  the  growing 
sophistication  of  American  art  patrons  and  increasing  interest  in  America's 
cultural  development.  Wealthy  individuals  were  aware  of  advances  in 
European  art  through  publications  and  participation  in  the  Grand  Tour, 
where  sculptors'  studios  were  required  stops.  American  tourists  frequented 
the  stuciios  of  both  Italians  and  American  expatriate  sculptors  working  in 
Rome  and  Florence,  often  commissioning  works  to  be  shipped  home.  Much  of 
the  inspiration  for  full-bodied  American  angel  monuments  and  relief  carvings 
in  American  rural  cemeteries  clearly  comes  directly  from  late  eighteenth-  and 
nineteenth-century  European  sculpture  rather  than  from  the  winged  skulls 
and  faces  of  the  colonial  period.  British  sculptor  John  Flaxman  (1755-1826), 
for  example,  was  well  known  in  America.  Influenced  by  eighteenth-century 
Swedish  visionary  Emanuel  Swedenborg's  insistence  that  angels  were  not 
composed  of  "ethereal  gases"  but  had  flesh-and-blood  bodies,  Flaxman's  large, 
physically  active  angels  interact  with  souls,  effigies,  and  the  bereaved,  much 
like  the  angel  sculptures  in  the  rural  cemeteries.^-  His  Sarah  Morley  Memorial, 
(1785),  is  the  source  for  a  relief  on  the  c.1874  French  family  monument  in 
Green- Wood  Cemetery,  Brooklyn,  and  other  such  images  in  rural  cemeteries 
(Figs.  4,  5).  Two-dimensional  imagery  was  equally  influential.  The  c.1861 
Harriet  E.  gravemaker  in  Green  Mount  Cemetery,  Baltimore,  is  one  of  many 
that  resemble  German  painter  Wilhelm  von  Kaulbach's  popular  Angel  of  Peace 
(Figs.  6,  7).'' 

Few  stock  angel  sculptures  and  bas-reliefs  are  signed,  complicating  the 
search  for  sources  and  influences.  Preliminary  evidence  suggests  that  many 
American  angel  sculptures  were  created  by  Italian  stonecarvers  in  both  Italy 
and  America,  who  produced  numerous  copies  that  were  sold  by  American 


Fig.  4.  John  Flaxman's  Sarah  Morley  Memorial,  1785, 

marble,  Gloucester  Cathedral,  England,  was  a 

source  for  angel  sculptures  in  Am^erican  rural  cemeteries. 

Courtesy  of  the  Courtauld  Institute  of  Art. 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Fig.  5.  The  marble  c,1874  French  family  monument  in 

Green-Wood  Cemetery,  Brooklyn,  emulates 

John  Flaxman's  Sarah  Morley  Memorial  (Fig.  4). 


Fig.  6.  Marble  gravemarker  for  Harriet  E.  [?],  1860s,  Green  Mount 

Cemetery,  Baltimore.  The  sculptor  undoubtedly  used 

Kaulbach's  popular  print  (Fig.  7)  as  an  inspiration. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


69 


Fig.  7.  Wilhelm  von  Kaulbach's  engraving.  Angel  of  Peace  (pre-1860), 

was  a  source  for  many  of  the  American  sculpted  bas-reliefs 

showing  an  angel  bearing  a  child's  soul  heavenward. 


monument  companies."*"*  With  the  expansion  of  the  railroads  to  the  Midwest 
and  beyond  in  the  1850s  and  1860s,  the  monuments  could  be  transported  inland 
for  the  first  time.  The  importation  of  funerary  sculpture  explains  the  identical 
monuments  found  in  distant  cenieteries.  For  example,  the  same  c. 1880s  angels 
holding  lilies  and  gazing  at  the  ground  adorn  monuments  in  Green  Mount 
in  Baltimore  and  Mount  Auburn  in  Boston  (Fig.  8).  Copies  of  a  c. 1860s  male 
angel  pointing  upwards  and  downwards  appear  in  Lake  View  in  Cleveland, 
Graceland  in  Chicago,  Mount  Auburn,  Green  Mount,  and  Green-Wood 
in  Brooklyn  (Fig.  9).  Duplicates  proliferated  toward  the  end  of  the  century, 
spurred  in  part  by  the  immigration  of  Italian  stonecarvers  to  the  United 
States  in  the  1880s,  many  of  whom  settled  near  cemeteries  and  monument 
manufacturing  firms.  By  the  1890s  angel  sculptures  were  sold  through  mail 
order  catalogues  by  companies  such  as  Sears,  Roebuck  and  Conipany,  and 
distributed  through  a  network  of  large  monument  dealers  that  replaced  the 
smaller  local  workshops  of  earlier  decades."*-^ 

Despite  its  Roman  Catholic  origins,  Italy's  angel  imagery  proved  irresistible 
to  sentimental  American  Protestants.  Even  with  rapid  advances  in  modern 
science,  belief  in  angels  appears  to  have  been  widespread  among  American 
Protestants  in  the  nineteenth  century.  While  some  argue  that  the  belief  was 
diminished  by  eighteenth-century  empiricism,  it  was  not  eliminated,  and  by 


70 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Fig.  8.  Hugh  Sisson  Marble  Works, 

marble  Diffenderfer  monument, 

C.1880,  Green  Mount  Cemetery, 

Baltimore.  Duplicates  of  the 

angel  on  the  Diffenderfer 

monument  appear  in 

several  other  rural  cemeteries. 


Fig.  9.  The  Sexton  Monument, 

1860s,  marble,  Graceland 
Cemetery,  Chicago,  is  one  many 
identical  sculptures 
of  male  pointing  angels 
found  in  eastern  and  mid- 
western  garden  cemeteries. 


the  mid-nineteen  century  it  had  unquestionably  experienced  a  revival/''  Angels 
fascinated  the  Romantics  for  their  compassionate  nature  and  beauty  that  spoke 
directly  to  the  sentimental  heart.  Scholars  often  dismiss  nineteenth-century 
images  of  angels  as  overly  sweet,  quaint,  and  effeminate,  insisting  that  their 
only  purpose  was  to  personify  beauty.  As  depicted  in  the  rural  cemeteries, 
however,  they  fulfill  the  same  biblical  duties  as  their  predecessors  in  Christian 
art:  tending  to  the  deceased,  easing  their  transition,  carrying  their  souls  to 
heaven,  and  conveying  a  message  to  the  bereaved,  be  it  the  status  of  the  soul 
or  the  imminei"ice  of  judgment.  Cemetery  angels  indicate  the  maintenance, 
even  the  strengthening,  of  traditional  beliefs,  and  in  being  depicted  bodily,  an 
assertion  of  their  formidable  presence. 

While  biblical  accounts  supplied  the  basis  for  the  representations  of  angels 
in  painting  and  sculpture,  literature  and  popular  writing  elaborated  their 
tasks  and  reveal  the  implications  of  angel  monuments  for  period  viewers. 
Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow,  a  Unitarian  and  arguably  the  most  popular 
American   poet  of  the  mid-to-late  nineteenth  century,   wrote  poignai"itly 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  71 

of  angels,  particularly  after  his  first  daughter's  death  in  1848.  "The  Reaper 
and  the  Flowers,"  a  poem  about  the  death  of  children  whom  Longfellow 
metaphorically  called  "flowers,"  concludes  with  this  verse: 

O,  not  in  cruelty,  not  in  wrath. 

The  Reaper  came  that  day, 

T'was  an  angel  visited  the  green  earth. 

And  took  the  flowers  away.'*^ 

The  last  two  lines  were  a  popular  epitaph  on  children's  gravestones. 
"Resignation,"  written  shortly  after  his  daughter's  death,  includes  a  passage 
describine;  her  life  in  heaven. 

In  that  great  cloister's  stillness  and  seclusion. 

By  guardian  angels  led. 

Safe  from  temptation,  safe  from  sin's  pollution. 

She  lives,  whom  we  call  dead.^^ 

Longfellow's  book-length  poem,  Christus:  a  Mystery,  1872,  described  the 
seven  archangels  and  their  duties.^''  Similarly,  an  American  book  of  1851  by 
George  Clayton,  Jr.,  addressed  the  detailed  hierarchy  of  angels  defined  by 
Pseudo-Dionysus,  as  its  title  suggests:  Angelology:  Remarks  and  Reflections 
Touching  the  Agency  and  Ministrations  of  Holy  Angels;  with  Reference  to  Their 
History,  Rank,  Titles,  Attributes,  Characteristics,  Residence,  Society,  Employments 
and  Pursuits;  Interspersed  with  Traditional  Particulars  Respecting  Them.  Although 
the  author  claimed  that  all  conclusions  "bear  the  sanction  of  scriptural  warrant" 
(essential  for  Protestants,  who  considered  biblical  evidence  authoritative), 
much  of  the  book  is  based  on  elaborate  testimonials  to  the  reality  of  angels 
from  ancient  and  modern  sources.  Although  Clayton  was  unquestionably 
Protestant,  blaming  any  disregard  for  angels  on  the  "unscriptural,  idolatrous, 
and  extravagant  attention  paid  to  this  subject  by  the  Church  of  Rome,"  he 
added,  "We  gain  no  solid  victory  over  Popery  by  omitting  the  truths  that 
have  been  corrupted  and  abused."'"  While  it  is  impossible  to  gauge  popular 
understanding  of  such  detailed  angelologies  as  On  the  Celestial  Hierarchy  and 
its  successors,  evidence  suggests  that  angels  remained  a  reality  for  nineteenth- 
century  Protestants. 

Consolation  literature  presented  elaborate  scenarios  detailing  the  afterlife 
that  included  angels  performing  a  variety  of  tasks.  This  genre,  new  to  the 
nineteenth  century,  was  written  chiefly  by  women  and  Protestant  clergy  to 
comfort  the  bereaved.^'  Enormously  popular,  it  further  establishes  nineteenth- 
century  beliefs  about  the  angels'  pursuits  on  earth  and  in  heaven.  For  example, 
the  Rev.  William  Holcombe,  author  of  Our  Children  in  Heaven,  1869,  described 
how  angels  instruct  recently  arrived  souls:  "The  angels  now  tell  the  spirit 
that  he  is  an  inhabitant  of  the  spirit  world,  and  answer  his  thousand  eager 

inquiries [then]  they  summon  his  friends  and  relatives  who  have  preceded 

him  across  the  river  of  death.""  Such  accounts  are  evidence  of  the  rise  of 


72  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 

sentimentalism,  the  emotional  interpretation  of  religious  issues  characterized 
by  public  expression  of  private  feelings,  particularly  those  related  to  grief  and 
melancholy,  emotions  cultivated  by  sentimentalists.^'  Like  the  rural  cemeteries, 
sentimentality  was  a  defense  against  death's  cruel  certainty.  Consolation 
literature  also  reflected  a  demand  for  detailed  explications  of  the  afterlife, 
perhaps  in  response  to  the  complexity  of  an  increasingly  urbanized  and 
industrial  society  for  which  heaven  became  a  panacea.  Consolation  literature 
epitomized  sentimentalism,  and  cemetery  angels,  with  their  genial  expressions, 
hopeful  messages  of  immortality,  and  consolatory  function  allowed  Protestants 
to  indulge  in  sentimentality  and  to  find  reassurance  in  figural  gravemarkers 
that  stayed  within  the  bounds  of  Protestant  belief.  Adherence  to  the  Second 
Commandment  still  discouraged  most  images  of  God  and  Jesus,  and  prior  to 
1900,  they  were  almost  nonexistent  in  the  rural  cemeteries.  The  few  examples 
that  do  appear  in  the  cemeteries  visited  for  this  study,  such  as  three  identical 
C.1890  images  of  the  Crucifixion  on  the  gravestones  of  members  of  the  same 
family  in  Green  Mount  Cemetery,  Baltin^ore,  are  the  exception  that  proves  the 
rule.  They  appear  patently  out  of  place. 

Although  many  Protestants  continued  to  denounce  the  Roman  Catholic 
church  for  idolatry  and  for  using  art  to  seduce  the  unsophisticated,  by  the  mid- 
nineteenth  century  well-known  ministers  such  as  HeiTry  Ward  Beecher,  Orville 
Dewey,  and  George  Washington  Bethune  were  calling  for  a  re-evaluation  of 
the  role  of  the  visual  arts  in  Protestant  belief.  Advocating  for  the  return  of  art 
to  Protestant  churches,  painter  Thomas  Cole,  a  devout  Episcopalian,  wrote  in 
1846:  "The  accusations  which  have  so  long  and  frequently  been  brought  against 
it  as  savoring  of  Romish  superstitions,  are  beginning  to  give  way  and  yield  to 
a  better  and  higher  estimate  of  art  as  the  handmaid  of  religion. "'''  Increasingly 
Protestants  introduced  religious  imagery  into  their  churches,  publications, 
and  even  their  homes.  Popular  prints  by  Currier  and  Ives  addressed  religious 
subjects,  including  guardian  angels.  Embroidery  and  paper  silhouettes 
depicting  the  cross  and  crown  motif  decorated  the  walls  of  Protestant  homes, 
and  table-top  sculptures  of  angels  ascending  to  heaven  were  popular. ""^  As  art 
historian  John  Davis  reports  in  the  essay  "Catholic  Envy:  The  Visual  Culture 
of  Protestant  Desire,"  some  mid-century  Protestants  were  strongly  attracted 
to  Catholic  ritual,  art,  and  architecture.  The  popularity  of  Philadelphia  painter 
Thomas  Sully's  copy  of  French  artist  Frangois-Marius  Granet's  Choir  of  the 
Capuchin  Chapel,  1821,  and  Episcopalian  Robert  Weir's  Taking  the  Veil,  1863, 
both  widely  exhibited  and  written  about,  are  evidence  of  this  fascination.-^*' 
Weir's  novice  kneels  at  the  altar  of  a  grand  Italian  cathedral  where  the  crucifix 
is  discretely  obscured  — most  Protestants  considered  crucifixes  morbid  and 
indecent  — but  an  angel  sculpture  reminiscent  of  those  found  in  the  rural 
cemeteries  stands  on  a  base  between  the  ritual  and  the  spectators,  appearing 
to  act  as  an  intermediary. 

The  angel  sculptures  of  rural/ garden  cemeteries  functioned  in  a  similar 
way  for  nineteenth-century  Protestants.  Much  like  Catholic  religious  art. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  73 

they  were  conduits  linking  God  and  man.  Although  cemetery  visitors' 
written  responses  to  angel  monuments  have  yet  to  be  discovered,  it  is  likely 
that  vistors  reacted  strongly  and  emotionally  to  the  sculptures'  powerful 
physicality  —  impressive  even  today  —  which  was  a  far  cry  from  the  incorporeal 
text-bound  basis  of  Protestantisni  and  from  earlier  American  images  of 
winged  beings.  Paradoxically,  at  the  same  time  that  American  Protestants 
were  "Catholicizing"  their  relationship  to  the  visual  arts,  antipathy  toward 
Catholicism  accelerated  as  waves  of  Irish  and  Italian  Catholic  immigrants 
threatened  Protestant  hegemony,  although  this  hostility  did  not  impede  the 
proliferation  of  Protestant  angel  imagery. 

Only  a  few  large-scale  angel  monuments  appear  to  have  been  placed  before 
1850,  a  notable  example  being  Charlotte  Canda's  monument  in  Green-Wood 
Cemetery,  Brooklyn,  erected  in  1848.  Flanking  Canda's  effigy  are  two  life-sized 
kneeling  angels  known  to  be  carved  in  Italy.  Kneeling  angels  are  relatively 
rare  in  the  rural  cemeteries  studied  here,  most  likely  due  to  the  association  of 
kneeling  with  Catholicism  (Canda  was  one  of  few  Catholics  buried  in  Green- 
Wood  in  the  nineteenth  century;  the  lot  was  specially  consecrated  for  her).'^ 
While  it  is  clear  that  angel  sculptures  began  to  appear  in  American  rural 
cemeteries  in  ever  increasing  numbers  beginning  around  1850,  it  is  impossible 
to  be  definitive  about  their  stylistic  development  without  exact  dates.  There 
are,  however,  some  evident  trends  in  design.  The  earliest  angel  markers, 
from  about  1850  tlirough  the  1870s,  tend  to  be  life-size  or  smaller  and  less 
ostentatious,  placed  on  plain  geometric  bases  usually  no  more  than  six  feet  tall 
(typically  shorter),  and  neoclassical  in  style.  They  are  most  often  ambiguous 
in  gender,  clothed  in  simple  togas  or  other  classically  inspired  garments 
(distinguishing  them  from  vestment-garbed  Catholic  angels)  and  stand  in 
contrapposto,  the  slightly  bent-knee  stance  perfected  by  the  ancient  Greeks 
to  imply  the  potential  for  movement  (Fig.  10).  The  angels'  faces  are  typically 
serene  and  pleasant,  their  features  delicately  carved  and  hair  both  short  and 
long  (if  long,  often  bound  up).  Bas-relief  angels  on  individual  markers  show 
more  varied  dress  and  poses  due  to  the  greater  flexibility  of  relief  carving  (Fig. 
11).  Although  some  bronze  angels  also  exist  from  this  period  (Fig.  10),  the 
angels  of  this  period  are  predominantly  carved  of  marble,  often  the  crystalline 
white  marble  of  Italy  which,  when  new,  must  have  sparkled  against  the 
cemeteries'  dark  green  foliage.  White  marble  is  the  medium  associated  with 
neoclassicism  and  was  consistent  with  biblical  descriptions  of  angels  as  robed 
in  white  garments  (Daniel  12:6,  Matthew  28:3,  Jolin  20:12,  Revelation  19:14). 

Later  American  angel  monuments  of  the  1880s  and  1890s  wear  more 
free-flowing  robes,  often  with  wide  sleeves  and  fanciful  details  such  as  bows 
and  embroidery.  Faces  frequently  resemble  each  other,  with  large  eyes,  a 
long  narrow  nose,  full  lips,  and  thick,  unbound  hair  (Fig.  12).  Increasingly 
granite  replaced  marble,  resulting  in  larger,  bulkier  forms  because  granite 
is  more  difficult  to  carve  and  does  not  lend  itself  to  delicate  detail.  Some 
late-nineteenth-century   angels   are   larger   than   life-size.   Some   stand   on 


74  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Fig.  10.  Henry  Kirke  Brown's  striking  George  Hogg  Monument,  c.1850, 

bronze  and  marble,  Allegheny  Cemetery,  Pittsburgh, 

standing  in  a  classical  contrapposto  position.  Believed  to  be 

one  of  the  earliest  large-scale  bronze  castings  in  America. 

elaborately  carved  bases  twenty  or  thirty  feet  high  (Figs.  12,  1,  8).  Beginning 
in  the  1880s,  bronze  angels  increased  in  number  as  the  beaux-arts  style 
popularized  in  America  by  Augustus  Saint-Gaudens  and  Daniel  Chester 
French  challenged  neoclassicisn^i.  Angels  also  became  more  clearly  female 
around  the  turn  of  the  century. 

After  1900  the  changes  that  began  in  the  1880s  became  more  pronounced, 
and  new  types  emerged  inspired  by  Pre-Raphaelite  and  Art  Nouveau  angels. 
Alternatively,  stock  angels  became  dull  and  formulaic,  perhaps  related  to 
the  accessibility  of  monuments  through  mail  order.  While  many  traditional 
tasks  continued  to  be  represented,  increasingly  angel  sculptures  did  little  but 
stand,  sit,  or  hover.  Garden  cemeteries  changed  as  well,  adopting  features  of 
the  new  landscape  lawn-plan  design,  which  replaced  varied  topography  and 
extensive  plantings  with  broad,  empty  lawns,  and  eclectic  memorials  with 
more  uniform  granite  markers.  Their  populations  also  shifted  as  immigration 
increased,  resulting  in  nxore  non-Protestant  burials.  A  1921  article  in  the 
periodical  Art  and  Archaeology  titled  "The  Angel  in  American  Sculpture" 
acknowledged  the  "universal  popularity  of  the  angel  as  an  ornament  for 
tombstones"  but  complained  that  the  "laborious  efforts  of  stone  cutters,  has 
cheapened  such  works  to  the  extent  of  making  them  ridiculous"  and  described 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


75 


Fig.  11.  Andrew  Foster  Smith  monument,  1873,  marble,  Woodlawn 

Cemetery,  The  Bronx,  signed  and  dated  "BENZONI  F.  ROMA 

1873,"  featuring  an  active  angel  floating  toward  earth  on  a  cloud. 


76 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


\>Y 


if 


^ 


Fig.  12.  Enrico  Buti,  Porter  monument,  1890s,  Allegheny  Cemetery, 

Pittsburgh,  The  larger-than-life  angel,  shown  writing  on  a 
gravestone-like  slab,  is  typical  of  late-nineteenth-century  cemetery 

angels  in  its  loose  robe,  full,  long  hair,  and  androgynous  face. 
The  current  bronze  monument  is  a  1920s  bronze  casting  of  the  1890s 
marble  original,  which  decayed  rapidly  in  Pittsburgh's  industrial  air. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  77 

angel  sculpture  in  general  as  "an  incongruity  which  naturalists  and  modern 
realists  must  deplore"  because  it  portrayed  an  anatomically  impossible  being 
that  "defied  the  laws  of  aerial  navigation  and  was  never  seen  by  the  eyes  of 
man."-'^  Not  surprisingly,  angel  sculptures  largely  died  out  around  1930  as 
attitudes  toward  death  changed  again  and  minimalist  markers  inspired  by 
memorial  park  design  replaced  figural  forms.  Today,  one  will  occasionally  see 
the  small  child  angels  used  to  mark  children's  graves  in  monument  dealers' 
inventories,  but  recent  adult  angel  sculptures  are  very  rare  (except  in  some 
Catholic  cemeteries).  However,  angel  imagery  in  relief  has  experienced  a 
revival  in  popularity  in  recent  years  due  the  new,  comparatively  inexpensive 
technique  of  laser  cutting  designs  on  granite. 

Angel  Types  and  Tasks 

The  angel  monuments  found  most  frequently  in  America's  rural 
cemeteries  in  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  divide  into  eight  basic 
types  determined  primarily  by  task  being:  soul-bearing;  praying;  decorating 
and  guarding;  pointing;  recording;  trumpeting;  sword-bearing  (archangel 
Michael);  and  child  angels.  It  may,  in  fact,  be  their  tasks  that  made  them 
acceptable  to  Protestants  —  narrative  art  viewed  as  less  tainted  with  the 
potential  for  idolatry.  Each  type  is  consolatory  and  didactic,  intended  both  to 
comfort  the  bereaved  and  to  convey  messages  to  cemetery  visitors,  instructing 
viewers  about  the  fate  of  the  human  soul  after  death,  the  safekeeping  of  the 
remains,  and  the  inevitability  of  resurrection.  Three  of  the  most  common  are 
variations  on  guardian  angels:  those  who  bear  souls  — no  longer  depicted  as 
winged  heads  but  as  full  bodies  —  to  heaven;  those  who  pray,  usually  looking 
beseechingly  toward  the  sky;  and  those  who  watch  over  and  decorate  the 
gravesite  with  flowers.  The  guardian  angel's  biblical  origin  is  Psalms  91:11-12: 
"For  he  will  give  his  angels  charge  over  thee,  to  guard  thee  in  all  thy  ways.  They 
shall  bear  thee  up  in  their  hands,  lest  thou  dash  thy  foot  against  a  stone." 

Although  associated  with  Catholic  belief  today,  the  concept  that  one  had 
a  winged  protector  assigned  by  God  clearly  struck  a  chord  with  mid-  to  late 
nineteenth-century  American  Protestants,  further  evidence  of  their  distance 
from  the  strict  Calvinisni  of  their  predecessors.  Guardian  angels,  borrowed 
from  Jewish  conceptions  of  angels  and  conspicuous  from  Christianity's 
first  days,  were  a  particular  focus  of  the  medieval  scholastics."''  By  the  early 
fifteenth  century,  chapels  and  cults  dedicated  to  guardian  angels  had  spread 
across  Europe.  Protestant  ambivalence  about  angels  is  nowhere  more  apparent 
than  in  perceptions  of  guardian  angels.  Early  Protestant  reformers  struggled 
with  the  concept  and  never  definitively  agreed  whether  or  not  one  received  a 
guardian  angel  at  birth,  as  noted  earlier.''" 

But  by  the  mid-nineteenth  century,  guardian  angels  appeared  frequently 
in  Protestant  imagery,  epitaphs,  hymns,  sentimental  poetry,  and  consolation 
literature  inspired  in  part  by  Emanuel  Swedenborg's  popular  accounts  of 
his  visions  of  heaven  and  the  angels  he  observed  there.*''  Period  writings 


78  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1 850-1900 

maintained  that  guardian  angels  watched  over  the  soul  while  living,  removed 
occasions  of  sin  and  provided  protection  when  danger  threatened,  interceded 
on  their  charges'  behalf,  attended  at  death,  eased  the  transition  to  the  next 
world,  conducted  the  soul  to  heaven,  and  looked  after  the  gravesite  and  the 
deceased's  remains  until  resurrection.  An  1858  text  noted,  "They  never  leave 
us.  In  sorrow  they  sympathize,  in  joy  they  rejoice,  in  prayer  they  unite  with 
us;  and  in  sin,  alas!  they  behold  us.  Most  of  all,  at  the  bed  of  death,  angels 
do  most  especially  minister.  In  every  varied  scene  in  life,  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave,  they  are  with  us."^'-  Additional  evidence  of  Protestant  embracing 
of  guardian  angels  is  Thomas  Cole's  popular  Voyage  of  Life  series,  1839-1840. 
In  four  paintings.  Cole,  considered  the  father  of  the  Hudson  River  School, 
allegorized  the  four  stages  of  life  as  an  infant,  a  youth,  a  mature  man,  and 
an  elderly  man  navigating  the  River  of  Life,  with,  as  Cole  wrote,  "a  guardian 
Angel  steering."''-'  Prints  depicting  Cole's  paintings  sold  widely. 

Soid-bea ring  A nge Is 
One  of  the  guardian  angel's  priniary  responsibilities  was  to  carry  the  soul 
to  heaven.  Most  soul-bearing  angels  in  early  rural  cemeteries  are  represented 
in  relief  due  to  the  complexity  of  rendering  in  three  dimensions  one  or  more 
angels  and  a  full-bodied  human  soul  ascending.  Again,  Emanuel  Swedenborg's 
influence  is  clear.  "Man  after  death  is  as  much  a  man  as  he  was  before,"  he 
insisted.''^  Instead  of  a  naked  child  or  winged  head,  the  soul  now  took  on 
the  physical  form  of  the  body.  Examples  include  the  c.1874  French  family 
monument,  where  two  angels  raise  their  arms  in  celebration  while  another 
grasps  the  hand  of  the  deceased  as  she  rises  from  the  grave,  and  the  Kelle  (?) 
marker,  where  an  angel  carries  a  woman,  gazing  back  towards  earth,  through 
clouds  and  stars  (Figs.  5,  13).  This  image  recalls  a  popular  song  of  1872,  "An 
Angel  at  the  Window,"  in  which  a  husband  closes  the  window  on  an  angel  who 
has  come  to  collect  his  dying  wife.  But  when  the  angel  approaches  again, 

I  open'd  the  casement  window 

And  lifted  my  niuch  lov'd  one. 

On  the  angel's  wings  I  placed  her. 

And  gazed  til  they  were  gone.^^ 

The  Harriet  E.  gravemarker  shows  an  angel  carrying  a  child,  a  common 
motif  in  rural  cemeteries,  even  on  adults'  gravestones  (Fig.  6).  A  rare  early 
example  in  the  round  is  the  dramatic  James  Gordon  Bennett  monument  at 
Green-Wood,  c.1862,  carved  in  Italy.  Although  it  marks  a  man's  grave,  the 
small  body  of  a  winged  child  is  shown  ascending,  balanced  more  than  lifted 
by  an  angel.  Every  soul-bearing  angel  discovered  in  the  cemeteries  included  in 
this  study  carries  the  embodied  soul  of  a  woman  or  child,  never  a  man's  body. 
Is  this  because  women  and  children  suggested  innocence  more  so  than  men? 
Or  do  the  child  souls  relate  to  medieval  images  in  which  souls,  as  evidence 
of  their  purity,  were  shown  as  tiny  and  naked?  Or  does  it  reflect  emblem 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


79 


Fig.  13.  The  marble  Kelle  (?)  gravemarker,  1850s,  Green  Mount  Cemetery, 

Baltimore,  depicts  an  angel  carrying  the  soul  of  a  woman  through  clouds 

and  stars.  The  epitaph,  based  on  an  1860  Methodist  hymn,  reads,  in  part: 

"O  bear  me  away  on  your  snowy  wings.  To  my  immortal  home." 


book  imagery,  established  in  the  seventeenth  century  but  still  popular  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  which  always  depicted  the  soul  — or  anima  —  as  female?'''' 
Or  was  the  depiction  of  a  full-grown  man  being  born  aloft  by  angels  simply 
unpalatable?  A  typical  late  example  is  the  Fisher  monument,  c.1883,  from 
Crown  Hill  Cemetery  in  Indianapolis,  its  female  soul  smiling  with  anticipation 
as  it  ascends  (Fig.  14). 

Soul-bearing  angels  also  appear  on  pious  Hattie  A.  Burr's  stone  at  Green- 
Wood,  C.1860  (Fig.  15).  Hands  folded  in  prayer,  she  appears  to  need  little  help, 
for  two  angels  barely  touch  her  elbows  as  she  rises,  reminiscent  of  a  popular 
nineteenth-century  bedtime  prayer: 

Four  corners  to  my  bed 
Four  angels  round  my  head 
One  to  watch  and  one  to  pray 
And  two  to  bear  my  soul  away.*'^ 

Images  of  soul-bearing  angels  suggest  that  the  soul  departs  at  once  for  heaven. 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Fig.  14.  The  marble  Fisher  monument,  c.1883.  Crown  Hill  Cemetery, 

Indianapolis,  is  typical  of  late  nineteenth-century 

sculptures  of  soul-bearing  angels. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


-IT'. 

Fig.  15.  Hattie  A.  Burr  gravemarker,  c.1860,  marble,  Green-Wood 

Cemetery,  Brooklyn,  showing  the  pious  Hattie  A.  Burr 

being  escorted  to  heaven  by  two  soul-bearing  angels. 


as  a  poem  in  The  Angel  Visitor;  or.  Voices  of  the  Heart  (1859)  insists: 

It  is  a  joyful  thing  to  die; 
For  though  this  world  is  fair, 
I  see  a  lovelier  in  my  dreams. 
And  fancy  I  am  there. 
I  fancy  I  am  taken  there. 
As  soon  as  I  have  died. 
And  I  roam  through  all  that  pleasant  place 
With  an  angel  by  my  side.  ^^ 

Clayton's  Angelology  (1851)  reported  that  "immediately  after  the  separation  of 
the  soul  from  the  body,  the  angels  receive  it,  and  carry  it  to  heaven.  They  are  a 
convoy  for  the  departing  soul  of  the  godly."*^*^ 

Luke  16:22  is  the  basis  for  the  belief  in  soul-bearing  angels:  "The  beggar 
died  and  was  carried  by  the  angels  to  the  bosom  of  Abraham."  A  tremendous 
comfort  to  the  dying  and  the  bereaved,  guardian  angels  appear  in  this 
role  in  medieval  English  ars  moriendi  treatises  with  illustrations  depicting 
the  art  of  dying  well  and  in  the  writings  of  John  Bunyan  and  Increase 
Mather.^"  Again,  consolation  literature  elaborated  upon  this  charge.  The 
popular  novel  77?^  Gates  Wide  Open  (1869)  described  a  soul's  arrival  in  heaven 
who  has  "just  this  moment  alighted  with  my  angel."''  An  1860  Methodist 
hymn  also  indicates  belief  in  this  function  of  angels: 


82  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 

I've  almost  gained  my  heav'nly  hom.e, 
my  spirit  loudly  sings! 
The  holy  ones,  behold,  they  come! 

I  hear  the  noise  of  wings, 
O,  come,  angel  band,  come  and  around  me  stand, 
O  bear  me  away  on  your  snowy  wings  to  my  immortal  home.^- 

The  last  line  serves  as  an  epitaph  on  the  bottom  of  the  Kelle  (?)  gravestone 
(Fig.  13). 

Praying  Angels 

Another  type,  the  praying  angel  with  hands  folded  or  arms  crossed  over  the 
chest,  appears  to  fulfill  the  intercessory  role  of  the  guardian  angel.  Many  gaze 
heavenward,  like  the  toga-draped  Amoss  angel  at  Baltimore's  Green  Mount 
Cemetery,  whose  face,  though  worn,  appears  worried  (Fig.  16).  The  guardian 
angels'  chief  duty  was  to  save  their  charges'  immortal  souls  (Matthew  22:30, 
Luke  15:10).  The  angel  as  intercessor  relates  to  a  passage  in  Job  33:22,  "His 
soul  draweth  near  unto  the  grave,  and  his  life  to  the  destroyers,"  but  "if  there 
be  an  angel  with  him,  an  interpreter,  one  among  the  thousand,"  he  might 
escape  death.  Several  other  passages  relate  to  angels  praying  or  conveying 
their  charge's  prayers  to  heaven  (Judges  13,  Revelation  8:3-5).  The  belief  in 
guardian  angels  as  intercessors  dates  at  least  to  the  medieval  church.^' 

Some  praying  angels  provided  symbolic  consolation  by  bearing  additional 
attributes.  Common  were  anchors,  representing  hope  (Hebrews  6:19  describes 
hope  as  "the  steadfast  anchor  of  the  soul"),  and  crosses,  emblenis  of  faith 
(Fig.  17).  The  Latin  cross  appeared  in  Protestant  funereal  sculpture  at  this 
time  after  hundreds  of  years  of  absence,  further  evidence  of  the  increasing 
liberalism  of  mid-nineteenth-century  Protestants.  By  the  late  nineteenth 
century,  the  small  crosses  held  by  earlier  angels  were  to  grow  huge,  competing 
for  attention  with  the  angels  (Fig.  12). 

Angels  Wlto  Decorate  and  Watch  Over  the  Grave 
The  only  angel  type  defined  here  that  is  without  specific  biblical  precedent 
is  the  guardian  angel  that  watches  over  the  gravesite,  gazing  at  it  tenderly  and 
bearing  flowers  to  adorn  it.  Although  the  practice  of  strewing  flowers  on  graves 
began  at  least  as  early  as  ancient  Greece,  this  theme  in  sculpture  appears  to  be 
new  to  the  nineteenth  century,  unlike  most  angel  forms  which  had  roots  in 
Renaissance,  Baroque,  or  eighteenth-century  art.  The  Minnie  Hays  nionument, 
C.1865,  in  Allegheny  Cemetery,  Pittsburgh,  is  an  example  (Fig.  18).^^  Dressed 
in  classical  garb  and  standing  in  contrnpposto,  the  angel  holds  a  garland,  an 
ancient  Roman  symbol  of  honor  adopted  by  Christians  as  an  emblem  of  the 
victory  of  redemption.  Bouquets  or  groupings  of  individual  flowers  like  the 
lily  appeared  later,  suggesting  neoclassicism's  waning  popularity  (Fig.  8).  Late 
nineteenth-century  examples  often  show  an  angel  extending  a  hand  holding 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


83 


Fig.  16.  Amoss  monument,  c.1867,  marble.  Green  Mount  Cemetery, 

Baltimore.  Praying  angels  fulfill  the  intercessory 

role  of  the  guardian  angel. 


a  single  flower  over  the  gravesite;  some  interpret  this  pose  as  a  symbol  of 
untimely  death  although  this  theme  is  so  ubiquitous  that  it  is  unlikely  the 
connotation  held  for  all.  Others  see  it  as  symbolic  of  the  transitory  nature  of  life, 
a  meaning  more  consistent  with  other  flower  symbolism  in  the  cemeteries.^' 

In  contrast  to  the  eighteenth  century's  barren  burial  grounds,  cut  and 
planted  flowers  were  popular  grave  decorations,  complimenting  the  land- 
scaped cemeteries'  sylvan  settings.  English  tourist  Harriet  Martineau  visited 
Mount  Auburn  in  the  1830s  and  found  the  tombs  there  "the  most  beautiful 
burial  places  I  ever  saw  ...  in  some  instances  a  little  blooming  garden  smil- 
ing in  front.  I  saw  many  lots  of  ground  well  tended,  and  wearing  the  air  of 
luxuriant  gardens.  .  .  .  Many  separate  graves  were  studded  with  flowers,  the 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Fig.  17.  Rose  monument,  1880s,  marble.  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery, 

Philadelphia.  Angel  sculptures  are  often  depicted 
with  symbolic  attributes,  such  as  the  anchor,  a  symbol  of  hope. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


85 


Fig.  18.  Minnie  Hays  monument,  c.1865,  marble  and  granite, 

Allegheny  Cemetery,  Pittsburgh.  Angels  holding  flowers  draw 

attention  to  the  sacredness  of  the  gravesite  and  the  parallels 

between  plant  life  and  human  birth,  death,  and  resurrection. 


86  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 

narrowest  and  gayest  of  gardens. "^^  Certainly  the  practice  of  lavishly  deco- 
rating graves  with  flowers,  which  flourished  during  the  nineteenth  century, 
prompted  this  type.  In  addition  to  planted  flowers,  mounds  of  cut  flowers  that 
often  smothered  the  gravesite  during  the  funeral  became  increasingly  com- 
mon after  the  Civil  War.  Two  gravemarkers  at  Baltimore's  Green  Mount  and 
two  at  Charleston's  Magnolia  Cemetery  reflect  this  practice.  At  Green  Mount, 
the  Rachel  (last  name  urireadable)  gravemarker,  signed  "Gaddess"  for  the 
Gaddess  Marble  Works  of  Baltiniore,  and  the  Mary  Schumacher  marker,  both 
1860s,  depict  angels  flying  over  flower-covered  mounds,  preparing  to  drop 
more  flowers  (Fig.  19).  In  Charleston,  gravestones  for  "Our  Phoebe"  and  Eliza 
Crews,  C.1866,  show  angels  holding  single  flowers  in  vases  floating  above  lots 
fenced  and  gated  with  what  appears  to  be  irori,  the  most  comnion  material  for 
lot  enclosures  in  the  rural  cemeteries  (Figs.  3,  20). 

Like  their  live  coui"iterparts,  the  angels'  sculpted  flowers  suggest  the 
parallels  drawn  at  this  time  between  the  cyclical  nature  of  plant  life  and 
human  birth,  death,  and  resurrection.  Charles  Fraser,  dedication  speaker  for 
Magnolia  Cemetery  iri  1851,  exclaimed,  "the  blessed  hope  of  resurrection,  will 
reacheth  beyond  this  earth,  shall  bloom  front  the  flowers  that  grow  over  its 
thick-strewn  graves.""  Earlier,  Dr.  Jacob  Bigelow,  a  Mount  Auburn  founder, 
noted  that  the  human  heart  seeks  consolation  "amidst  the  quiet  verdure  of  the 
field,  under  the  broad  and  cheerful  light  of  heaven,  where  the  harnionious  and 
ever-changing  face  of  nature  reminds  us,  by  its  resuscitating  influence,  that  to 
die  is  but  to  live  again. "^^  Typically,  flower-bearing  angel  sculptures  gaze  at 
the  ground,  focusing  attention  on  the  gravesites'  sacredriess  and  fulfilling  the 
guardian  angels'  responsibility  of  watching  over  the  grave  and  protecting  the 
deceased's  remains  until  the  Resurrection  (Figs.  8, 18, 19).^'^ 

Questions  persisted  during  the  mid-nineteenth  century  concerning  the 
body's  fate.  Would  it  be  reunited  with  the  soul  at  the  Resurrection,  or  was  the 
body  of  no  consequence  once  the  soul  adopted  its  perfected  state  after  the  body's 
death?  New  Englai"id  Puritans  conceived  of  the  body  as  a  corruptible  prison  of 
the  soul,  unrelated  to  its  postmortem  life;  their  burial  grounds,  unattractive, 
organized  haphazardly,  with  remains  often  disrupted  by  subsequent  burials, 
reflect  this.  Romantic  sentimentalism  inspired  very  differerit  ideas  about  the 
body  and  the  gravesite.  Conservative  Protestants  and  many  new  evangelical 
sects  believed  that  when  Jesus  returned,  the  body  would  rise  from  the  grave 
reconstituted  and  rejoin  the  soul  in  the  millerinial  kingdom.  They  pointed 
to  1  Corinthians  15:52,  "for  the  trumpet  shall  sound,  and  the  dead  will  be 
raised  incorruptible,  and  we  shall  be  changed,"  a  passage  commoiily  cited  in 
cenietery  dedication  addresses,  particularly  the  next  line,  "this  mortal  must 
put  on  immortality,"  which  became  a  popular  epitaph.  The  "disposition  of  our 
mortal  remains  on  earth  is  not  a  matter  of  indifference,"  noted  David  Appleton 
White  in  his  1840  dedication  address  for  Harmony  Grove  Cemetery  in  Salem, 
Massachusetts.  "On  the  contrary  it  acquires  an  unspeakable  interest  from 


Elisabeth  L.  Roaik 


87 


Fig.  19.  Gaddess  Marble  Works,  Rachel  [?]  gravemarker,  c.1864.  Green 

Mount  Cemetery,  Baltimore.  The  marble  relief-carved  angel 

prepares  to  add  a  flower  to  a  grave  mound  already  smothered  with  flowers. 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Fig.  20.  "Our  Phoebe"  [?]  gravemarker,  c.1866.  Magnolia  Cemetery, 

Charleston,  with  an  angel  holding  a  single  flower  in  a  vase  above  what 

appears  to  be  an  iron-fenced  lot  enclosure. 


the  sublime  truth  of  Christianity  that  this  mortal  will  put  on  immortality. "^° 
A  proper  and  pernianent  burial  — not  really  possible  in  the  crowded  imier- 
city  graveyards  but  a  selling  point  of  the  rural  cemeteries  —  was  required  for 
resurrection,  and  thus  the  gravesite  became  sacrosanct. 

Like  guardian  angel  sculptures,  consolation  literature  and  epitaphs 
reinforced  the  concept  of  the  resurrection  of  both  body  and  soul  and  the 
significance  of  the  gravesite.  In  Angel  WJiispiers;  or  The  Eclio  of  Spirit  Voices,  1859, 
Baptist  minister  (and  anti-Catholic  Know-Nothing  Party  candidate)  Daniel  C. 
Eddy  wrote,  "If  you  ask  Wiiere  thy  brother  shall  rise?  1  reply,  the  spot  where  he 
fell.  The  scene  of  his  death  and  burial  is  to  be  the  scene  of  his  resurrection.  The 
sod  upon  which  you  have  stood  and  wept,  on  which  you  have  loved  to  repair, 
will  be  the  spot  on  which  his  ransomed  feet  will  stand  to  wait  the  crown  of 
glory  which  will  circle  his  no  longer  wasted  brow."^'  A  popular  epitaph  of  the 
period  reads. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  89 

Tread  softly  for  an  angel  band 
Doth  guard  the  precious  dust. 
And  we  can  safely  leave  our  boy. 
Our  darling  in  their  trust.**- 

Another  commentator  wrote  that  guardian  angels  will  remain  at  the  grave  as 
long  as  their  charges'  "bodies  are  still  awaiting  resurrection.  During  this  time, 
the  angels  keep  watch  over  the  tomb  .  .  .  preventing  their  profanation."^' 

Pointing  Angels 
Relief  panels  on  the  elaborate  French  family  monument  (c.l874)  in  Green- 
Wood  Cemetery  summarize  some  of  the  death-related  duties  of  the  guardian 
angels.  One  depicts  an  angel  floating  over  a  dying  woman's  bed,  pointing 
up,  waiting  to  ease  her  transition  (Fig.  21),  a  common  theme  in  medieval  ars 
moriendi  illustrations.  The  inscription  below  reads,  "We  still  mourn  for  thee, 
dear  Emnia,  though  we  know  that  thou  art  happier  in  heaven."  The  next  panel, 
with  the  inscription,  "Dear  Mother,  thou  shalt  arise  to  enter  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  with  God's  Angels,"  shows  a  man  mourning  by  an  obelisk  while  a 
female  soul  rises  into  the  arms  of  three  soul-bearing  angels  (Fig.  5).  In  the  third 
relief,  a  figure  with  head  bent  places  a  wreath  at  the  gravesite  while  an  angel 
points  to  the  sky,  indicating  that  the  deceased's  soul  now  resides  in  heaven 
(Fig.  22).  As  figures  21  and  22  suggest,  pointing  angels  were  often  connected 
with  guardian  angels  but  attended  to  the  bereaved  as  much  as  the  deceased, 
fulfilling  their  role  as  messengers.  The  c.1897  Home  Monument  at  Allegheny 
Cemetery,  Pittsburgh,  with  a  pointing  angel  holding  a  palm  frond,  a  symbol  of 
resurrection,  and  placing  a  hand  on  the  shoulder  of  a  mourning  woman  with  a 
garland,  makes  this  type's  consolatory  function  explicit  (Fig.  23). 


Fig.  21.  French  monument,  c.1874,  marble,  Green-Wood  Cemetery, 

Brooklyn.  Images  of  angels  at  the  bedsides  of  the 

dying  date  to  medieval  ars  moriendi  treatises  depicting  the  good  death. 


90  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Fig.  22.  French  monument,  c.1874,  marble,  Green-Wood  Cemetery, 

Brooklyn.  The  pointing  angel,  indicating  that  the  soul  has 

departed  for  heaven,  offers  explicit  comfort  to  the  bereaved. 


While  the  disembodied  hand  poiiiting  up  was  a  common  motif  on 
nineteenth-century  gravestones,  the  pointing  angel's  origins  were,  of  course, 
earlier  depictions  of  the  angel  at  Jesus's  sepulcher,  who  asked  rhetorically 
"Why  seek  ye  the  living  among  the  dead?"  A  popular  mid-century  poem  in 
Over  the  River;  or,  Pleasant  Walks  into  the  Valley  of  Shadows,  and  Beyond  (1862) 
extended  this  privilege  to  common  mortals: 

The  mourners  came  at  break  of  day 

Unto  the  garden  sepulchre, 

With  sorrowing  hearts  to  weep  and  pray 

For  him  whom  they  had  buried  there. 

What  radiant  light  expels  the  gloom? 

An  angel  sits  beside  the  tomb! 
Then  mourn  we  not  beloved  death  — 
E'en  while  we  come  to  weep  and  pray. 
The  happy  spirit  far  has  fled 
To  brighter  realms  of  endless  day! 
Immortal  hope  dispels  the  gloom; 
Art  angel  sits  beside  the  tomb.^"* 

The  poem's  last  two  lines  also  appeared  as  epitaphs.**'  A  striking  pointing 
angel,  arguably  the  most  beautiful  in  this  study,  is  sculptor  Henry  Kirke 
Brown's  nearly  life-size  bronze  in  Allegheny  Cemetery.  Created  around 
1850  to  memorialize  George  Hogg,  it  is  a  purely  classical  conception  with  an 
idealized  face  and  clinging  drapery  standing  in  contrapposto  (Fig.  10).  Although 
executed  by  a  prominent  mid-century  sculptor  and  believed  to  be  one  of  the 
first  large-scale  bronze  cast  sculptures  in  the  United  States,  it  is  consistent 
with  other  pointing  angels.  Like  the  Sexton  Monument,  it  points  both  up  and 
down,  accentuating  the  significance  of  the  gravesite  where  the  body  remains 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


91 


u 

W'i 

'"    *:•■  1   ' 

Wtttt^., 

Fig.  23.  Home  monument,  c.1897,  granite,  Allegheny  Cemetery,  Pittsburgh, 

a  late-nineteenth-century  example  of  a  pointing  angel 

that  makes  the  consolatory  function  explicit. 


92  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 

but  also  conveying  the  hopeful  message  that  his  soul  has  departed  for  heaven 
(Fig.  9).«^ 

Recording  Angels 
While  all  cemetery  angels  fulfill  the  didactic  function  of  instructing  visitors 
about  the  soul's  fate  or  the  grave's  sacredness,  a  fifth  type,  the  recording  angel, 
appears  to  offer  a  warning  as  well.  In  the  Bible,  recording  angels  hold  open 
the  books  for  God  to  judge  the  dead  by  "those  things  which  were  written  in 
the  books,  according  to  their  works"  (Revelation  20:12).  Presumably  cemetery 
angels  shown  actively  writing  are  inscribing  the  deceased's  nanie  in  the 
Book  of  Life,  ensuririg  salvation  (Fig.  24).  Although  the  sculpted  recording 
angels  never  appear  condemnatory,  certainly  one  intent  of  this  type  was  to 
remind  viewers  that  the  Last  Judgment  was  imminent  and  thereby  encourage 
correct  behavior.  Promoters  insisted  that  rural  cemeteries  carried  strong  moral 
implications,  inspiring  visitors  to  meditate  on  their  life's  worth.^^  At  some  level 
recording  angels  perpetuated  the  Puritan  "memento  mori"  theme,  reminding 
viewers  to  prepare  for  death.  Recording  angels  also  appear  in  mourning 
jewelry  and  consolation  literature.  Another  poem  in  Over  the  River  explained 
the  concept  of  dual  recording  angels  for  each  person,  an  idea  popularized  in 
the  Middle  Ages  that  persisted  in  the  post-Reformation  period: 

It  is  said  that  every  mortal  walks  between  two  angels  here; 

One  records  the  ill,  but  blots  it,  if  before  the  midnight  drear 
Man  repeiiteth;  if  uncancelled  then,  he  seals  it  for  the  skies 

And  the  right  hand  angel  weepeth,  bowing  low  with  veiled  eyes.^^ 

Recording  ai"igels  usually  resemble  other  cemetery  angels,  with  long 
hair  and  floor-length  robes  (Fig.  24).  Interesting  variations  exist  at  Mount 
Auburn,  Green  Mount  in  Baltimore,  and  Forest  Lawn  iri  Buffalo,  where 
identical  youthful  angels  dressed  in  short,  knee-length  turiics  recall  the  erotes, 
boyish  winged  figures  that  appeared  on  ancient  Roman  sarcophagi  and  are 
considered  another  possible  source  for  Christian  angels  (Fig.  25).''''  Not  all 
recording  angels  write  in  books.  A  c.1850  toga-wrapped  angel  at  Laurel  Hill 
applies  its  pen  to  a  shield  (Fig.  26).  Allegheny  Cemetery's  larger-than-life  late 
nineteenth-century  Porter  angel,  created  by  Enrico  Buti  of  Milan,  writes  on  a 
rectangular  slab,  suggesting  that  one's  name  and  deeds  were  also  recorded  on 
the  gravestone  (Fig.  12).''" 

Trumpet  Angels 

The  trumpet  angel,  another  type  found  frequently  in  rural  and  garden 
cemeteries,  connects  thematically  with  the  recording  angel,  participating  ii"i  the 
end  of  days  and  reminding  viewers  that  Judgment  is  at  hand.  Seven  trumpet 
angels  appear  in  the  Book  of  Revelation.  They  are  a  ferocious  lot;  each  trumpet 
blow  brings  a  disaster  that  destroys  earthly  life.  Yet  the  trumpet  angels  of  the 
nineteenth-century  American  rural/ garden  cemeteries  do  not  resemble  the 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


93 


.'H..  '■* 


^:^^4 


Fig.  24.  Loomis-Phipps  monument,  1890s,  granite,  Alleglieny  Cemetery, 

Pittsburgh,  a  typical  example  of  a  recording  angel  inscribing 

the  deceased's  name  in  the  Book  of  Life. 


94 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Fig.  25.  Preston  monument,  1870s,  marble.  Green  Mount  Cemetery, 

Baltimore,  featuring  a  boyish  recording  angel  that  recalls  the 

classical  erotes,  winged  beings  that  appear  on  Greco-Roman  sarcophagi. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


95 


Fig.  26.  King  monument,  c.1850,  marble.  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery, 
Philadelphia,  with  a  recording  angel  writing  not  in  a  book  but  on  a  shield. 


96  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 

avenging  angels  of  Revelation.  At  their  most  dramatic  they  appear  hurried  and 
have  a  watchful  look,  eyes  cast  toward  the  sky,  like  the  1880s  Hoffman  angel  in 
Baltimore's  Green-Mount  Cemetery  (Fig.  27).  Duplicates  of  the  Hoffman  angel 
are  found  at  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery  in  Philadelphia  and  West  Laurel  Hill  in  Bala 
Cynwyd,  Pennsylvania,  and  another  appears  at  Mount  Auburn.  The  trumpet 
angel  is  one  type  of  angel  found  on  colonial  gravestones,  where  they  are 
depicted  in  relief,  actively  blowing  their  trumpets.*^'  Occasionally  the  trumpets 
emit  words,  such  as  "Arise  ye  Dead,"  which  suggest  that  the  type  reminded 
viewers  not  only  of  Revelation,  but  also  of  I  Corinthians  15:52:  "the  trumpet 
shall  sound,  and  the  dead  will  rise  incorruptible."'^-  Trumpet-blowing  angels 
were  a  popular  motif  on  nineteenth-century  Pennsylvania  Dutch  gravestones 
and  in  needlework  as  well. 

Like  colonial  trumpet  angels,  trumpet  angel  sculptures  in  rural  and  garden 
cemeteries  most  likely  functioned  not  only  as  emblems  of  apocalypse  but  also 
as  embodiments  of  resurrection.  The  Rev.  Henry  Harbaugh,  Lutheran  author 
of  Heaven:  or,  an  Enquiry  into  the  Abode  of  the  Sainted  Dead  (1857),  wrote  that 
at  the  end  of  the  world,  Christ  "shall  send  his  angels  with  a  great  sound  of 
a  trumpet  and  they  shall  gather  his  elect  from  the  four  winds,  from  one  end 
of  heaven  to  the  other,"  an  idea  based  on  Matthew  24:31.'"  The  trumpet  was 
considered  a  particularly  Protestant  symbol  because  much  Protestant  theology 
is  based  on  the  books  of  the  apostle  Paul,  who  wrote  of  trumpet  angels  in  I 
Thessalonians  4:16  in  addition  to  I  Corinthians:  "For  the  Lord  himself  will 
descend  with  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  with  the  trump  of 
God:  and  the  dead  in  Christ  will  rise  first."""^ 

Michael  the  Archangel 

A  seventh  type  of  angel  sculpture  is  the  archangel  Michael,  the  warrior 
angel  who  defeats  Satan  (Jude  9,  Revelation  12:7-9).  Michael  is  found  less 
frequently  in  the  rural/ garden  cemeteries  than  the  other  types,  probably 
because  Catholics  consider  Michael  a  saint.  Martin  Luther  particularly 
challenged  Catholic  veneration  of  Michael.''"^  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery  has  a  c.1850 
Michael  sculpture  identified  by  his  armor,  partially  concealed  by  a  cloak,  and 
sword,  now  missing  its  blade  (Fig.  28).  Like  the  trumpet  angels,  this  Michael 
is  benign,  his  sword  down  and  his  expression  calm,  portraying  a  confident 
protector  of  the  deceased  and  consoler  of  the  bereaved.  Other  nineteenth- 
century  representations  of  Michael  appear  at  Mount  Auburn  and  Green- 
Wood  in  Brooklyn.  Michael  was  by  far  the  most  prominent  angel  in  medieval 
belief,  founded  on  Jewish  reverence  for  Michael  as  the  guardian  of  Israel,  and 
was  linked  in  several  ways  to  death  in  Catholic  dogma  and  imagery.''''  He  is 
the  archangel  believed  to  weigh  souls  to  determine  their  worthiness,  to  battle 
demons  over  the  fate  of  the  soul,  and  to  escort  the  soul  to  heaven. 

Some  suggest  that  the  trumpet  angels  represent  Gabriel,  the  only  other 
archangel  named  in  the  Bible  (Protestants  rejected  the  Book  of  Tobit,  the  only 
book  in  the  Bible  where  another  archangel,  Raphael,  appears,  as  apochryphal). 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


97 


Fig.  27.  Hoffman  monument,  c.1888,  marble.  Green  Mount  Cemetery, 
Baltimore,  with  an  angel  recalling  the  trumpet  angels  of  the 
Book  of  Revelation,  I  Corinthians  15,  and  I  Thessalonians  4. 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


J    -- 


Fig.  28.  Abrams  monument,  c.1850,  marble.  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery, 

Philadelphia.  Sculptures  of  the  sword-bearing  archangel 

Michael  (here  with  missing  sword  blade)  are  rare  in  predominantly 

Protestant  garden  cemeteries  before  1900,  probably  because  of 

Michael's  association  with  Catholicism. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  99 

Tradition  associates  Gabriel  with  the  archangel  who  sounds  "the  trump  of 
God"  in  I  Thessalonians,  even  though  Paul  did  not  name  this  angel.  As  noted, 
many  trumpet  angels  appear  in  the  Bible,  none  explicitly  linked  to  Gabriel. 
No  nineteenth-century  sources  used  for  this  study  associated  Gabriel  with  the 
trumpet  angels,  although  in  1875  the  line,  "Come  down,  Gabriel,  and  blow 
your  horn,"  appeared  in  the  popular  minstrel  song,  "Angels  Meet  Me  at  the 
Crossroads."''^  It  seems  unlikely,  however,  that  nineteenth-century  Protestants 
would  uniformly  connect  trumpet  angels  to  Gabriel.  Unlike  Michael,  Gabriel 
was  not  as  explicitly  involved  in  death;  his  connection  to  the  Virgin  Mary 
through  the  Annunciation,  which  bolstered  his  popularity  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
niade  him  less  appealing  to  many  Protestants;  and  none  of  the  trumpet  angels 
discovered  thus  far  in  the  rural  cemeteries  are  shown  with  Gabriel's  distinctive 
attribute,  the  lily.'^^ 

Child  Angels 

In  addition  to  the  seven  angel  monument  types  that  appear  repeatedly 
in  rural  cemeteries,  one  additional  stock  angel  is  the  child  angel.  Not  to  be 
confused  with  cherubs  or  putti,  who  are  represented  nude  or  lightly  draped 
and  are  also  found  in  the  rural  cemeteries,  child  angels  typically  appear  to 
be  two  to  five  years  old  and  wear  simple  shifts  (Figs.  29,  30).  Like  their  adult 
counterparts,  they  usually  gaze  at  the  grave,  pray,  record,  or  hold  flowers. 
Text  sources  describing  child  angels  indicate  a  dramatically  different  meaning 
for  this  angel:  a  widespread  belief  that  children  turned  into  angels  at  death.'''' 
Perhaps  the  tragedy  of  a  child's  death  demanded  a  different,  more  consoling 
message.  Two  popular  epitaphs  read: 

God  needed  one  more  Angel  child 

Amidst  his  shining  band 
And  so  he  bent  with  loving  smile 
And  clasped  our  Martha's  hand. 

Bent  an  angel  low  at  even. 

Placed  a  wreath  upon  her  brow. 

Bore  her  suffering  spirit  homeward  — 

Rosa  is  an  angel  now!'°° 

Cemetery  historian  David  Sloane  described  rural  cemeteries  as  "scenes  of 
adoration  of  dead  youth."'"'  A  popular  song,  "Put  My  Little  Shoes  Away," 
1870,  is  a  testament  to  the  often  maudlin  nature  of  mid-century  writing  about 
dead  and  dying  children: 

I  am  going  to  leave  you  Mother, 

So  remember  what  I  say. 

Oh!  do  it,  won't  you  please  dear  Mother, 

Put  my  little  shoes  away . . .. 


100 


Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


'-m^ 


Fig.  29.  Louise  Inman  monument,  c.1888,  marble,  Oakland  Cemetery, 

Atlanta.  Child  angels  often  play  the  same  roles  as  their  adult 

counterparts;  on  the  Inman  monument  the  young  angel  is 

recording  on  a  natural  form,  perhaps  part  of  the  tree  stump, 

above  a  scroll  inscribed  with  the  deceased's  name. 


Mother  I  will  be  an  angel. 

By  perhaps  another  day; 

So  will  then  dearest  Mother, 

Put  my  little  shoes  away.'"- 

Despite  improvements  in  modern  medicine,  the  death  rate  of  children 
remained  quite  high  in  the  latter  half  of  the  iiineteenth  century.  Diseases, 
particularly  cholera,  scarlet  fever,  and  typhus,  devastated  whole  families.  Not 
surprisingly,  popular  consolation  literature  about  children's  deaths  shows 
nineteenth-century  Americans  at  their  most  sentimental.  The  Presbyterian 
Rev.  Theodore  Cuyler,  author  of  The  Empty  Crib  (1873),  wrote:  "In  almost 
every  home  there  is  stored  away,  among  its  most  cherished  treasures,  a  little 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark 


101 


Fig.  30.  Percy  Graeme  Turnbull  monument,  c.1882,  marble. 

Green  Mount  Cemetery,  Baltimore.  Child  angels, 

found  primarily  above  children's  graves,  may  reflect  the  widespread 

belief  that  children  turned  into  angels  at  death. 


102  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries.  1850-1900 

photograph,  or  a  box  of  toys,  a  torn  cap,  or  a  tiny  pair  of  shoes.  They  tell  a  story 
too  deep  for  words  .  .  .  perhaps  in  yonder  nursery  a  little  crib  grows  deeper 
until  it  deepens  into  a  grave."'"'  Consolation  literature  for  bereaveci  parents 
emphasized  that  the  child  was  too  good,  too  pure  to  remain  on  earth,  and  that 
parents  should  not  grieve  for  they  would  be  reunited  with  the  child  in  heaven. 
The  child-angel  sculptures  in  rural  and  garden  cemeteries  provided  visual, 
physical  confirmation  of  the  heavenly  arrival. 

While  child  angel  sculptures  are  usually  of  ambiguous  gender,  the  gender 
of  adult  cemetery  angels  is  another  aspect  of  the  monunients  that  provides 
insight  into  social  constructions  of  death  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Today 
most  viewers  would  describe  cemetery  angels  as  female  (current  iniages  of 
angels  are  predominantly  female).  Biblically,  angels  are  considered  purely 
spiritual  beings  and  so  have  no  gender,  although  several  passages  describe 
theni  as  manifesting  as  men,  and  the  archangels  bear  masculine  names  — 
Michael,  Gabriel,  Raphael.  According  to  Pseudo-Dionysus,  writing  c.  500 
CE,  they  took  the  shape  of  n^ien  on  earth  to  accommodate  the  limitations 
of  human  perception.'""*  In  medieval  depictions,  angels  usually  wore  bulky 
robes  that  provided  little  indication  of  gender,  although  they  appear  to  be 
primarily  male  or  androgynous.  During  the  Renaissance,  angels  developed 
more  feminized  forms,  perhaps  due  to  a  revival  of  interest  in  classical  sources 
like  the  Nikes,  but  more  likely  to  emphasize  their  androgyny.  Renaissance 
angels  are  typically  soft,  graceful,  idealized  humans  with  wings,  although  the 
nude  and  nearly  nude  angels  that  first  appear  at  this  time  are  always  male,  as 
is  the  archangel  Michael. 

In  rural  cemeteries,  most  mid-nineteenth-century  angels  lack  breasts,  the 
clearest  signifier  of  female  gender,  but  have  long  hair,  a  roundness  of  form,  and 
dainty  facial  features  (Figs.  10,  11,  14,  18),  although  there  are  exceptions  (Fig. 
15).  Feminized  angels  are  consistent  with  the  association  of  women  and  death 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  As  keepers  of  the  home,  women  were  responsible 
for  care  of  the  dead  until  the  professional  death  care  industry  developed  in 
urban  areas  in  the  1870s  and  1880s.  Mourning,  because  it  involved  emotions, 
was  viewed  as  more  appropriate  for  woman.  Cemetery  angels  demonstrated 
the  "feminine"  qualities  of  kindness,  sympathy,  and  care,  encouraging  a 
connection  between  angels  and  women  (as  do  the  cemeteries'  pleiirants,  or 
weepers,  secular  figures  without  wings  who  are  almost  always  female).  As 
one  commentator  noted,  "Women  embody  better  than  men  all  that  is  meant 
by  angels,"  adding,  "but  this  falls  from  ideal  religious  conception."'"'  The 
numbers  of  clearly  male  angels  (Figs.  9, 16,  25,  26,  28)  in  cemeteries  often  come 
as  a  surprise  to  modern  viewers,  and  suggest  that  the  feminization  of  mourning 
as  a  defining  characteristic  of  this  period  may  be  over-exaggerated.  Debate 
about  this  issue  could  be  intense.  Frank  Owen  Payne's  1921  article,  "Angels  in 
American  Sculpture,"  noted  that  "there  is  no  more  amusing  discussion  than 
that  concerning  the  sex  of  angels  and  the  acrimony  with  which  polemical  wars 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  103 

have  been  waged  concerning  that  most  absurd  of  all  considerations."  Citing  an 
incident  where  overtly  gendered  angels  were  removed  from  the  fagade  of  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Joliii  the  Divine  in  New  York  City,  Payne  concluded:  "that  the 
question  of  sex  should  have  ever  come  up  for  consideration  is  preposterous." '"'' 
William  Couper  (1853-1942),  a  prominent  sculptor  who  carved  angels  as 
graveniarkers  and  as  public  sculpture  throughout  his  long  career  continued  to 
believe,  according  to  his  granddaughter,  "that  angels  should  evoke  both  male 
and  female  characteristics  and  be  reverent  representations  of  higher  values. 
He  achieved  a  distinctive  androgynous  look  in  his  angels,  using  features 
both  strong  and  soft."'"^  Around  the  turn  of  the  century,  cemetery  angels 
clearly  became  more  perceptibly  female  (Fig.  23),  and  female  angels  appear  to 
predominate  in  the  early  twentieth  century. 

More  importantly,  cemetery  angels  —  physical,  bodily  manifestations 
instead  of  vague  spirits  or  winged  heads  — made  heaven  and  immortality 
almost  tangible,  particularly  when  viewed  within  idealized  garden  landscapes 
that  resembled  contemporary  conceptions  of  heaven. '°^  Not  overtly  grieving 
at  death  because  it  was  the  gateway  to  eternity,  but  appearing  authoritative 
and  at  peace,  angel  sculptures  modeled  appropriate  emotions.  Religion 
historian  Steven  Chase  describes  angels  as  polysemic:  "they  have  the  capacity 
of  possessing  many  levels  of  meaning  at  once,  they  point  beyond  themselves 
giving  added  nieaning  to  ordinary  experiences,  they  become  agents  of 
transformation."'"''  The  multiple  meanings  of  rural  cemetery  angels  reflect 
some  of  the  consuming  issues  of  the  age.  Ideas  about  resurrection  and  life  after 
death,  the  fates  of  the  soul  and  the  body,  and  the  connection  between  death 
and  nature  all  encouraged  the  selection  of  angel  monuments.  The  angels  that 
filled  rural  cemeteries  in  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  not 
erected  to  teach  history  lessons.  Instead,  an  angel  monument  was  a  dynamic 
presence  that  attended  to  visitors'  emotional  needs,  revealing  a  shift  in  the 
meaning  and  function  of  cemeteries  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  eight  types  of  angel  sculptures  articulated  the  hope  for  eternal  life  and 
helped  the  bereaved  negotiate  death.  To  us  they  impart  not  only  their  own 
specific  messages  but  also  substantial  clues  to  changing  societal  beliefs  about 
death  and  the  afterlife. 


NOTES 

^  All  photographs  are  by  the  author  unless  otherwise  noted.  Many  thanks  to  David 
Wilkins,  Thomas  Armstrong,  Susan  Olsen,  Joseph  Edgette,  and  other  members  of 
the  American  Culture  Association  Cemeteries  and  Gravemarkers  sessions  who 
contributed  ideas  or  resources  to  this  study,  and  to  editor  Gary  Collison  and  the  three 
anonymous  readers.  Cemeteries  visited  for  this  study  include  Allegheny  Cemetery, 
Pittsburgh  (1844),  Crown  Hill  in  Indianapolis  (1864),  Forest  Lawn  in  Buffalo  (1849), 
Graceland  in  Chicago  (1860),  Green  Mount  in  Baltimore  (1838),  Green-Wood  in 
Brooklyn  (1838),  Homewood  in  Pittsburgh  (1878),  Lake  View  in  Cleveland  (1869), 


104  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


Laurel  Hill  in  Philadelphia  (1836),  Magnolia  in  Charleston  (1851),  Oakland  in  Atlanta 
(1850),  West  Laurel  Hill  in  Philadelphia  (1870),  Woodlands  in  Philadelphia  (1840), 
and  Woodlawn  in  the  Bronx  (1863).  Homewood,  West  Laurel  HiU,  and  Woodlawn 
are  early  examples  of  landscape-lawn  plan  design,  which  involved  more  uniform  and 
spacious  landscapes  than  the  English  picturesque  garden  style  of  the  rural  cemeteries 
but  maintained  many  of  their  physical  features  and  ideological  implications, 
particularly  the  collaboration  of  art  and  nature  relevant  to  angel  sculpture.  See  David 
Charles  Sloan,  TJie  Last  Great  Necessity:  Cemeteries  in  American  Histonj  (Baltimore: 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  1991),  95,  99-113. 

-Its  exceptional  nature  is  evident  in  its  inclusion  in  Frank  Owen  Payne,  "The  Angel 
in  American  Sculpture,"  Art  and  Archaeology  11 A  (April  1921):  159.  Thanks  to  Susan 
Olsen,  historian  at  Woodlawn  Cemetery,  the  Bronx,  for  sharing  this  article  with  me. 
The  sculpture  is  illustrated  in  Elise  Madeleine  Ciregna,  "Museum  in  the  Garden: 
Mount  Auburn  Cemetery  and  American  Sculpture,  1840-1860,"  Markers  XXI:  Annual 
journal  of  the  Association  for  Gravestone  Studies  (2004),  136. 

^On  American  copies  of  Story's  Angel  ofDeatJi,  see  Sybil  Crawford,  "hiiitation:  A 
World  of  Cemetery  Look-Alikes,"  Associatio)i  for  Gravestone  Studies  Quarterii/  27.3 
(Summer  2002):  8-10.  Sculptures  of  prostrate  mourners  from  the  late-nineteenth  and 
early  twentieth  centuries  are  found  frequei^itly  in  European  cemeteries.  See  David 
Robinson  and  Dean  Koontz,  Beautiful  Death:  The  Art  of  the  Cemeteiy  (New  York: 
Penguin  Studio,  1996),  and  Sandra  Berresford,  Italian  Memorial  Sculpture,  1820-1940: 
A  Legacy  of  Love  (London:  Francis  Lincoln,  2004).  On  angels'  inability  to  grieve,  see 
David  Keck,  Angels  and  Angelology  in  the  Middle  Ages  (Oxford:  Oxford  University, 
1998),  34, 108, 112. 

^John  F.  Sears,  Sacred  Places:  American  Tourist  Attractions  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 
(Oxford:  Oxford  University,  1989),  xx. 

^The  founding  dates  of  Fairmount  Park  are  in  dispute.  See  Michael  J.  Lewis,  "The 
First  Design  for  Fairmount  Park,  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  ami  Biography  (July, 
2006),  http://www.historycooperative.Org/journals/pmh/130.3/lewis.htmL  which 
also  addresses  the  significance  of  rural  cemetery  design  for  the  first  large  urban 
parks.  Useful  sources  on  the  history  of  the  rural  cemetery  movement  include  Blanche 
Linden-Ward,  Silent  City  on  a  HiU:  Landscapes  of  Memory  and  Boston's  Mount  Aidnirn 
(Columbus:  Ohio  University,  1989),  and  Sloan,  Last  Great  Necessity. 

^J.  Henderson  M'Carty,  Inside  the  Gates  (Cincimiati:  Hitchcock  and  Walden,  1876), 
13-14. 

^Sloane,  Last  Great  Necessity,  95. 

^Colleen  McDamiell,  Material  Christianity:  Religion  and  Popular  Culture  in  America 
(New  Haven:  Yale  University,  1995),  130-31.  On  Protestants  and  the  visual  arts,  see 
David  Morgan  and  Sally  Promney,  The  Visual  Culture  of  American  Religions  (Berkeley: 
University  of  California,  2001),  xii,  and  Sally  Promney,  "Pictorial  Ambivalence  and 
American  Protestantism,"  Crossroads:  Art  and  Religion  in  American  Life  (New  York: 
New  Press,  2001),  191-92. 

■^  The  practice  of  erecting  family  monuments  ante-mortem  is  noted  in  Jacob  Speer, 
"The  Allegheny  Cemetery:  Historical  Account,"  Allegheny  Cemetery:  Historical 
Accounts  of  Incidents  and  Events  Connected  with  Its  Establislmioit  (Pittsburgh:  Blakewell 
and  Marthens,  1873),  13,  and  Samuel  W.  Thomas,  Cave  HiU  Cemetery:  A  Pictorial 
Guide  and  History  of  Louisville's  "City  of  the  Dead"  (Louisville,  KY:  Cave  Hill  Cemetery 
Company,  2001),  37. 

^^^  Allegheny  Cemetery,  64, 120.  The  Shoenberger  angel  in  Figure  3  has  lost  the  child  it 
comforted,  its  head,  its  wings,  and  its  hands. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  105 

"  Gumiar  Berefelt,  A  Study  of  the  Winged  Angel:  Tlie  Origin  of  a  Mo  fz/ (Stockholm: 
Almquist  and  Wiksell,  1968),  17;  Keck,  Angels  and  Angelology,  30;  Rosemary  Ellen 
Guiley,  The  Encyclopedia  of  Angels,  2"^'  ed.  (New  York:  Checkmark,  2004),  30, 179;  Allen 
Duston  and  Arthur  Nesselrath,  Making  the  Invisible  Visible:  Angels  from  the  Vatican, 
exhibition  catalogue  (Alexandria,  VA:  Art  Services  International,  1998),  46,  391.  The 
connection  between  the  earliest  Christian  angels  and  the  Nike/ Victory  is  challenged 
by  Arnold  Nesselrath,  "Wrestling  with  Angels:  Making  the  Invisible  Visible,"  in 
Duston  and  Nesselrath,  Angels  from  the  Vatican,  46.  Yet  in  the  same  book,  Maurizio 
Samiibale  and  Paolo  Liverani,  "The  Classical  Origins  of  Angel  Iconography,"  69-70, 
describe  the  Nike/Victory  as  "far  more  appropriate  a  model"  for  Christian  angels 
than  the  other  beings  cited  as  possible  sources  including  erotes  and  Assyrian  genii. 
Glemi  Peers,  Subtle  Bodies:  Representing  Angels  in  Byzantium  (Berkeley:  University 
of  California,  2001),  28-33,  addresses  other  ancient  forms  as  possible  sources  for 
Cliristian  angels  in  addition  to  Nikes,  noting  that  "the  dependence  of  the  iconography 
of  Christian  angels  on  pagan  models  is  complex." 

^-Duston  and  Nesselrath,  Angels  from  the  Vatican,  69;  Berefelt,  Study  of  the  Winged 
Angel,  21-31. 

■^^  Peers,  Subtle  Bodies,  25-26. 

^■*  Pseudo-Dionysus  the  Aeropagite,  On  the  Celestial  Hierarchy,  http:// www. esoteric. 
msu.edu/VolumelI/CelestialHierarchy.html. 

■^^  Steven  Chase,  Angelic  Spirituality:  Medieval  Perspectives  on  the  Ways  of  Angels 
(Mahwah,  NJ:  Paulist,  2002),  16,  20-21,  25-35. 

^*'Keck,  Angels  and  Angelology,  29,  56.  On  the  significance  of  Pseudo-Dionysus  for  the 
medieval  scholastics,  see  Keck,  49-50,  55-56. 

^^Keck,  Angels  and  Angelology,  11;  Peter  Marshall  and  Alexandra  Walsham, 
"Migrations  of  Angels  in  the  Early  Modern  World,"  in  Peter  Marshall  and  Alexandra 
Walsham,  eds..  Angels  in  the  Early  Modern  World  (Cambridge:  Cambridge  University, 
2006),  10. 

^^Keck,  Angels  and  Angelology ,  203 

^^  Berefelt,  Winged  Angel,  16. 

^°  Bruce  Gordon,  "The  Renaissance  Angel,"  in  Marshall  and  Walsham,  eds..  Angels  in 
the  Early  Modern  World,  41. 

-^  Philip  Soergel,  "Luther  on  the  Angels,"  in  Marshall  and  Walsham,  eds..  Angels  in 
the  Early  Modern  World,  64-82. 

^Quoted  in  Chase,  Angelic  Spirituality,  1. 

^■'Quoted  in  Marshall  and  Walsham,  "Migrations,"  14. 

24  Ibid. 

2^ Quoted  in  Elizabeth  Reis,  "Otherwordly  Visions:  Angels,  Devils  and  Gender  in 
Puritan  New  England,"  in  Marshall  and  Walsham,  eds..  Angels  in  the  Early  Modern 
World,  285-87. 

-^Keck,  Angels  and  Angelology,  30-33,  93-99;  Marshall  and  Walsham,  "Migrations,"  5; 
Alexandra  Walsham,  "Angels  and  Idols  in  England's  Long  Reformation,"  in  Marshall 
and  Walsham,  eds..  Angels  in  the  Early  Modern  World,"  134-40, 143-45, 158-59, 160-62; 
and  Peers,  Subtle  Bodies,  11, 17.  Peers  notes  that  images  of  angels  were  also  at  the 
center  of  the  Eastern  Orthodox  Church's  iconoclastic  controversy  of  the  eight  and 
ninth  centuries. 


106  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 


-"  Walsham,  "Arigels  and  Idols,"  140-44, 159-61.  Scholarship  is  also  contradictory 
on  the  issue  of  the  Protestarit  represeritation  of  angels.  Historians  Peter  Marshall 
and  Alexandra  Walsham  see  the  belief  in  angels  as  enduring  for  most  Protestants, 
especially  at  death:  "The  particular  association  between  arigels  and  death,  so  marked 
a  feature  of  medieval  religion,  persisted  into  the  Reformation  era.  .  .  .  niany  Protestant 
writers  proved  remarkably  traditionalist  in  their  perceptions  of  angels  strengthening 
the  faith  of  the  sick  on  their  deathbeds,  and  subsequently  .  .  .  carrying  the  souls  to 
rest  in  'Abraham's  bosom.'  Marshall  and  Walsham,  "Migrations,"  17,  and  Peter 
Marshall,  "Angels  at  the  Deathbed:  Variations  on  a  Theme  in  the  English  Elizabeth 
Reis,  "Otherworldly  Art  of  Dying,"  in  Marshall  and  Walsham,  eds..  Angels  in  the 
Early  Modem  World,  83-103.  But  Elizabeth  Reis  asserts  that  angels  were  "scarce  in 
Calvinistic  New  England"  ("Otherworldly  Visions,"  282). 

^®  Laurel  Gabel,  "An  Analysis  of  9,188  Boston  Gravestones,"  Association  of  Gravestone 
Studies  Quarterly  30.1  (2006),  4-8. 

■^^  Marshall,  "Angels  at  the  Deathbed,"  83.  AUai-i  Ludwig,  Graven  Images:  Nezu  England 
Stonecarving  and  its  Symbols,  1650-1815  (Middletown,  CT:  Weslyan  University,  1966); 
Peter  Benes,  Masks  of  Orthodoxy:  Folk  Gravestone  Carving  in  Plymouth,  Massachusetts, 
1689-1805  (Amherst:  University  of  Massachusetts,  1977),  56,  228  n.84;  Dickran 
and  Ann  Tashjian,  Memorials  for  Cluldren  of  Change:  The  Art  of  Early  Neiu  Englaiui 
Stonecarving  (Middletown,  CT:  Wesleyan  University,  1974),  62-63. 

■^^ James  Deetz  and  Edwiri  Dethlefsen,  "The  Doppler  Effect  and  Archaeology:  A 
Consideration  of  the  Spatial  Aspects  of  Seration,"  Soutlnvestern  Jounml  of  Anthropology 
21.3  (1965):  196-206.  Gabel,  "Boston-Area  Gravestones,"  7,  indicates  that  a  survey 
of  nearly  10,000  colonial  gravestones  reveals  that  winged  skulls  far  outnumbered 
winged  faces  in  the  Boston  area  well  into  the  eighteenth  century. 

^^  Reis,  "Otherworldly  Visions,"  292-94. 

^-Tashjian  and  Tashjian,  Memorials  for  Oiildren  of  Change;  Dickran  Tashjian,  "Puritan 
Attitudes  Toward  Iconoclasm,"  in  Peter  Benes,  ed.,  Puritan  Gravestone  Art  U  (Boston: 
Boston  University,  1978),  43-45. 

^■^  Ludwig,  Graven  Images,  plates  157b,  172b,  178b,  220. 

■''*  Charles  Dempsey,  Inventing  the  Renaissance  Putto  (Chapel  Hill,  NC:  University  of 
North  Carolina,  2001). 

■'^Ludwig,  Graven  Images,  14-15,  202-16,  223.  The  Betsy  Shaw  gravestone,  1795, 
pictured  in  Ludwig,  205,  makes  this  implication  explicit  by  showing  a  winged  head 
arising  from  a  brick  tomb.  See  also  Sloane,  Last  Great  Necessity,  22.  Benes,  Masks  of 
Orthodoxy,  45,  46, 133,  labels  the  winged  beings  that  have  more  human  faces  as  angels 
but  also  interprets  them  as  resurrected  souls. 

^^  Quoted  in  James  Deetz,  /;/  Snmll  Thijigs  Forgottoi:  An  Archaeology  of  Early  American 
Life,  rev.  ed.  (New  York:  Doubleday,  1996),  99^.  See  Benes,  Masks  of  Orthodoxy,  28-31, 
oil  the  shifting  attitudes  toward  death  in  the  Plymouth  Colony. 

^^  Ludwig,  Graven  Images,  234. 

^*^  Peter  Benes,  "Sky  Colors  and  Scattered  Clouds:  Decorative  and  Architectural 
Painting  of  New  England  Meeting  Houses,  1738-1834,"  and  Bettina  Norton, 
"Anglican  Embellishments:  The  Contributions  of  John  Gibbs,  Junior,  and  William 
Price  to  the  Cliurch  of  England  iii  Eighteenth-Century  Boston,"  in  Peter  Benes,  ed., 
Nexv  England  Meeting  House  and  Church:  1630-1850,  Dublin  Seminar  for  New  England 
Folklife  Annual  Proceedings  1979  (Boston:  Boston  University,  1979?),  66-68,  71-73,  77- 
78,  80-85. 

3'^ Linden-Ward,  Silent  City,  2-3, 12, 13, 168, 194,  226-27,  283;  Sloari,  Last  Great 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  107 


Ncrcssih/,  80-83. 

^'^  All  Bible  quotations  are  from  the  King  James  Bible,  the  text  used  most  frequently 
by  nineteenth-century  Protestants. 

"*'  T.  J.  Pettigrew,  "Religion  and  Sculpture/'  in  Wilson  Flagg,  Mount  Aiibiini,  Its 
Scenes,  Its  Beauties,  Its  Lessons  (Boston:  J.  Munroe,  1861),  82,  and  "Cemeteries  and 
Monuments:  A  Review  of  Tlie  Rural  Cemeteries  in  Neio  England,"  New  Englander  7.28 
(November  1849):  449-50. 

"'-Nicholas  Pemiy,  Churdi  Monuments  in  Romantic  England  (New  Haven:  Yale 
University,  1977),  127;  McDaiTnell  and  Lang,  Heaven,  189;  Marshall  and  Waltham, 
"Migrations,"  39;  McDarmell,  Material  Christianity,  187-88. 

■^'^  Kaulbach  (1805-74),  court  painter  to  Ludwig  I  of  Bavaria,  was  connected  to  the 
Nazarenes,  a  group  of  German  artists  who  wished  to  reconcile  religious  subject 
matter  and  modern  painting.  For  information  on  Kaulbach  in  English,  see  Avraham 
Ronen,  "Kaulbach's  Wandering  Jew:  An  Anti-Jewish  Allegory  and  Two  Jewish 
Responses,"  http: /  / www.tav.ac.il/ arts/ projects/  PUB/  assaph-art/  assaphS/  articles_ 
assaph3/ronen.pdf.  Currier  and  Ives  also  copied  Kaulbach's  Angel  of  Peace.  See 
Martha  V.  Pike,  A  Time  to  Mourn:  Expressions  of  Grief  in  Nineteenth  Centun/  America, 
exhibition  catalogue  (Stony  Brook,  NY:  Museums  at  Stony  Brook,  1981),  143. 

""Jonathan  L.  Fairbanks  and  Rebecca  Ann  Gay  Reynolds,  "The  Art  of  Forest  Hills 
Cemetery,"  Antiques  154.5  (November  1998):  696-703,  draw  a  similar  conclusion, 
noting  the  prevalence  of  monuments  by  Italian  sculptors  at  Forest  Hills,  a  rural 
cemetery  in  Boston,  MA.  They  also  describe  this  area  of  scholarship  as  "undeservedly 
neglected,"  which  mirrors  my  findings  (Elisabeth  L.  Roark,  "hmocence  and  Italian 
Stonecarving:  Giovanni  Benzoni's  Monument  for  Mrs.  John  Pendleton  Kemiedy 
in  Baltimore's  Green  Mount  Cemetery,"  paper  presented  at  the  American  Culture 
Association  Annual  Meeting,  14  April  2006,  Atlanta,  GA).  See  also  Cinzia  Siccia  and 
Alison  Yarrington,  "Introduction,"  and  Luisa  Passeggia,  "The  Marble  Trade:  The 
Lazzerini  Workshop  and  the  Arts,  Crafts,  and  Entrepreneurs  of  Carrara  in  the  Early 
Nineteenth  Century,"  in  Cinzia  Siccia  and  Alison  Yarrington,  eds.,  Tlie  Lustrous  Trade: 
Material  Culture  and  the  History  ofScidpture  in  England  and  Italy  (London:  Leicester 
University,  2000),  3-14, 156-73,  and  Berresford,  ItaUan  Memorial  Sculpture,  8,  23,  32, 
which  notes  that  duplicates  of  some  Italian  angel  monuments  appear  all  over  Italy, 
throughout  Europe,  and  in  North  and  South  America. 

'*-'' Sears,  Roebuck  and  Company,  Tombstones  and  Monuments  (Chicago,  1902); 
American  Bronze  Company,  Monuments  (Chicago,  1891);  Dempster,  Carrara,  Italy, 
Excelsior  Statuary  Design  (Boston,  1895);  Monumental  Bronze  Company,  Wliite  Bronze 
Monuments  (Bridgeport,  CT,  1882);  and  E.  C  Willison,  Willison  Imported  and  Sold 
Wliolesale  Marble,  Granite,  and  Statuary  (Boston,  c.1890). 

^^  Marshall  and  Walsham,  "Migrations,"  35-39,  note  that  in  the  late-seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries  "across  western  Europe  Protestant  clergy  collected  and 
publicized  stories  of  angelic  activities  and  appearances  as  never  before,"  using  them 
to  counter  rationalist  skepticism  and  the  rise  of  atheism,  particularly  as  hard-line 
Protestantism  relaxed. 

^^ Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow,  The  Complete  Poetical  Works  ofHoiry  Wadsworth 
Longfellozii  (Boston:  Houghton-Mifflin,  n.d.),  5. 

^*^  Ibid.,  107. 

'^^  Ibid.,  432-33. 

^°  George  Clayton,  Jr.,  Angelology:  Remarks  and  Reflections  Touching  the  Agency  and 
Ministrations  of  Holy  Angels;  loith  Reference  to  Tlieir  History,  Rank,  Titles,  Attributes, 


108  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 

Chamcteristics,  Residence,  Society,  Employmenis  and  Pursuits;  Interspersed  xoitJi  Traditional 
Particulars  Respecting  Tliem  (New  York:  Henry  Kernot,  1851),  21-22,  32. 

-^  Ami  Douglas,  Tiie  Feminization  of  American  Culture  (New  York:  Alfred  A. 
Knopf,  1977),  204,  254-55.  There  was  no  similar  genre  of  ntourning  literature  in  the 
seventeenth  or  eighteenth  century. 

^"William  Holcombe,  Our  Children  in  Heaven  (Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lippencott,  1869), 
59. 

^^^  Laurence  Lerner,  Angels  and  Absences:  Child  Deaths  in  the  Nineteenth  Centun/ 
(Nashville:  Vanderbilt  University,  1997),  183-89;  Linden-Ward,  Silent  City,  12^  36, 145- 
46. 

^'* Quoted  in  Wendy  Greenhouse,  "Daniel  Huntington  and  the  Ideal  of  Christian 
Art,"  Winter thur  Portfolio  31.2,  3  (Summer/ Autumn,  1996):  113. 

^^  Colleen  McDannell,  Material  Christianity,  125-27. 

^•^  John  Davis,  "Catholic  Envy:  The  Visual  Culture  of  Protestant  Desire,"  in  Morgan 
and  Promney,  Visual  Culture,  105-28.  See  also  Greenhouse,  "Daniel  Huntington,"  103- 
40;  McDannell,  Material  Christianity;  and  especially  Jemiy  Franchot,  Roads  to  Rome:  Tlte 
Antebellum  Protestant  Encounter  with  Catholicism  (Berkeley:  University  of  California, 
1994),  which  explicates  the  complexities  of  this  issue. 

^^ Jeffrey  L  Richman,  Brooklyn's  Green-Wood  Cemetery:  Neio  York's  Buried  Treasure 
(Brooklyn:  Green- Wood  Cemetery,  1998),  30-32.  The  website  for  the  cemetery,  http:// 
www.Green-Wood.com,  offers  a  detailed  discussion  of  the  Cauda  monument. 

^'^  Payne,  "Angels  in  American  Sculpture,"  156, 157. 

^''''  Keck,  Ajigels  ami  Angelology,  161-63. 

''^'Marshall  and  Walsham,  "Migrations,"  15, 16;  Soergel,  "Luther  on  the  Angels,"  66, 
72-73.  See  also  Elizabeth  Reis,  "Immortal  Messengers:  Angels,  Gender,  and  Power  in 
Early  America,"  in  Nancy  Isenberg  and  Andrew  Burstein,  Mortal  Remains:  Death  in 
Early  America  (Philadelphia:  University  of  Pemisylvania,  2003),  163-65. 

^^  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  Heaven  and  Its  Wonders,  Tlie  World  of  the  Spirits,  And  Hell: 
Prom  Tilings  Seen  and  Heard  (New  York:  American  Swedenborg  Printing,  1872; 
originally  published  London,  1758);  Clara  Erskine  Clement,  Angels  in  Art  (Boston:  L. 
C.  Page,  1898),  135-45.  See  also  Colleen  McDannell  and  Bernliard  Lang,  "Swedenborg 
and  the  Emergence  of  a  Modern  Heaven,"  in  Heaven:  A  History,  2"'^  ed.  (New  York: 
Yale  University,  2001),  181-227. 

^^Mrs.  Stone,  God's  Acre,  or  Historical  Notes  Relating  to  Churchyards,  1858,  quoted  in 
John  Morley,  Death,  Heaven  and  the  Victorians  (Pittsburgh:  University  of  Pittsburgh, 
1975),  104. 

^■'William  Truettner  and  Alan  Wallach,  eds.,  Thomas  Cole:  Landscape  Into  History, 
exhibition  catalogue  (Washington,  DC:  National  Museum  of  American  Art,  1994),  97- 
98. 

^''^  McDannell  and  Lang,  Heaven,  186. 

'^^  Richard  Jackson,  "Angels'  Visits  and  Other  Vocal  Gems  of  Victorian  America," 
http://www.newworldrecords.org/linernotes/80220.pdf. 

^^  Many  thanks  to  Anita  Schorsch,  director  of  the  Museum  of  Mourning  Art  at 
Arlington  Cemetery,  Drexel  Hill,  PA,  for  alerting  me  to  the  soul's  gender  in  emblem 
books.  On  the  continuing  popularity  of  emblem  books,  see  Truettner  and  Wallach, 
Thomas  Cole,  98.  For  photographs  and  a  discussion  of  the  Bemiett  monument,  see 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  109 


http://www.Green-Wood.com.  The  theme  of  an  angel  carrying  the  soul  of  a  child 
aloft  also  appears  on  elaborate  mourning  brooches  of  the  late  eighteenth  to  late 
nineteenth  century,  which  may  have  also  served  as  sources  for  monument  designers, 
as  did  popular  engravings,  book  illustrations,  and  sheet  music  depicting  the  same 
theme.  See  Maureen  DeLorme,  Mourning  Art  and  Jewelry  (Atglen,  PA:  Schiffer,  2004), 
71-73,  79,  92, 102. 

'"  The  rhyme  was  originally  published  in  1656  by  Englishman  (and  vocal  anti- 
Catholic)  Thomas  Ady,  in  A  Candle  in  the  Dark,  or  a  Treatise  Concerning  the  Nature  of 
Witches  and  Witclicraft.  See 
http://www.controverscial.com/Thomas%20Ady. 

"^Francis  E.  Percival,  Tlie  Angel  Visitor;  or,  Voices  of  the  Heart  (Philadelphia:  J.  W. 
Bradley,  1859),  36-37.  See  also  James  J.  Farrell,  Inventing  the  American  Wax/  of  Death, 
1830-1920  (Philadelphia:  Temple  University,  1980),  80,  on  Henry  Ward  Beecher's 
views,  and  Lutheran  minister  Hemy  Harbaugh,  Heaven;  or,  an  Earnest  and  Scriptural 
Inquin/  into  the  Abode  of  the  Sainted  Dead,  13*  ed.  (Philadelphia:  Lindsay  and  Blakiston, 
1857),'l33, 158. 

^'^  Clayton,  Angelologx/,  201. 

7°  Marshall,  "Deathbed,"  86-88,  93-98, 100, 101. 

''^  George  Wood,  Tlie  Gates  Wide  Open;  or,  Scenes  in  Another  World  (Boston:  Lee  and 
Shepard,  1869),  231. 

'-  Tlie  Gospel  Hymnal:  or  Hymns  and  Tunes  for  Oiristian  Worship  (Dayton,  OH: 
Cl-iristian  Publishing  Association,  1880),  600,  601.  Titled  both  "Angel  Band"  and 
"The  Land  of  Beulah,"  the  lyrics  were  written  by  Rev.  Jefferson  Hascall  in  1860  and 
the  tune  by  William  Batchelder  Bradbury  in  1862. 
See  http://library.timelesstruths.org/music. 

^3  Keck,  Angels  and  Angelology,  37-38,  44, 163, 168-69. 

^'*  Although  Hays'  death  date  was  1881,  the  sculpture's  degree  of  wear  and 
uncomfortable  relationship  to  its  granite  base  suggest  an  earlier  date,  as  does  its  pure 
neoclassical  style.  It  was  not  uncommon  to  re-use  cemetery  monuments,  moving 
them  to  new  locations  and  placing  them  on  new  bases.  The  originality  of  the  angel's 
form  and  the  delicacy  of  the  carving  also  suggest  an  earlier  date.  There  is  a  nearly 
identical  angel,  though  it  faces  left  rather  than  right,  on  the  Baker  monument  in 
Green- Wood  Cemetery,  Brooklyn,  standing  on  a  marble  base  inscribed  with  death 
dates  as  early  as  1854. 

''Thomas,  Cave  Hill,  120.  See  also  June  Hadden  Hobbs,  "Say  It  with  Flowers  in  the 
Victorian  Cemetery,"  Markers  XIX:  Annual  Journal  of  the  Association  for  Gravestone 
Studies  (2002),  240-71.  Crawford,  "Imitation,"  10-11,  calls  variations  on  this  form  "The 
Maiden  Strewing  Petals"  and  "The  Lily  Lady"  since  it  appears  both  with  and  without 
wings,  and  notes  that  "a  majority  of  such  marble  markers 

.  .  .  were  ordered  from  Italian  sculpture  factories.  Although  they  specialized  in  mass- 
produced  patterns,  it  is  made  clear  they  were  purchased  at  no  small  expense." 

'*' Harriet  Martineau,  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel  (London:  Saunders  &  Otterly,  1838), 
233.  See  also  David  Appleton  White,  An  Address,  Delivered  at  the  Consecration  of  the 
Harmony  Grove  Cemetery  in  Salem,  June  14,  1840  (Salem:  Gayette,  1840),  7-8. 

'^Charles  Fraser,  Magnolia  Cemetery:  the  Proceedings  of  the  Dedication  of  tlie  Grounds 
(Charleston,  SC:  S.  C.  Walker  and  Sons,  1851),  4, 14.  See  also  Hobbs,  "Say  It  with 
Flowers,"  242. 

''^  Jacob  Bigelow,  "Internment  of  the  Dead,"  in  Cornelia  W.  Walter,  Mount  Auburn 


110  Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  in  America's  Rural  Cemeteries.  1850-1900 


Illustrated  (1846),  29,  quoted  in  Gary  Laderman,  The  Sacred  Remains:  American  Attitudes 
Toward  Death,  1799-1883  (New  Haven:  Yale  University,  1996),  71-72. 

^'''According  to  David  Keck,  "aiigels  played  a  significant  role  in  burial  customs  and 
respect  for  graves  even  in  the  first  Christian  centuries,"  and  continued  this  role  on 
medieval  tombstones.  Keck,  Angels  ami  Angelology,  204. 

^°  White,  Harmony  Grove,  6-7. 

^^  Daniel  C.  Eddy,  Angel  WInspers;  or  The  Echo  of  Spirit  Voices  (Boston,  1859),  35. 

^'William  B.  Moore  and  Stephen  C.  Davies,  "'Rosa  Is  an  Angel  Now':  Epitaphs 
from  Crawford  County,  Pennsylvania,"  Western  Pewisylvania  Historical  Magazi)ie  58.1 
(January,  1975):  21. 

^■^  Jean  Danielou,  The  Angels  and  Their  Mission,  trans.  David  Heiman  (Westminster, 
MD:  Newman,  1957),  106;  Laderman,  Sacred  Remains,  82. 

'^"'Thomas  Thayer,  Over  the  River;  or,  Pleasant  Walks  into  the  Valley  of  Shadows,  and 
Beyoiui  (Boston:  Northeast  Universalist,  1862),  227. 

^^See  http://www.pivot.net/~eureka/casco.cookpinkham.html  for  epitaphs  in 
Cook-Pinkham  Cemetery  in  Casco,  Maine.  The  lines  appear  on  the  Ephraim  Cook 
marker,  dated  1853. 

^•^  Henry  Kirke  Brown's  William  Satterlee  Packer  monument  in  Green- Wood 
Cemetery,  Brooklyn,  also  c.1850,  has  a  bronze  pointing  figure  with  an  identical 
marble  base  but  it  wears  a  looser  gown  and  has  no  wings.  See  Richman,  Green-Wood 
Cemetery,  34. 

^^7  Sloan,  Last  Great  Necessity,  65,  79,  86,  87. 

^^ Thayer,  Over  the  River,  234.  See  DeLorme,  Mourning  Jeioelry,  93,  for  a  cameo  of  a 
recording  angel. 

**'^  Berefelt,  Winged  Angel,  96. 

^"See  Berresford,  Italian  Memorial  Sculpture,  60,  for  Buti's  original  in  the  Cimitero 
Monumentale,  Milan.  The  Porter  angel  is  a  bronze  cast  of  an  earlier  marble  angel 
whose  wings  fell  off  due  to  Pittsburgh's  destructive  industrial  air.  A  smaller  version 
in  marble  is  at  Crown  Hill  Cemetery,  Indianapolis,  although  its  hands  were  recently 
restored  incorrectly. 

^^  In  rural  and  garden  cemeteries,  full-bodied  trumpet  angels  typically  hold  the 
trumpets  but  do  not  blow  them,  perhaps  due  to  the  difficulty  of  carving  this  pose  in 
the  round. 

^^Ludwig,  Graven  Images,  109-14. 

^■^Harbaugh,  Heaven,  256. 

'^'^  Deborah  Trask,  Life  How  Short,  Eternity  Hozo  Long:  Gravestone  Carving  and  Carvers  i)i 
Nova  Scotia  (Halifax:  Nova  Scotia  Museum,  1978),  28. 

^^Soergel,  "Luther  on  the  Angels,"  74-76. 

^^  Peers,  Subtle  Bodies,  8;  Keck,  Angels  and  Angelology,  38,  63-64, 170, 179-80,  205; 
Marshall  and  Walsham,  "Migrations,"  11. 

^^ Lyrics  by  William  Shakespeare  Hays,  http://www.pdmusic.org/hays/wsh75. 

^^On  Gabriel  in  the  Middle  Ages,  see  Keck,  Angels  ami  Angelology,  5-6,  40-41,  68, 170- 
71,  and  Marshall  and  Walsham,  11. 


Elisabeth  L.  Roark  111 


'"'On  children  turning  into  angels  at  death,  see  Kimberley  Reynolds,  "Fatal  Fantasies: 
the  Death  of  Children  in  Victorian  and  Edwardian  Fantasy  Writing,"  in  Gillian 
Avery  and  Kimberlev  Reynolds,  eds..  Representations  of  Childhood  Death  (New  York: 
St.  Martin's,  2000),  173-75;  Pat  Jalland,  Deatli  in  the  Victorian  Family  (Oxford:  Oxford 
University,  1996),  123;  Lerner,  Angels  and  Absences,  42,  63,  97, 100-02, 140-41,  208;  and 
Thomas,  Cave  Hill,  87.  A  few  sources  suggest  young  women  also  turned  into  angels 
at  death.  The  idea  that  humans  became  angels  was  of  course  heretical  to  Catholics, 
who  argued  that  all  angels  were  created  by  God  before  humans,  but  the  idea  was 
fundamental  to  Swedenborg's  conception  of  angels. 

100 Moore  and  Davies,  "'Rosa  Is  an  Angel  Now,'"  1,  21. 

■"^^  Sloane,  Last  Great  Necessity,  72. 

^°- Jackson,  Angels'  Visits. 

^"'^  Theodore  Cuyler,  Tlie  Empty  Crib:  A  Memorial  of  Little  Georgie  (New  York:  R. 
Carter,  1873),  10, 12. 

^'^'■^  Harbaugh,  Heaven,  231-33,  stated  it  was  "for  convenience's  sake."  See  also  J.  T. 
Rhodes  and  Clifford  Davidson,  "The  Gardens  of  Paradise,"  in  Clifford  Davidson,  ed.. 
The  Iconography  of  Heaven  (Kalamazoo:  Western  Michigan,  1994),  xxiii;  Keck,  Angels 
and  Angelology,  29-30;  and  Peers,  Subtle  Bodies,  114. 

^^^-'' Arnold  Whittick,  Symbols  for  Designers:  A  Handbook  on  the  Application  of  Symbols 
and  Symbolism  to  Design  (London:  Lackwood,  1935),  150-51.  Reis,  "Immortal 
Messengers,"  173, 175,  writing  about  colonial  and  early  nineteenth-century  angel 
sightings,  notes  that  most  manifested  as  male  despite  period  illustrations  which 
"often  presented  a  female  angel,  or  at  least  an  ambiguous  one,"  although  after  1850 
she  insists  that  images  depict  angels  who  are  "primarily  female."  Yet  like  cemetery 
angels  and  depictions  of  angels  from  earlier  historical  periods,  examination  reveals 
that  most  lack  breasts.  See  also  J.  T.  Rhodes  and  Clifford  Davidson,  "Introduction," 
in  Davidson,  ed..  Iconography  of  Heaven,  xxiii,  on  the  gender  of  angels.  On  the 
feminization  of  mourning,  see  Douglas,  Feminization  of  American  Culture,  200-26,  and 
Harvey  Green,  Light  of  the  Home:  An  Intimate  View  of  the  Lives  of  Women  in  Victorian 
America  (New  York:  Pantheon,  1984),  165-79.  Jeamiie  Banks  Thomas,  "Cemetery 
Statues:  Vengeful  Virgins,  Naked  Mourners  and  Dead  White  Guys,"  in  Naked  Barbies, 
Warrior  Joes,  and  Other  Forms  of  Visual  Gender  (Urbana:  University  of  Illinois,  2003), 
15-55,  while  inaccurate  in  some  details  and  limited  in  monuments  discussed,  offers  an 
interesting  feminist  interpretation  of  gender  in  cemetery  sculpture. 

10&  Payne,  "Angels  in  American  Sculpture,"  161. 

^°^ Greta  Elena  Couper,  "William  Couper:  The  Man  Who  Captured  Angels,"  http:// 
wingedsun.com/books/articles/captured.pdf.  Couper's  granddaughter  also  notes 
that  he  "had  a  fascination  with  angels  inspired  by  the  cemetery  monuments  he  had 
watched  being  constructed  in  his  father's  marble  works  later  strengthened  by  the 
angels  in  Italian  churches."  Payne,  "Angels  in  American  Sculpture,"  161,  discusses 
Couper's  angel  sculpture.  Female  angels  appear  to  be  the  norni  in  Italy  during 
the  early  twentieth  century  as  well.  See  Franco  Sborgi,  "Companions  on  the  Final 
Journey:  Reflections  on  the  Image  of  the  Angel  in  Funerary  Sculpture  during  the 
Nineteenth  and  Twentieth  Centuries,"  in  Berresford,  Italian  Memorial  Sculpture,  200- 
13. 

^°^  I  explore  the  idea  of  rural  cemeteries  functioning  as  a  metaphor  for  heaven  in 
Elisabeth  L.  Roark,  "The  Rural  Cemetery  as  a  Metaphor  for  Heaven,"  2006,  typescript. 

^"^  Chase,  Angelic  Spirituality,  16. 


112 


Borden  Thornton  (1762-1838),  Rliode  Island  Stonecarver 


u:'-   :  If-...  ,  ^  ^' 


-^f 


.^"' 


« 

I 


|i 


#' 


^.  ^ 


Fig.  1.  Gravestone  for  John  Colegrove,  1817,  Sterling,  Connecticut, 
signed,  "B.  Thornton  Sculpter  [sic]." 


113 


Borden  Thornton  (1762-1838), 
Rhode  Island  Stonecarver 

Vincent  F.  Luti 


Introduction 

Some  time  in  the  1980s  Laurel  Gabel,  clearinghouse  research  coordinator 
for  the  Association  for  Gravestone  Studies  and  fellow  researcher,  sent  me 
some  jottings  on  a  pink  slip  of  paper,  the  substance  of  which  was  that  an  1817 
gravestone  for  John  Colegrove  in  the  Oneco  Cemetery  in  Sterling,  Connecticut, 
was  signed  "B.  Thornton  Sculpter  [sic]"  [Figs.  1, 2, 3],  and  also  that  her  research 
had  uncovered  only  two  Thorntons  in  public  records  whose  first  nanie  began 
with  "B."  Both  of  these  Thorntons  lived  in  Rhode  Island  (one  in  Cranston  and 
the  other  in  neighboring  Johnston)  and  both  bore  the  given  name  of  "Borden." 
Since  the  Colegrove  stone  was  dated  1817,  and  Cranston's  Borden  Thornton 
died  in  1810,  that  left  only  Johnston's  Borden  Thornton,  who  died  in  1838,  as 
the  probable  carver.'  This  discovery  turned  out  to  be  the  key  to  two  of  the 
puzzles  I  had  encountered  in  thirty-plus  years  of  documenting  eighteenth- 
century  stonecarvers  in  Rhode  Island  and  the  larger  Narragansett  Basin  area. 
One  of  the  gravestone  puzzles  involved  stones  with  a  unique  effigy  design 
that  matched  no  eighteenth-century  carver  I  had  seen.  The  other  involved  an 
unusual  urn  or  urn-and-willow  design  in  the  Johnston  area. 

The  unusual  winged-head  effigy  gravestones,  the  first  puzzle,  looked 
like  crude  imitations  of  the  gravestones  of  Gabriel  Allen,  the  most  prominent 
Providence  stonecarver  of  his  time.'  The  borders  were  pretty  good  imitations 
of  Allen's,  and  the  lettering  bore  Allen-like  serifs.  Eventually  I  labeled  the 
creator  of  these  gravestones  the  "Nostril  Nose  Carver"  because  the  effigies 
had  noses  with  circles  for  nostrils.  My  list  of  turn-of-the-century  stone- 
cutters in  the  Providence  area  included  possible  carvers  who  might  have  been 
the  "Nostril  Nose"  carver,  but  when  nothing  definitive  emerged,  I  abandoned 
the  search. 

The  second  puzzle  involved  a  larger,  somewhat  later  group  of  grave- 
stones with  unusual  urn  designs.  In  the  summer  of  2002,  when  I  finally  visited 
the  signed  Colegrove  gravestone  in  Sterling,  Connecticut,  that  Laurel  Gabel 
had  pointed  out  to  me  two  decades  earlier,  I  found  the  clue  I  needed.  After 
documenting  stones  in  the  Providence  area  with  the  Colegrove  urn  and  let- 
tering, and  plotting  characteristic  design  and  lettering  elements,  I  construct- 
ed a  chart  of  some  dozen  specific  design  and  lettering  elements  from  some 
seventy-plus  stones.  The  result  was  that  the  two  puzzles  I  had  been  mull- 
ing over  suddenly  turned  into  a  single  puzzle,  with  an  answer  at  last.  The 
two  types  of  gravestones  at  first  appeared  to  be  by  different  carvers  —  crude 
Gabriel  Allen-type  winged-head  effigy  gravestones  and  unique  urn-decorat- 


114 


Borden  Thornton  (1762-1838),  Rhode  Island  Stonecarver 


W  "  "»^W    "^^A'^^^ '  ^h 


"b  - 

L 


''''■^'*>,^ 


1^ 


Fig.  2.  John  Colegrove,  1817,  tympanum  bearing  Thornton's  typical  urn 
with  swirling  "soft-ice-cream"  stopper  and  a  rare  willow. 


Fig.  3.  Base  of  John  Colegrove,  1817,  rubbing,  showing  elaborate 
calligraphic  device  and  Bordon  Thornton's  signature  below. 


Vincent  F.  Liiti  115 

ed  gravestones  —  proved  to  be  the  work  of  one  and  the  same  carver:  Borden 
Thornton  of  Johnston,  Rhode  Island.  The  lettering  on  the  two  types  showed 
him  moving  out  of  the  old  effigy  period  of  the  eighteenth  century  into  the 
urn-and-willow  style  of  the  late-eighteenth  and  early-nineteenth  centuries. 
This  long-sought  solution  to  two  mysteries  was  further  confirmed  by  docu- 
mented payments  to  Thornton  or  the  words  "stone  cutter"  attached  to  his  name. 
A  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  account  book  showed  that  in  December  of 

1796,  Thornton  received  payment  for  gravestones  (presumably  a  pair  of  head 
and  foot  stones).'  In  the  same  library,  a  receipt  of  1809  for  money  paid  for 
gravestones  carries  Borden  Thornton's  signature.^  Both  of  the  headstones  are 
in  part  still  extant.  Stephen  Merolla  of  the  Johnston  Historical  Society  also 
uncovered  an  1829  court  case  identifying  Thornton  as  a  "yeoman  alias  stone 
cutter."' 

Borden  Thornton:  His  Life  (Vincent  F,  Luti  and  Stephen  Merolla) 

Borden  Thornton  was  born  in  Jol^nston,  Rhode  Island,  to  Richard  Thornton 
and  Meribah  Borden  on  the  14"'  of  March,  1762,  in  a  large  western  portion  of 
Providence  that  had  become  the  town  of  Johnston  in  1759.^  (In  the  pages  that 
follow,  the  name  of  Johnston  will  be  used,  even  though  the  town  of  Johnston 
was  re-incorporated  into  Providence  in  1898).  The  entire  Providence/ Johnston 
line  of  Thorntons  began  with  the  immigrant  John  (?-  ca.l695),  a  reputed  friend 
of  Roger  Williams.  John  Thornton  came  to  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  by  1639 
and,  after  forty  years  residence  there,  he  moved  to  Providence,  four  niiles  west 
of  Providence  village.^  His  son  Solomon  (b.  ca.  1660)  may  have  been  the  father 
of  mason  and  blacksmith  Joseph  Thornton  (b.  ca.  1700),  the  grandfather  of 
Borden  Thornton.  Joseph  Thornton  Jr.  (b.  ca.  1734),  Borden's  uncle,  was  also 
a  mason  like  his  father  Joseph  Sr.;  Borden's  brother  Pardon  (b.  1765)  became 
a  niason  also.  There  is  no  direct  evidence  that  Borden  was  a  niason,  but  the 
family  masonry  tradition  might  easily  have  led  the  young  Borden  to  become  a 
mason  and  carver  of  gravestones.^ 

As  a  young  man,  Borden  Thornton  served  in  the  Revolutionary  War  as 
a  "trumpeter,"  receiving  a  Rhode  Island  pension  in  1835.''  James  Arnold's 
Pension  Rolls  of  1835  list  Borden  as  a  private  in  the  cavalry  of  the  Rhode  Island 
militia  in  Providence  County.  At  a  town  meeting  in  April,  1786,  Thornton  was 
voted  "returned  free"  of  the  Town  of  Johriston."-  This  meant  that  he  had  met 
the  qualifications  to  be  accepted  as  a  freeman  of  the  town  and  was  able  to  vote 
and  hold  office.  At  that  meeting,  he  participated  in  electing  general  officers  to 
represent  the  town  in  the  state  General  Assembly.  At  a  Town  Meeting  on  the 
June  1, 1789,  he  was  chosen  to  serve  as  a  constable,  and  in  the  same  year,  he 
married  Phebe  Carpenter  Chaffee,  with  whom  he  was  to  have  three  sons."  In 

1797,  three  years  after  Phoebe  had  died,  Thornton  remarried.'-  The  next  year, 
Thornton's  parents,  Richard  and  Meribah,  with  "love  and  natural  affection," 
gave  to  their  "well  beloved  and  dutiful  Son"  a  lot  of  land  in  Johnston  on  which 
"the  West  half  of  the  new  House  lately  erected  and  built  a  little  westerly  from 


116 


Borden  Thornton  (1762-1838),  Rhode  Island  Stonecarver 


the  new  Baptist  Meeting  House  and  a  small  distance  northerly  from  the  great 
Plainfield  Road  together  with  all  the  said  Westerly  half  part  of  said  Dwelling 
House  thereon  standing"  [Fig.  4].'''  The  easternmost  half  of  the  house  went 
to  Borden's  brother  Pardon. '"*  The  house  still  stands,  but  now  it  is  officially 
located  in  Providence,  less  than  a  mile  from  the  new  Joliiiston  line. 

Borden  Thornton  appears  in  the  1800  and  1810  Rhode  Island  censuses  for 
Johnston;  household  numbers  and  ages  confirm  genealogical  information.'^ 
His  property,  originally  the  Richard  Thornton  family  homestead,  consisted  of 
some  200  acres  that  today  is  part  of  the  Olneyville  section  of  Providence.  The 
200  acres  were  part  of  a  flat  plain  east  of  Neutaconkonutt  Hill  and  probably 
were  used  for  farming,  crops  and/ or  animal  husbandry,  and  an  orchard  of  at 
least  apple  trees.  In  addition  to  the  house  that  Borden  and  Pardon  inherited 
by  deed  in  1798,  the  1829  court  case  reveals  that  property  included  a  barn, 
crib,  chaise  house,  and  cider  mill.  No  "shop"  is  mentioned,  but  since  carving  a 
gravestone  does  not  require  extensive  space,  he  could  have  worked  somewhere 
in  his  house,  the  barn,  or  even  in  a  shop  no  longer  extant  by  1829.  Because  his 
gravestone  output  amounted  to  only  a  few  stones  a  year,  he  must  have  earned 
his  living  from  a  variety  of  endeavors,  including  working  the  family  farm. 
We  know  that  in  1792  he  held  the  position  of  "overseer  of  the  poor,"  and  that 
in  1800  the  Johnston  Town  Council  gave  Thornton  a  license  to  sell  liquor  at 
his  house  —  home-distilling  being  a  comn^ion  sideline  for  farniers  of  the  era.'^ 
Possibly  Thornton  also  worked  as  a  mason's  assistant  to  his  brother  Pardon  or 


Fig.  4.  Borden  Thornton's  house,  569  Plainfield  St., 
Providence,  Rhode  Island. 


Vincent  F.  Luti  117 

his  uncle  Joseph  Jr. 

Deeds  of  1832  show  Thornton  selling  various  parcels  of  land.  In  August 
of  1834,  a  complex  series  of  mortgages,  sales,  and  auctions  began  that  saw 
the  final  dispersal  of  the  Thornton  homestead  and  property.  By  June  of  1839, 
all  of  it  had  wound  up  in  the  hands  of  the  related  Alverson  family.'^  A  figure 
involved  in  these  transactions,  Jonah  Titus,  twice  petitioned  the  Johnston 
Court  of  Probate  to  be  Borden  Thornton's  administrator  if  the  widow  were 
not  interested.'^  It  seems  that  as  mortgage  holder  on  the  property,  Titus 
had  never  been  paid  some  $1,600,  which  he  finally  recouped  by  public 
auction  of  the  property  in  May  1839,  more  than  a  year  after  Thornton  had 
died.'''  Little  else  is  known  of  Borden  Thornton  other  than  the  testimony  of  his 
surviving  gravestones. 

Borden  Thornton:  His  Work  (Vincent  F.  Luti) 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Borden  Thornton  adopted  designs  and  lettering 
from  Gabriel  Allen,  the  son  of  the  remarkably  gifted  Rehoboth,  Massachusetts, 
carver  named  George  Allen  (ca.  1696-1794).  His  son  Gabriel  (1749-1824)  was 
the  most  professionally  skilled  gravestone  carver  in  Providence  from  1770 
to  the  early  1800s. -"^  Gabriel  Allen  developed  a  skillfully  rendered,  charming 
effigy  style  that,  along  with  that  of  his  father,  found  great  favor  and  iiifluenced 
most  all  carvers  in  the  Narragansett  Basin.  Allen  held  a  near  monopoly  on 
gravestones  in  the  Providence  area  from  roughly  1770  to  1790,  a  time  when  the 
city  boomed.  While  there  is  no  evidence  that  Thornton  learned  under  Allen's 
tutelage  as  an  apprentice  or  assistant,  the  same  can  be  said  of  Levi  Maxey, 
whose  works  are  near  perfect  copies  of  Allen's,  and  Asa  Fox,  who  blended 
Allen's  style  with  elements  of  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  carvers.-'  By  1790, 
Allen's  new  position  as  assistant  postmaster  of  Providence  resulted  in  a  sharp 
decline  in  his  gravestone  output.  By  then,  two  other  Providence  carvers  —  Seth 
Luther  and  Stephen  Hartshorn  —  had  ceased  carving  as  well.--  Capitalizing  on 
the  relative  lack  of  competition  that  Providence  offered,  Asa  Fox  of  Comiecticut 
began  an  extensive  stonecarving  business  in  1794  with  three  nephews  and  a 
friend.-^  Borden  Thornton  had  begun  to  carve  gravestones  as  well. 

Borden  Thornton's  ninety-plus  surviving  gravestones  (ca.  1790  to  1819) 
are  concentrated  in  Johnston  and  Providence,  with  a  few  scattered  elsewhere. 
All  his  stones  are  a  dark  bluish-black  to  medium-gray  slate-like  material.-^  The 
progress  of  Thornton's  work  can  be  followed  in  a  design-lettering  analysis 
of  all  his  known  stones.  First  in  the  chronological  order  are  the  scattered 
backdated  stones,  some  ten  or  eleven  from  1755  to  1790.  In  1792,  Thornton 
appears  to  have  begun  producing  gravestones  on  a  regular  but  limited  annual 
basis  —  averaging  roughly  three  per  year  through  1819. 

Thornton's  Winged-Soul  Effigies 

In  keeping  with  the  widespread  eighteenth-century  practice  of  winged 
face  effigies  in  New  England,  Thornton  developed  his  own  idiomatic  form 


118 


Borden  Thornton  ( 1762-1838),  Rhode  Island  Stonecarver 


from  what  he  saw  around  him.  Twenty-three  of  Thornton's  effigy  gravestones 
have  been  identified,  the  last  bearing  an  1802  date.  His  wings  are  never  of  the 
arching  type  — so  common  among  earlier  carvers  — but  are  always  upswept  as 
in  flight  [Figs.  5-6],  following  Gabriel  Allen's  design  [Figs.  7-8].-'  Individual 
feathers  are  not  segmented,  for  that,  too,  was  old-fashioned.  When  they 
are  unadorned,  feathers  have  a  zigzag  line  running  out  of  the  length  of  the 
blacie  — a  feature  also  taken  from  Allen's  work.  Instead  of  Gabriel  Allen's 
soft,  rounded  cherubic  effigy  face,  however,  Thornton's  is  severe  and  hard. 
His  heads  are  distinctively  egg-shaped  with  narrow  pointed  chins  and  wide 
cheekbones.  They  typically  wear  rake-lined  wigs  with  two  or  more  opposing 
curls  [Figs.  5-6],  again  direct  echoes  of  Gabriel  Allen's  work  [Figs.  7-8].-^'  Large 
bold,  staring  eyes  feature  a  raised  button  pupil.  Thornton's  longish,  flattened, 
crudely-rendered  bulbous  nose  has  a  unique  feature:  the  nostrils,  when  not 
worn  away,  are  simple  incised  near  or  full  circles.  The  mouth  is  small,  severe. 


Fig.  5.  Borden  Thornton's 
gravestone  for  Joseph  Borden, 
1796,  Johnston,  Rhode  Island. 


Fig.  6.  Tympanum  of  Job  Danf  orth 
gravestone  by  Borden  Thornton, 
1801,  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 


^/^'  J   ' 


> 

/ 

r 

■\    "  J 

■'M. 


Fig.  7.  Gabriel  Allen's  tympanum  for 

Parssis  Bacon's  gravestone, 

1795,  Cranston,  Rhode  Island. 


Fig.  8.  Gabriel  Allen's  tympanum 

for  Elizabeth  Godfrey's  gravestone, 

1793,  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 


Vincent  F.  Luti 


119 


and  pinched. 

Besides  decorating  the  tympanum  of  his  gravestones  with  winged-head 
effigy  images,  Thornton  followed  the  eighteenth-century  convention  of 
decorating  the  border  panels.  When  Thornton  included  these  side  panels, 
they  are  rather  good  imitations  of  Allen's  foliate  cyma  curve  that  encloses 
acanthus  bud  swirls  (triskelion-like)  with  axil  "carrots"  [Fig.  9].  As  opposed  to 
his  effigies,  Thornton's  border  work  is  in  very  low,  flat  relief.  Occasionally,  he 
added  an  Allen  rope-like  design  around  the  edge  of  the  tympanum  arch.  The 
typical  finial  rosettes  of  his  later  urn-decorated  gravestones  occur  only  once 
on  a  late  effigy  stone  (Nehemiah  Dodge,  1800,  Providence). 

Thornton's  lettering  is  the  key  for  identifying  —  and  connecting  — both  his 
effigy-  and  his  later  urn-ciecorated  gravestones  [Fig.  10].  Serifs  slant  in  the 
slightly  arched,  elegant  manner  of  Gabriel  Allen.  The  1795  Abigail  Hawkins 
effigy  stone  in  Providence  by  Thornton  is  definitely  lettered  by  Gabriel  Allen, 
and  the  cyma-foliate  border  with  stippled  background  is  almost  certainly  by 
Allen  as  well  [Fig.  11].  This  gravestone  is  the  only  direct  link  between  the  two 
carvers.  In  his  Type  I  urn  group,  lettering  shows  minor  changes  over  time, 
with  the  tail  of  the  "g"  changing  to  a  fatter  form,  and  crossbars  on  the  letters 
"t"  and  "f"  changing  significantly  (see  Appendix  I). 


fv 


Fig.  9.  Borden  Thornton  (left)  and  Gabriel  Allen  (right)  border  panels. 


120  Borden  Thornton  ( 1 762-1 838),  Rhode  Island  Stonecai-ver 


f  ^\  fi-)  A  )  .f  r-  o ,' 


,^  •'     if 


WlCdfU  .)'■','  P  1<'M1 


i-  -f 


^  ^-1 


Fig.  10.  Borden  Thornton  lettering  on  his  gravestone  for  Kemimah  Field, 
1800,  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 


Thornton's  Um  or  Uni-and-Willozv  Gravestones 

By  1792,  winged-soul  effigies  were  becoming  outmoded.  Again  following 
others,  especially  the  example  of  Gabriel  Allen,  Thornton  soon  abandoned 
effigies  in  favor  of  two  versions  of  neoclassical  urn-and-willow  designs,  both 
echoing  Gabriel  Allen's  elegant  and  beautifully  executed  urns.  Thornton's 
fifty  documented  urn  or  urn-and-willow  gravestones  —  including  eight 
backdated  examples  —  reveal  no  clear  stylistic  progression.  Very  few  include 
a  willow  and  none  has  borders.  Although  not  the  earliest  dated  Thornton 
urn,  the  Mary  Olney  gravestone  (1798)  in  Providence  could  be  one  of  his  first 
tries  at  imitating  Allen.  The  urn  is  askew,  the  handles  oddly  attached,  and 
a  crude  Allen-like  drape  boxes  it  in.  With  the  undoubtedly  backdated  Anne 
Andrews  stone  (1791)  in  Cranston,  bearing  an  urn  accompanied  by  a  rare, 
scratchy  willow  tree,  Thornton  had  just  about  arrived  at  his  standard  Type  I 
urn:  a  squat  tureen-style  bowl  decorated  with  five  large  loops  and,  sometimes, 
a  beaded  rim  [Fig.  12].-^  (The  Providence  gravestones  for  Amy  Hurd,  EUphal 
Smith  [1806],  and  Susannah  Thornton  are  seven-loop  variants).  The  Type  I 
urn  has  large  curved  handles,  stands  on  a  stepped  pedestal,  and  always  lacks 
swags  or  drapes.  Thornton's  second  urn  design  is  a  deep  bowl  with  a  straight 


Vincent  F.  Luti 


121 


r  /^^t. 


>  s.V- 


iSacfecl 


Uc  i)ioiiK)i;y  of 

!^'--^'''     (I/WVKINS,   ^^4 
■■  llAWKCNSVarul  ^C<i 

.,l)iUlo1l('(M-    oi"     iVlf.  ^     (\(^| 

KVcUvhci  (k'pnii'cd   I'ltis  ^•-^''^'^il 


S\\'(^''t  ly  i 


Fig.  11.  Thornton  effigy  gravestone  for  28-year-old  Abigail  Hawkins, 
d.  1795,  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 


122 


Borden  Thornton  (1762-1838),  Rhode  Island  Stonecarver 


Iy*'  1 


f 


Fig.  12.  Thornton  gravestone  for  Mrs.  Lucy  Thornton  (d.  1804) 
with  typical  Thornton  urn  form  and  finial  rosettes. 


Vincent  F.  Luti  123 

rather  than  curved  rim.  The  body  of  this  Type  II  form  is  decorated  with  seven 
loops  and  frequently  has  a  swag  band  across  the  rim,  which  is  often  beaded. 
The  stepped-pedestal  base  is  thicker  and  shorter  than  on  Thornton's  Type  I 
urn  gravestones.  Instead  of  sturdy  looped  handles,  the  Type  II  urn  has 
dangling  willow-  or  bellflower-like  forms  hanging  from  thin,  arched  side 
brackets  [Fig.  13]. 

The  most  unusual  feature  of  both  Thornton's  Type  I  and  II  urn  designs  is 
the  fanciful  stopper  (or  handle?)  on  the  lid.  Following  the  practice  of  a  number 
of  other  regional  carvers,  stoppers  are  drawn  as  a  tapered  stack  of  oblong 
or  oval  shapes,  one  of  which  is  usually  crosshatched  or  quilted.  Thornton's 
stopper,  however,  is  very  tall  and  ends  like  a  soft-serve  ice  cream  swirl 
capped  with  a  sprightly  coil  flourish  [Figs.  1,  12-13].  A  variant  stopper  on 
Type  II  urns  is  a  simple  cross-hatched  ball  topped  with  a  fat,  oval,  spirally 
incised  knob. 

Instead  of  side  borders,  Thornton  usually  added  a  nicely  done  rosette  in 
the  half-round  shoulders  (finials)  to  both  his  Type  I  and  II  urn  gravestones, 
although  on  rare  occasions  he  used  an  acanthus-leaf  design  popular  among 
Providence  carvers.  The  center  of  the  rosettes  is  sometimes  incised  with 
a  narrowed  "S"  shape  unique  to  Thornton's  work  [Fig.  1].  A  large,  italic 
scripted  "Of,"  bad  spelling,  and  a  number  of  secondary  indicators  make 
attribution  to  Thornton  relatively  certain.  Thornton's  footstone  design  uses 
what  looks  like  a  kind  of  hurricane  lamp  [Fig.  14],  as  shown  on  a  fragment 
of  the  1807  Farancis  Geannings  (sic)  footstone  in  Providence  (documented 
to  Thornton).-'^ 

Thornton's  latest  dated  gravestone  is  dated  1819,  except  (possibly)  for 
three  slate  gravestones.  One  is  for  his  father  William  Borden  (1824)  and  stands 
next  to  Borden's  son's  1800  stone.  The  father's  stone  has  an  unusual  urn  form 
that  only  faintly  echoes  Thornton's  earlier  design,  and  very  different  lettering. 
However,  below  the  epitaph  is  a  large  calligraphic  decoration  like  that  found 
on  Thornton's  signed  1817  Colegrove  gravestone  in  Sterling,  Coiinecticut.  The 
other  two  questionable  slate  gravestones  are  those  for  Anstis  Arnold  (1832) 
and  Elizabeth  Olney  (1834),  the  latter  being  the  latest  gravestone  that  might 
be  attributed  to  Thornton.  Because  many  early  marble  gravestones  in  the 
Providence  area  have  weathered  beyond  recognition,  it  is  impossible  to  tell 
whether,  in  his  later  years,  Thornton  carved  in  white  marble,  increasingly  the 
material  of  choice  for  nineteenth-century  carvers. 

Borden  Thornton  died  in  1838.  His  gravestones,  laden  with  spelling  errors 
and  omissions  beyond  anything  to  be  found  on  stones  of  any  known  carver  in 
the  Narragansett  Basin,  are  charming  for  their  crudeness.  Many  were  created 
for  his  local  family  network.  He  did  keep  up  with  fashion,  but  he  was  neither 
a  leader  nor  an  innovator.  His  work  apparently  influenced  no  one.  It  did  duty. 
That,  after  decades  of  New  England  gravestone  carver  research,  no  one  had 
ever  identified  his  work  is  testimony  to  his  anonymity  and  lesser  rank. 


124 


Borden  Thornton  (1762-1838),  Rhode  Island  Stonecarver 


y 


'i-^^v 


Fig.  13.  Thornton's  tympanurri  m n  carving,  with  a  nine-loop  decorated 

front,  for  Susannah  Thornton  gravestone,  1807,  Johnston,  Rhode  Island. 

Note  the  fragile  handles  with  pendant  flowers. 


Fig.  14.  Thornton  footstone  for  Farancis  [sic]  Gleanninigs,  1807, 
Providence,  Rhode  Island, 


Vincent  F.  Liili  125 

NOTES 

All  photographs,  drawings,  and  rubbings  are  by  the  author. 

^  Further  genealogical  research  showed  no  other  Thornton  name  that  began  with  B  in 
that  period  in  that  part  of  Rliode  Island. 

-Vincent  F.  Luti,  "Eighteenth  Century  Gravestone  Carvers  of  the  Upper  Narragansett 
Basin:  Gabriel  Allen,"  Markers  XX  (2004):  76-109. 

^  The  gravestone  payment  is  in  the  account  for  the  estate  of  Joseph  Borden  in  the 
Jeremiah  Manton  Account  Book,  RIHSL,  unpaged. 

"*  The  receipt  is  at  the  RIHSL  ms.  rooni.  Providence. 

^  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  Providence  Co.,  volume  31:136-138,  May  Term,  1830,  Daniel 
L.  Smith  and  Mary  B.  Smith  vs  Marcy  Winsor  et  al.  Judicial  Archives,  Supreme  Court 
Judicial  Records  Center,  Pawtucket,  R.I.  The  names  of  all  the  other  people  in  the  case 
were  Borden  Thornton's  siblings.  A  surveyor's  map  of  the  division  of  the  property  and 
locations  of  Richard  Thornton's  house  and  outbuildings  is  at  the  Jolinston  Town  Hall, 
Plat  map  #37. 

^  Pertinent  genealogical  information  is  found  in  John  Thornton,  Thornton  Family 
Record,  ms.  1975  [TFR  hereafter],  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  [RIHS  hereafter] 
pp  1-10;  Johi-i  O.  Austin,  Genealogical  Dictionary  of  Rliode  Island,  1887,  RIHS,  p  199, 
and  TFR,  1-10. 

^  Providence  deed  books.  Providence  City  Hall  Archives  [PCHA  hereafter]  1:40. 
John  Thornton  and  his  wife  Sarah  were  to  produce  six  male  and  two  female  lines  of 
descendants. 

^The  designation  "blacksmith,"  is  from  Providence  deed  books,  PCHA:  9:399;  10:241, 
254;  15:180, 181, 182;  Johnston  Town  Hall  deed  books,  1:34.  The  designation  "mason," 
is  from  Providence  deed  books,  PCHA:  9:400;  14:18.  The  Inventory  of  Joseph's  estate, 
PCHA,  Will  Book  1:34,  states:  "To  stone  Sledge  &  Stone  hammers  1  Iron  square  & 
trowel  &  chisels  14-0  pounds."  The  will  of  John  Borden,  1753,  Will  Book  PCHA,  5:173 
states:  "my  nephew  Joseph  Thornton  of  Providence,  mason."  MeroUa  thinks  this  refers 
to  young  Joseph  Thornton  Jr.,  but  Joseph  senior  was  alive  in  1753  as  well.  Providence 
deed  books,  PCHA,  36:204  and  40:183  name:  "Pardon  Thornton  of  Providence,  mason." 
For  more  on  Borden  Thornton's  genealogy  and  background,  see  Hattie  Borden  Welch, 
Borden  Genealogy,  1901,  microfilm,  RIHSL.  For  a  detailed  description  of  Richard 
Borden's  genealogy  and  land  holdings,  see  Stephen  MeroUa,  "The  Borden  Family 
Connection,"  printout. 

^  James  Arnold,  Vital  Record  of  Rhode  Island,  vol.  XU,  Pension  Rolls  of  1835  (Providence, 
1901)  364:  "Thornton,  Burden,  private  of  Cavalry,  Providence  co,  all[owance]  $87.50, 
rec[eived  so  far]  $262.50,  R.I.  Militia,  pl[aced  on  roll]  Jan  29, 1834,  [pension]  com[menced] 
Mar  4,  1831,  age  73."  The  original  file  papers,  A2248,  PCHA  are  missing.  The  source 
for  "trumpeter"  is  the  John  Sterling  Rhode  Island  Cemetery  database:  "DAR  trumpeter 
RI"  (no  citation  given).  The  R.I.  State  Archives,  Providence,  have  a  handwritten  file 


126  Borden  Thornton  (1762-1838),  Rhode  Island  Stonecarver 


concerning  Revolutionary  War  Veterans  that  shows  that  in  the  fall  of  1777  Borden 
(Burden)  Thornton,  joined  the  company  of  Light  Horse,  Captain  General's  Cavaliers 
com[manded].ByCol.BenjaminStark&Col.DanielManton  — served2months;1778served 
7  months;  1779  served  6  months;  1780  served  4  months;  1781  served  2  months;  served 
21  months  total  as  Trumpeter  b.  Johnston,  RT.  March  14, 1761  (Pension  Book  LXIX). 


10 


JolTnston  Town  Meeting  Records,  1784-1791,  PCHA,  unpaged. 


"  Ibid.;  Marriage  to  Phebe  Chaffee  (b.  1760),  March  22,  1789.  They  had  three  children: 
Charles  Andrew  (1789-?);  Thomas  Andrew  (ca.  1791-1793);  and  William  Borden  (1793- 
1794).  Phebe  died  July  12, 1794,  at  Cranston,  Rhode  Island  (TFR  and  gravestones). 

^-  Thornton  married  Hope  Greene  (1772-1843),  daughter  of  Jabez.  TFR,  p.  10,  gives 
wife  and  children:  Henry  (1798-1824),  Sally  (1799-1834),  William  Borden  (1803-1839), 
Richard  M.  (1807-1811),  Jonathan  Tillinghast  (1811-1890),  and  Richard  (1814-?). 

^3  Deeds,  JTH,  3:302. 

^^  Deeds,  JTH,  7:235.  On  Pardon's  death  in  1825,  his  part  of  the  house  passed  to  Borden's 
son  William. 

^^  Ronald  V.  Jackson,  Ed,  R.I.  1800  Census  (Salt  Lake  City  1972)  p  194  [p.  363  of  original 
census]  and  R.I.  1810  Census,  facsimile,  RICHS,  p.  287. 

^^  Petitions  to  the  General  Court,  microfilm  27:60,  R.I.  State  Archives,  Providence; 
Johnston  Town  Council  Records,  PAHA,  3:230.  Related  to  this  may  be  charges  to 
Borden  Thornton  in  Emory  Angel's  Day  Book  vol.  1  (RIHSL):  "14  Feb  1800  to  Brandy; 
9  Mar  1801  to  glass  bottles." 

^^  Land  transactions:  Providence  Supreme  Court  Record  Books  (R.I.  Judicial  Archives, 
Pawtucket)  12:211  and  Johnston  Town  Hall  deeds:  8:203-4;  9:126,  147,  246-7;  10:368, 
406;  11:31,  43,  49,  80, 198. 

^«  File  A  2250,  PCHA.  Apparently  the  Titus  petitions  of  6  April  1838  and  12  May  1838 
failed,  and  an  order  of  Notice  was  given  that  an  administrator  would  be  appointed 
"June  next,"  which  seems  never  to  have  happened,  nor  does  it  seem  there  was  ever  an 
inventory  or  account  of  the  estate. 

^^  According  to  records,  Thornton  died  February  15, 1838,  in  Johnston.  John  E.  Sterling, 
R.I.  cemetery  database,  PV  012,  and  vol.  J  (6:493)  of  the  Providence  Probate  Docket 
Book,  File  A  2250,  PCHA. 

^"See  Luti,  "Eighteenth-Century  Gravestone  Carvers... George  Allen,"  Markers  XXII: 
108-159,  and  "Eighteenth  Century  Gravestone  Carvers... Gabriel  Allen,"  XX:  76-109. 

^'  Laurel  Gabel  and  Theodore  Chase,  "Levi  Maxcy,"  Gravestone  Chronielcs  II  (Boston: 
New  England  Historic  Genealogical  Society,  1997),  434-495.  Asa  Fox's  parents  came 
from  near  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  and  he  may  have  first  been  sent  "back  home" 
to  apprentice  because  what  little  we  know  of  his  work  shows  distinct  Plymouth-isms 
mixed  with  Gabriel  Allen  elements. 


Vincent  F.  Liiti  127 


--  Vincent  F.  Luti,  "Seth  Luther,"  Rhode  Island  History,  39.1  (Feb.  1980):  3-13,  and 
"Stephen  Hartshorn,"  Markers  U  (1987):  149-169. 

-'Vincent  F.  Luti,  "Gabriel  Allen,"  Markers  XX  (2003):  76-109. 

■^''Thornton's  output  is  insufficient  and  the  time  span  too  brief  to  produce  evidence  of 
style  periods,  such  as  early,  middle  and  late,  other  than  a  gross  change  from  eighteenth 
century  effigies  to  nineteenth  century  urns,  a  benchmark  widely  found  in  New  England 
around  1800.  We  have  not  found  where  Thornton  got  his  stone  material.  A  deed 
transaction  [8:117]  dated  10  Nov.  1830  shows  that  Sylvanus  Tingley  held  four  acres 
which  he  sold  to  the  son  of  Borden  Thornton,  Richard,  with  a  proviso  that  Tingley  hold 
rights  to  dig  and  remove  soapstone  or  chalkstone.  This  is  probably  part  of  a  known 
soapstone  quarry  close  to  Thornton's  house  in  the  area  where  trap  rock  has  also  been 
mined.  The  Tingley  family  ran  a  prominent  gravestone  and  stone  masonry  business 
in  Providence  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Jolinston  had  been  set  off  from  Providence 
and  the  strong  kinship  ties  in  the  new  town  called  for  a  carver  of  their  own.  It  is  quite 
curious  that  there  are  few  stones  for  his  immediate  Thornton  family  kinships,  but 
that  family  cemetery  (PV  012)  is  filled  with  nearly  illegible,  white  sugary  marbles. 
MeroUa  theorizes  that  descendants  had  the  earlier  carved  family  slates  replaced  in  the 
nineteenth  century  with  more  fashionable  marbles. 

■^  The  upswept  wing  can  be  traced  back  to  a  singular  stone  by  George  Allen  for  John 
Comstock,  1749,  Providence,  North  Burial  Ground.  It  seems  to  appear  in  the  early  1790s 
as  a  regular  feature  of  Gabriel  Allen  gravestones,  and  is  then  taken  up  in  the  1790s  not 
only  by  Borden  Thornton,  but  the  Asa  Fox  Shop  of  Providence;  James  New,  migrant, 
south  central  Massachusetts;  Joseph  J.  Fenner,  Providence;  and  finally  by  the  Tingleys 
and  others.  One  camiot  overestimate  the  influence  of  Gabriel  Allen  on  many  carvers, 
especially  in  setting  the  urn  and  willow  style  at  the  turn  of  the  century. 

-"In  Luti,  "Eighteenth-Century  Gravestone  Carvers  . . .  Gabriel  Allen,"  Markers  XX:  92- 
93,  the  1796  Joseph  Borden  tympanum  (Fig.  22)  is  pictured  alongside  a  text  speculating 
on  the  identity  of  the  carver,  whom  we  now  know  to  be  Borden  Thornton. 

^'^The  thirteen  other  standard  five-loop  tureen  Type  I  urns  are  Ami  Moltmon  (1790), 
Providence;  Jonathan  Truman  (1802),  Providence;  Mary  Proctor  (1813),  Providence; 
Lydia  Alverson  (1804),  Johnston;  Mary  Burgiss  (1805),  Jolinston;  Mary  King  (1810), 
Johnston;  Borden  Thornton  (1810),  Warwick;  Hannah  Phillips  (1811),  Johnston;  Abner 
King  (1812),  Johnston;  Mary  W.  King  (1815),  Johnston;  John  Colegrove  (1817),  Sterling, 
CT  (signed);  and  Elizabeth  Carey  (1817),  Johnston. 

^^Upon  Francis's  wife's  later  death,  the  descendants  apparently  replaced  his  headstone 
with  one  like  hers,  fortunately  leaving  the  original  footstone. 


Borden  Thornton  (1762-1838),  Rhode  Island  Stonecarver 

APPENDIX  I:  IDENTIFYING  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  BORDEN 
THORNTON'S  LETTERING,  &C. 


Numbers 

1  roman  for  all  effigies 

1  italic,  increasingly  used  on  urns  1802  ff. 

7  roman,  but  a  few  italic  forms  on  urns 

3  fully  rounded  except  one  flattop  3 

5  almost  always  plain  and  bolt  upright 

th  superscript  to  numbers:  slash  crossbeam  across  both  letters  for  all  stones. 

(Exceptions:  seven  urn  stones  have  plain  roman  superscripts.)  A  good 
indicator,  but  not  exclusive  to  Thornton. 

Letters 

g:  squashed  tail  until  1797  when  it  overlaps  with  round-ish  tails  for  four  years, 

when  in  1801  the  latter  takes  over. 

t  and  f  crossbeams: 

have  drop  serifs  on  both  until  1799  (effigies)  when  t  (normal  cuneiform  serif), 
f  (no  serif)  take  over  in  effigies  and  urns.  This  combination  is  a  pronounced 
indicator. 

serifs:  delicate  and  arched  until  1802.  hi  stones  after  this  date,  the  serifs  progressively 
flatten  out.  Overall,  lettering  on  the  late  stones  is  interesting  for  its  fanciful  mix 
of  roman  and  italic  and  the  inconsistencies  of  riser  thickness  as  Thornton  tries 
to  keep  up  with  the  latest  lettering  fashions  being  set  in  Providence  by  the  new, 
younger  carvers.  Variations  in  lettering  sets  Thornton  off  from  all  the  other, 
more  professional  and  consistent  turn-of-the-century  Providence  area  carvers. 

a:  baggy,  teardrop  throughout  effigies,  then  much  less  so  into  urns 

Signs 

&:         ampersand  is  U  shaped  with  liigh  ending  stroke  throughout  effigies 

&:  upright  with  serif,  with  down  stroke  to  line.  Predominates,  but  mixes  with 
earlier  form  throughout  the  urn  period 

Words 

"In  memory":        'm'  always  lowercase 

Scripted  "Of":       thirteen  examples  in  both  effigies  and  urn  gravestone  texts. 

Miss-spellings,  phonetic  spellings,  missing  letters,  corrected-over  letters  (even  an  entire 
epitaph!!)  occur  frequently. 

Designs 

Circled  "S":  Finial  rosettes,  found  only  on  urn  stones,  have  a  backward  "S"  incised 

within  the  center  disc  of  the  flower,  which  is  unique  to  Borden  Thornton.   An 


Vincent  F.  Luti 


129 


absolute  indicator  (21  stones).  Otherwise  a  simple  dot  in  the  disc  and  only  very 
few  instances  of  cross  hatching  in  the  disc. 

Feather  blades:  Zigzag  along  feather  blades  of  effigy  stones  most  of  the  time, 
otherwise,  plain. 

Urn  finials:  Mostly  of  a  soft-serve  ice  cream  swirl  (a  very  strong  indicator)  often 

capped  with  a  coiled  wire;  otherwise  a  simple  swirled,  fat  oval  stopper. 

Base  borders:  Because  most  of  the  stones  have  sunk,  it  is  not  known  how  many 
have  a  "peacock  feather"  design  along  the  baseline  (seen  on  three  stones  not 
sunken),  rather  common  in  the  work  of  Providence  area  carvers. 

Acanthus  leaf:  There  are  a  handful  of  simple  "acanthus  leaf  tympanum  arches,  both 
head  and  footstones,  a  desigii  produced  in  various  styles  by  many  Providence 
area  carvers. 


APPENDIX  II:  BORDEN  THORNTON  DOCUMENTED  STONES 


Signed 


John  Colegrove,  1817,  Sterling,  Conn.,  Oneco  cemetery. 


Account  Book  Entry 

RI  Historical  Society  Library:  The  Jeremiah  Manton  account  book  records 
Joseph  Borden's  estate  (  died  March  1796),  and  the  account  book  entry  is  dated 
December  1796:  "To  what  Paid  Bor.n  Thornton  gre  Stones  4-0-0."  The  stone 
(with  serious  defoliation)  is  in  Jolinston,  R.I.  cemetery  #18. 

Receipt 

RIHSL:  for  Francis  Jennings  stone,  1807,  Providence,  R.I.  The  footstone,  only, 
is  in  Providence  cemetery  #07. 


TABULATED  BORDEN  THORNTON  STONES    italics  =  direct  kinship  stones 


Name 

died 

cemetery 

Name 

died 

cemetery 

Levi,  Anthony 

1799 

PVOl 

Angell,  Esther 

1805 

PVOl 

Abbott,  Esther 

1803 

PV03 

Angell,  Isaac 

1796 

JN49 

Allen,  Paul 

1800 

PVOl 

Antrim,  Mary 

1795 

PVOl 

Alverson,  Charles 

1782 

JN21 

Arnold,  Anstts 

1832 

JN  Rte.  5 

Alverson,  Lydia 

1804 

JN21 

Arnold,  Oliver 

1804 

JN54 

Andrews,  Anna 

1790 

CR34 

Arnold,  Phebe 

1807 

JN54 

Andrews,  Anne 

1791 

CR34 

Arnold,  Sally 

1807 

JN54 

Andrews,  Thomas 

1769 

CR34 

Arnold,  Thomas 

1799 

JN  Rte.  5 

130 


Borden  Thornton  (1762-1838),  Rhode  Island  Stonecarver 


Name 

died 

cemetery 

Name 

died 

cemetery 

Bacon,  Benjamin 

1774 

CR03 

Peck,  Alsey 

1805 

PVOl 

Bacon,  Elisha 

1801 

CR03 

Phillips,  Haiinah 

1811 

JN21 

Bacon,  Henry 

1797 

CR03 

Proctor,  Mary 

1813 

PVOl 

Bacon,  Pemelia 

? 

CR03 

Remington,  Henry  H 

1814 

JN27 

Borden,  John 

1755 

JN21 

Remington,  Roby 

1815 

JN27 

Borden,  Joseph 

1796 

JN18 

Sheldon,  Mercy 

1794 

PVOl 

Borden,  Richard 

1804 

PV47 

Smith,  Edward 

1819 

PVOl 

Borden,  Williain 

1800 

PV47 

Smith,  Eliphal 

1806 

PVOl 

Burgiss,  Mary 

1805 

JN21 

Sprague,  Joseph 

1802 

JN30 

Carey,  Elizabeth 

1817 

JN18 

Sprague,  Rossannah 

1815 

JN30 

Colegrove,  John 

1817 

Sterling,  CT 

Sprague,  Rufus 

1795 

JN30 

Colegrove,  Steph 

1787 

Sterling,  CT 

Thirffield,  Susanna 

1789 

JN18 

Cross,  Freelove 

1802 

PVOl 

Thornton,  Amey 

1765 

JN59 

Danforth,  Job 

1801 

PV03 

Tliornton,  Eunice 

1816 

JN59 

Danforth,  Samuel 

1795 

PV03 

Tliorntou,  Freelove 

1797 

JN59 

Di  Blois,  Stephen 

1814 

JN18 

Thornton,  Horace 

1813 

WK07 

DiBlois,  Amey 

1804 

JN18 

Tliornton,  Lucy 

1804 

JN59 

Dodge,  Nehemiah 

1800 

PVOl 

Tliornton,  Marcy 

1797 

JN59 

Dodge,  Susamiah 

1797 

PR  01 

footstone  only 

Field,  Jemima 

1800 

PVll 

Thornton,  Rlwde 

1803 

JN59 

Ginnings,  Francis 

1807 

PV07 

Tliornton,  Silas 

1801 

JN59 

Gorham,  Abigail 

1797 

PVOl 

Thornton,  Solomon 

1811 

JN59 

Greene  Catherine 

1793 

PVOl 

Thornton,  Sussannh 

1807 

JN59 

Hawkins,  Abigail 

1795 

PVOl 

Thornton,  Thomas  A. 

1793 

CR34 

Holmes,  Sarah 

1802 

PVOl 

Thornton,  Wm.  B. 

1794 

CR34 

Hurd,  Amy 

1803 

PVOl 

Tourtelot,  Phebe 

1804 

GL74 

Kmg,  Abner 

1812 

JN21 

Truman,  Jonathan 

1802 

PV03 

King,  Josiah 

1800 

JN21 

Truman,  Thomas 

1786 

PV03 

Kmg,  Marcy 

1816 

JN21 

Whipple,  Mehitab. 

1799 

PVll 

King,  Man/ 

1810 

JN21 

Williams,  Caleb 

1805 

JN38 

King,  Mary  W. 

1815 

JN21 

Williams,  Sabra 

1806 

JN38 

King,  Mary  H. 

1819 

JN21 

Winsor,  Joshua 

1796 

GL33 

Manton,  Edward 

1787 

JN18 

Winsor,  Samuel 

1803 

JN47 

Manton,  Elisha 

1800 

JN18 

Winsor,  Lydia 

1753 

JN47 

Mathewson,  Thom. 

1794 

Scituate 

Winsor,  Lydia 

1796 

JN47 

Mathewson,  Wm. 

1812 

JN56 

Winsor,  Joshua 

1796 

JN47 

Moltman,  Ann 

1790 

PVOl 

Winsor,  Zelote 

1800 

JN47 

Newell,  Lucy 

1794 

PVOl 

Winsor,  Anne 

1816 

JN47 

Olney,  Elizabeth 

1834 

? 

131 

The  Year's  Work  in  Cemetery  and  Gravemarker 
Studies:  An  International  Bibliography 

Gary  CoUison 

Starting  with  Markers  XXI  (2004),  this  annual  bibliography  of  scholar- 
ship begun  by  Richard  E.  Meyer  in  1995  appears  in  a  more  streamlined  form, 
with  coverage  of  pre-modern  and  non-English  language  titles  significantly 
curtailed.  The  bibliography  still  aims  to  provide  comprehensive  coverage 
of  the  most  recent  English-language  scholarship  about  gravemarkers, 
cemeteries,  monuments,  and  memorials  in  the  modern  era  (i.e.,  post- 
1500).  As  in  the  past,  most  marginal  materials  are  necessarily  omitted, 
including  entries  that  would  fall  under  the  heading  of  "death  and  dying" 
as  well  as  newspaper  articles,  book  reviews,  items  in  trade  and  popular 
magazines,  and  compilations  of  gravemarker  transcriptions.  For  books  with 
ambiguous  or  vague  titles,  I  have  tried  to  include  brief  subject  descriptions. 
This  year's  bibliography  includes  items  published  in  2005  and  2006;  items 
published  in  2006  after  this  bibliography  was  compiled  will  be  included  in 
next  year's  listing. 

Books,  Monographs,  Pamphlets,  and  Other  Separately  Published  Works. 

Amsler,  Kevin.  Final  Resting  Place:  Vie  Lives  &  Deaths  of  Famous  St.  Louisans. 
St.  Louis,  MO:  Virgima  Pub.  Co.,  2006. 

Anderson,  Floyd.  Once  Upon  a  Photographer's  Cemeteiy.  [United  States?]: 
Ginae.net,  2005. 

Arnold,  Catharine.  Necropolis:  London  and  Its  Dead.  London;  New  York: 
Simon  &  Schuster,  2006. 

Bigler,  Philip,  /;/  Honored  Glonj:  Arlington  National  Cemeteiy,  the  Final  Post. 
St.  Petersburg,  FL:  Vandamere  Press,  2005. 

Blachowicz,  James.  From  Slate  to  Marble:  Gravestone  Carving  Traditions  in  Eastern 
Massachusetts,I770-1870.  Evanston,  IL:  Graver  Press,  2006. 

Black,  Jimmy.  Jlie  Glasgow  Gravexjard  Guide.  Dalkeith:  Scottish  Cultural,  2006. 

Bourgeois,  Daniel.  Vie  Canadian  Bilingual  Districts:  From  Cornerstone  to  Tombstone. 
Montreal:  McGill-Queen's  University  Press,  2006. 

Bremen,  Jan  van.  "Monuments  for  the  Untimely  Dead  or  the  Objectification  of  Social 
Memory  in  Japan."  In  Tsu,  Yun  Hui;  Bremen,  Jan  van;  and  Ben-Ari,  Eyal, 
eds.  Perspectives  on  Social  Memory  in  lapan.  Folkestone,  Kent,  England:  Global 
Oriental,  2005. 

Brooks,  Patricia  and  Jonathan.  Laid  to  Rest  in  California:  A  Guide  to  the  Cemeteries  and 
Grave  Sites  of  the  Rich  and  Famous.  Guilford,  CT:  Insiders'  Guide/Globe 
Pequot  Press,  2006. 


132 


Cemeteries  of  Colorado:  A  Guide  to  Locating  Colorado  Burial  Sites  and  Publications  about 
Their  Residents.  Parker,  CO:  Colorado  Research  Publications,  2006. 

Chung,  Sue  Fawn,  and  Priscilla  Wegars,  eds.  Cliinese  American  Death  Rituals: 

Respecting  the  Ancestors.  Lanham,  MD:  AltaMira  Press,  2005.  ["hitroduction," 
Sue  Fawn  Chung  and  Priscilla  Wegars;  Chapter  One:  "What  We  Didn't 
Understand":  A  History  of  Chinese  Death  Ritual  in  China  and  California," 
Wendy  L.  Rouse;  Chapter  Two:  "On  Dying  American:  Cantonese  Rites  for 
Death  and  Ghost-Spirits  in  an  American  City,"  Paul  G.  Chace;  Chapter 
Three:  "Archaeological  Excavations  at  Virginiatown's  Chinese  Cemeteries," 
Wendy  L.  Rouse;  Chapter  Four:  "Venerate  These  Bones:  Chinese  American 
Funerary  and  Burial  Practices  as  Seen  in  Carlin,  Elko  County,  Nevada," 
Sue  Fawn  Chung,  Fred  P.  Frampton,  and  Timothy  W.  Murphy;  Chapter 
Five:  "Respecting  the  Dead:  Chinese  Cemeteries  and  Burial  Practices  in  the 
Interior  Pacific  Northwest,"  Terry  Abraham  and  Priscilla  Wegars;  Chapter 
Six:  "Remembering  Ancestors  in  Hawai'i,"  Sue  Fawn  Chung  and  Reiko 
Neizman;  Chapter  Seven:  "The  Chinese  Mortuary  Tradition  in  San  Francisco 
Chinatown,"  Linda  Sun  Crowder;  Chapter  Eight:  "Old  Rituals  in  New 
Lands:  Bringing  the  Ancestors  to  America,"  Roberta  S.  Greenwood.] 

Clark,  Rusty,  and  Aurora  Oberloh.  Stories  Carved  in  Stone:  Agaumm,  Massachusetts. 
West  Springfield,  MA:  Dog  Pond  Press,  2005. 

Clark,  Rusty,  and  Aurora  Oberloh.  Stories  Carved  in  Stone:  Hoh/oke,  Massachusetts.  West 
Springfield,  MA:  Dog  Pond  Press,  2006. 

Clark,  Victoria.  Holy  Fire:  The  Battle  for  CJuist's  Tomb.  San  Francisco: 
Mac  Adam/ Cage,  2005. 

Consumer  Guide  to  Funeral  &  Cemetery  Purchases.  Sacramento,  CA:  California  Dept.  of 
Consumer  Affairs,  Cemetery  and  Funeral  Bureau,  2005. 

DTmperio,  Chuck.  Great  Graves  of  Upstate  New  York:  Final  Resting  Places  of 
70  True  American  Legends.  Bloomington,  IN:  AuthorHouse,  2006. 

Famiin,  Minxie  J.,  and  Monique  Lehner.  Old  Burying  Ground,  BrookUne,  Massachusetts: 
Gravestone/Monument  Conservation  Reports.  [Concord,  MA]:  Fannin/Lehner 
Preservation  Consultants,  2005. 

Fisher,  Gayle  Marie  DeLeeuw,  and  Richard  Allen  Musselman.  Old  Gravestones  from 
St.  John's  Churchyard:  Now  Located  at  Eastoii  Cemeteiy,  Easton,  Northampton 
County,  Pennsylvania.  St.  Jolin's  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  (Easton,  PA). 
[St.  Petersburg,  FL]:  G.  Fisher,  2006. 

Floro-Khalaf,  Jenny,  and  Cynthia  Savaglio.  Mount  Caruiel  ami  Queen  of  Heaven 
Cemeteries.  Charleston,  SC:  Arcadia  Pub.,  2006. 

Gilbert,  Lionel  Arthur.  The  Last  Word:  Two  Centuries  of  Australian  Epitaphs.  Armidale, 
N.S.W.:  Kardoorair  Press,  2005. 

Gilchrist,  Roberta,  and  Barney  Sloane.  Requiem:  The  Medieval  Monastic  Cemetery  in 


133 


Britniii.  [London]  :  Museum  of  London  Archaeology  Service,  2005. 

Graham,  John.  Tlie  Gold  Star  Motlier  Pilgrimages  of  the  1930s:  Overseas  Grave  Visitations 
by  Motlicrs  and  Widows  of  Fallen  U.S.  World  War  I  Soldiers.  Jefferson,  NC: 
McFarLind  &  Co.,  2005. 

Greenwood,  Douglas  C.  Wlw's  Buried  Wliere  in  England.  London:  Constable,  2006. 

Heath,  Richard.  Boston  Public  Art:  A  Selection  with  Bibliography.  [Boston,  MA?] ,  2005. 

Hewson,  Eileen.  Assam  &  North-East  India:  Christian  Cemeteries  and  Memorials, 
1783-2003.  London:  BACSA,  2005. 

Huston,  Elizabeth.  Sacred:  New  Orleans  Funerary  Grounds.  Los  Angeles,  CA: 
Photomonium  Press,  2005. 

Koppenfels,  Johaiina  von.  Jewish  Cemeteries  in  Berlin.  Berlin:  Berlin  Edition,  2005. 

Krause,  Susan,  Kelley  A.  Boston,  and  Daniel  W.  Stowell.  Now  They  Belong  to  the  Ages: 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  his  Contemporaries  in  Oak  Ridge  Cemetery.  Springfield,  IL: 
Illinois  Historic  Preservation  Agency,  2005. 

Liu,  Cary  Y.,  Michael  Nylan,  Anthony  J.  Barbieri-Low,  et  al.  Recarving  China's  Past: 
Art,  Archaeology,  and  Architecture  of  the  "Wu  Family  Shrines."  Princeton,  NJ: 
Princeton  University  Art  Museum;  New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  2005. 

Menachemson,  Nolan.  A  Practical  Guide  to  Jewish  Cemeteries.  Bergenfield,  NJ: 
Avotaynu,  2006. 

Miller,  Kathleen  E.  Last  Laughs:  Funny  Tombstone  Quotes  and  Famous  Last  Words.  New 
York:  Sterling  Pub.  Co.,  2006. 

Mould,  David  R.,  and  Missy  Loewe.  Historic  Gravestone  Art  of  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  1695-1802.  Jefferson,  NC:  McFarland  &  Co.,  2006. 

Nava,  Margaret  M.  Remembering:  A  Guide  to  New  Mexico  Cemeteries,  Monuments  and 
Memorials.  Santa  Fe,  NM:  Sunstone  Press,  2006. 

Oakes,  Lorna.77ze  Illustrated  Encyclopedia  of  the  Pyramids,  Temples  &  Tombs  of  Ancient 
Egi/pt.  London:  Southwater,  2006. 

Retry,  David.  Tlie  Best  Last  Place:  A  Histonj  of  the  Santa  Barbara  Cemeteiy.  Santa  Barbara, 
CA:  Olympus  Press,  2006. 

Rawlings,  Keith,  Jean  M.  Little,  and  M.  Kirkwood.  Wliat  a  Grave  Undertaking:  Quinette 
Cemeten/,  a  Slave  Burial  Ground,  est.  1866.  Youth  in  Action,  Inc.,  2005. 

Reisem,  Richard  O.  Blue  Sky  Mausoleum  of  Frank  Lloyd  Wright:  Designed  1928,  Built 
2004.  Buffalo,  NY:  Forest  Lawn  Heritage  Foundation,  2005. 

Rozmus,  Dariusz.  De  arte  Judeorum  sepulcrali:  motywy  artystyczne  iv  zydowskiej  sztuce 
sepulkralnej  w  ostatnich  dwustu  latach  na  przykladzie  cmentarzy  to  Bedzinie, 
Czeladzi,  Olkuszu,  Pilicy,  Zarnowcu  i  Slawkowie.  Krakow:  Ksiegarnia 
Akademicka,  2005. 


134 


Ryder,  Peter  F.  Tlie  Medieval  Cross  Slab  Grave  Covers  in  Cumbria.  [Oxford,  UK]: 

Cumberland  and  Westmorland  Antiquarian  and  Archaeological  Society, 
2005. 

Salmon,  Patricia  M.  Realms  of  History:  The  Cemeteries  ofStaten  Island.  Staten  Island 
Museum,  NYC:  Staten  Island  Institute  of  Arts  &  Sciences,  2006. 

Segal,  Joshua  L.  A  Field  Guide  to  Visiting  a  Jewish  Cemetery:  A  Spiritual  journey  to  the 
Past,  Present  ami  Future.  Nashua,  NH:  Jewish  Cemetery  Publishing,  2005. 

Shepardson,  Ann.  Sandstone  Grave  Markers  in  the  Old  Durham  Burying  Ground:  A  Guide 
to  the  Carvers.  [Durham,  CT]:  Ann  Shepardson,  2006. 

Smith,  H.  S.,  Sue  Davies,  and  Kenneth  J.  Frazer.  The  Sacred  Animal  Necropolis  at  North 
Saqqar.  London:  Egypt  Exploration  Society,  2006. 

Tefft,  Dick.  A  Guide  to  Burial  Sites  &  Cemeteries  of  Eric  County,  PA.  Erie,  PA:  Erie 
Society  for  Genealogical  Research,  2005. 

Timoney,  Mary  B.  Had  Me  Made:  A  Study  of  the  Grave  Memorials  of  Co.  Sligo  from  c.  1650 
to  the  Present.  Keash,  Co.  Sligo:  TASKS,  2005. 

Toms,  Jan.  Animal  Graves  and  Memorials.  Princes  Risborough:  Shire  [UK],  2006. 

Wiggins,  David  N.  Georgia's  Confederate  Monuments  and  Cemeteries.  Charleston,  SC: 
Arcadia,  2006. 

Willeford,  Glenn  P.  and  Gerald  G.  Raun.  Cemeteries  ami  Funerary  Practices  in  the  Big 

Bend  of  Texas,  1850  to  the  Present.  Alpine,  TX:  Johnson's  Ranch  &  Trading  Post 
Press,  2006. 

Wright,  Alison.  The  Pollaiuolo  Brothers:  The  Arts  of  Florence  and  Rome.  New  Haven,  CT; 
London:  Yale  University  Press,  2005. 

Articles  in  Scholarly  Journals,  Edited  Collections,  etc. 

Arias,  P,  J.  Herraez,  H.  Lorenzo,  et  al.  "Control  of  Structural  Problems  in  Cultural 
Heritage  Monuments  Using  Close-range  Photogrammetry  and  Computer 
Methods."  Computers  &  Structures  83.21  (2005):  1754-1766. 

Ben-Ur,  Aviva.  "Still  Life:  Sephardi,  Ashkenazi,  and  West  African  Art  and  Form  in 
Suriname's  Jewish  Cemeteries."  American  Jezoish  History  92.1  (2005):  31-79. 

Bradbury,  Oliver.  "Byzantium  in  Berkshire."  Apollo  (London)  518  (Apr.  2005):  72- 
75.  [Sir  Edwin  Lutyens's  first  mausoleum  (1904),  Wargrave,  Berkshire; 
architectural  and  design  influences  incl.  arts  and  crafts  movement.] 

Bremen,  Jan  van.  "Monuments  for  the  Untimely  Dead  or  the  Objectification  of  Social 
Memory  in  Japan."  In  Yun  Hui  Tsu,  Jan  van  Bremen,  and  Eyal  Ben-Ari,  eds. 
Perspectives  on  Social  Memory  in  Japan.  Folkestone,  Kent,  England:  Global 
Oriental,  2005. 

Bromberg,  Francine  W,  and  Steven  J.  Shephard.  "The  Quaker  Burying  Ground  in 


135 


Alexandria,  Virginia:  A  Study  of  Burial  Practices  of  the  Religious  Society  of 
Friends."  Historical  Airhncologi/  iO.l  (2006):  57-88. 

Buettner,  Elizabeth.  "Cemeteries,  Public  Memory  and  Raj  Nostalgia  in  Britain  and 
hidia."  History  and  Memory  (Bloomington,  IN)  18.1  (Spr.-Sum.,  2006):  5-42. 

Clark,  Mary  L.  "Treading  on  Hallowed  Ground:  Implications  for  Property  Law  and 

Critical  Theory  of  Land  Associated  with  Human  Death  and  Burial."  Kentucky 
Law  Journal  94.3  (2006):  487-514. 

Cole,  David.  "Marie  Zimmermann:  From  Tiaras  to  Tombstones."  Metalsiuith  25.1 
(Winter  2005):  27-35. 

Connell,  Philip.  "Death  and  the  Author:  Westminster  Abbey  and  the  Meanings  of  the 
Literary  Monument."  Eighteenth-Century  Studies  38.4  (2005):  557-585. 

Demoor,  Marysa.  "From  Epitaph  to  Obituary:  The  Death  Politics  of  T.  S.  Eliot  and 
Ezra  Pound."  Biography  28.2  (2005):  255-275. 

Franzmami,  Majella.  "Authority  from  Grief,  Presence  and  Place  in  the  Making  of 
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Fratim,  F.,  S.  Rescic,  and  P.  Tiano.  "New  Portable  System  for  Determining  the  State 
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Gana,  Nouri.  "Symbolic  Loss:  The  Ambiguity  of  Mourning  and  Memory  at  Century's 
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Gildow,  Douglas.  "Flesh  Bodies,  Stiff  Corpses,  and  Gathered  Gold:  Mummy  Worship, 
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Jua,  Nantang.  "The  Mortuary  Sphere,  Privilege  and  the  Politics  of  Belonging  in 
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Kadish,  Sharman.  "Bet  Hayim  'House  of  Life':  An  Introduction  to  Jewish  Funerary  Art 
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Labno,  Jeannie.  "Child  Monuments  in  Renaissance  Poland."  Tlte  Sixteenth  Centiwy 
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Lai,  Delin.  "Searching  for  a  Modern  Chinese  Monument:  The  Design  of  the  Sun 
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Magness,  Jodi.  "What  Did  Jesus'  Tomb  Look  Like?"  Tlie  Biblical  Archaeology  Revieiv 
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Malcolm-Woods,  Rachel.  "Cheering  the  Ancestors  Home:  African  Ideograms  in 
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Malkiel,  David  Joshua.  "Christian  Hebraism  in  a  Contemporary  Key:  The  Search 

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Matich,  Olga.  "Mobster  Gravestones  in  1990s  Russia."  Global  Crime  7.1  (2006): 
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Pae,  Taavi,  Egle  Kaur,  Anto  Aasa,  et  al.  "The  Formation  and  Location  Features  of 
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138 


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139 


CONTRIBUTORS 


Gary  Collison,  professor  emeritus  of  American  studies  and  English  at 
Pemi  State  York,  has  given  numerous  presentations  on  gravemarkers  at 
aiTnual  meetings  of  the  American  Culture  Association  and  the  Association 
for  Gravestone  Studies.  In  1999,  he  founded  the  Death  in  American  Culture 
section  of  the  Mid- Atlantic  Popular/ American  Culture  Association  and 
chaireci  its  sessions  until  2006.  Editor  of  Markers  since  2003,  he  is  researching 
Pennsylvania  German  gravemarkers  and  historic  cemeteries.  His  article  on 
gravemarkers  for  horses  in  the  United  States  appeared  in  Markers  XXII. 

Janet  McShane  Galley  is  a  Ph.D.  candidate  in  the  Department  of  History 
at  Temple  University-  Her  research  interests  focus  on  issues  related  to  death 
and  deviance  during  the  late  nineteenth  and  early  twentieth  centuries  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  Her  dissertation  in  progress  is  titled,  "Infanticide 
in  the  American  Imagination,  1860-1920." 

Joy  M.  Giguere,  a  Ph.D.  candidate  in  the  Department  of  History  at 
the  University  of  Maine  at  Orono,  completed  her  Master's  thesis  on  early 
gravestones  in  Cumberland  County,  Maine,  in  2005.  She  continues  to 
pursue  her  research  in  cemetery  landscapes  and  memorial  monuments  and 
architecture,  and  is  in  the  process  of  writing  her  dissertation  on  the  Egyptian 
Revival  in  the  United  States  during  the  nineteenth  century. 

Vincent  F.  Luti,  professor  emeritus  of  music  at  the  University  of 
Massachusetts,  Dartmouth,  is  the  1997  recipient  of  the  Association  for 
Gravestone  Studies'  Harriette  M.  Forbes  Award  for  excellence  in  gravestone 
studies.  He  has  been  studying  the  carvers  of  the  Narragansett  Basin  for 
more  than  thirty  years  and  has  published  articles  on  carvers  in  Markers  II, 
IV,  XVI,  XVII  (with  James  Blanchowicz),  XX,  and  XXII.  His  Mallet  ami  Chisel: 
Gravestone  Carvers  of  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  m  the  Eighteenth  Century  was 
published  in  2002. 

Brandon  Richards  is  a  Registered  Professional  Archaeologist  with  a  BA 
in  Geography  froni  California  State  University,  Northridge,  as  well  as  an  MA 
in  Archaeology  and  Heritage  from  the  University  of  Leicester.  His  research 
interests  include  ethnicity  in  colonial  America. 

Elisabeth  L.  Roark,  associate  professor  of  art  history  at  Chatham  College  in 
Pittsburgh,  PA,  has  been  researching  images  of  angels  in  rural  cenieteries  since 
1983.  Her  Artists  of  Colonial  America  (2003)  includes  a  chapter  on  gravestone 
carver  Joseph  Lamson;  she  has  also  published  articles  in  Gazette  des  Beaux- 


140 


Arts,  American  Art,  and  Prospects.  Two  articles  on  her  cemetery  research  have 
appeared  in  Stone  in  America,  a  magazine  for  memorial  designers. 

NEW  ASSOCIATE  EDITOR 

Richard  F.  Veit  received  his  Ph.D.  in  Anthropology/ Historical 
Archaeology  fron^  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and  is  associate  professor  of 
anthropology  at  Monmouth  University,  West  Long  Branch,  NJ.  Both  his  MA 
thesis,  "Middlesex  Comity  New  Jersey  Gravestones  1687-1799:  Shadows  of  a 
Changing  Culture"  (William  and  Mary,  1991),  and  his  doctoral  dissertation, 
"Skyscrapers  and  Sepulchers:  A  Historic  Ethnography  of  New  Jersey's  Terra 
Cotta  Industry"  (University  of  Pemisylvania,  1997)  focused  on  gravemarkers. 
He  is  the  author  of  the  award-winning  Digging  Neiu  Jerseif's  Past:  Historical 
ArcJiaeology  in  the  Garden  State  (Rutgers,  2002);  co-editor  of  The  Historical 
Archaeology  of  Religions  Sites  and  Cemeteries  (completed  and  under  review);  and 
co-author  with  Mark  Nonestied  of  the  forthcoming  book.  Stranger  Stop  and  Cast 
an  Eye:  New  Jersey's  Historic  Cemeteries  and  Burial  Grounds  Through  Four  Centuries 
(Rutgers  UP,  2007).  He  has  published  articles  on  New  Jersey  gravemarkers  in 
Markers  XII  (terra  cotta  gravemarkers)  and  XVII  (early  decorated  New  Jersey 
Anglo-German  gravemarkers). 


141 


Index 


Abrams  monument  98 

Adam,  Jacob  8 

Albany,  NY  26,  27,  28 

Albany  Rural  Cemetery  59 

Allegheny  Cemetery,  Pittsburgh,  PA  61,  74,  76, 

82,85,89,90,91,92,93 
Allen,  Gabriel   113,  117,  1 18,  119,  120 
Allen,  George  117 
Ammerman,  Jack  33,  34 
Amoss  angel  82 
Ancram,  NY  32,  34 

"Angels  in  American  Sculpture"  74,  102 
"Angels  Meet  Me  at  the  Crossroads'"  99 
Andrews,  Anne  120 
Angel  at  the  Sepiilchei;  The  59 
Angel  of  Death  and  the  Sculptor.  The  59 
Angel  of  Peace  67,  69 
Angel  sculpture  57-111 
Angel  Visitor.  The  81 
Angel  Wliispers  88 

Angelology:  Remarks  and  Reflections  71 
Angels  in  the  Early  Modern  World  63 
Anglo-Gennan  carving  34 
Appleton,  David  86 
Aquinas,  Thomas  63 
Arnold,  Anstis   123 
Arnold,  James   1 1 5 
ars  moriendi  treatises  81,  89 
Art  and  Archaeology  74 
ArtNouveau  74 
Asmund  (rune  master)  33 
Atlanta,  GA  58,  100 

Benzoni,  F.  75 

Bala  Cynwyd  96 

Baltimore  58,  67,  68,  69,  70,  72,  79,  82,  86,  87, 

92,94,97,  101 
Barnes,  Cornelius  20 
Baroque  style  65,  82 
Baugher,  Sherene  25 
Beecher,  Henry  Ward  72 
benevolent  societies  1 6 
Bennett,  James  Gordon  78 
Bergen  County,  NJ  35 
Bethune,  George  Washington  72 
Bigelow,  Dr.  Jacob  86 


Bloch,  Ruth   15 

Bommel,  Margaret  Van  32 

Bonaventure,  Saint  63 

Bonomi,  Patricia  10 

Borden,  Meribah  1 1 5 

Borden,  William   123 

Boston,  MA  58,  59,  66,  69 

Boston  Anglican  churches  66 

Bragdon,  Daniel  8 

British  communities  29 

Bronx,  NY  75 

Brooklyn,  NY  26,  57,  67,  68,  69,  73,  81,  89,  96 

Brown,  Henry  Kirke  74,  90 

Brunswick  14 

Buffalo,  NY,  92 

Bunyan,  John  8 1 

Burr,  Hattie  A.  79,81 

Bushwick  Dutch  Reformed  Church  26 

Buti,  Enrico  76,92 

Calvert,  Karin   1 8 

Calvin,  John  64 

Calvinists  27 

Canda,  Charlotte  73 

Cape  Elizabeth,  ME   19,71 

Cathedral  of  St.  John  the  Divine  103 

"Catholic  Envy:  The  Visual  Culture  of 

Protestant  Desire"  72 
Catholicism  57,  60,  64,  69,  72-73,  77,  96 
Central  Park,  NYC  59 
Chaffee,  Phebe  Carpenter  1 1 5 
Charles  I  65 
Charleston,  SC  86,88 
Chase,  Steven  103 
Chicago,  IL  58,  69,  70 
children  (epitaphs)   18-20 
Children  in  the  House:  The  Material  Culture  of 

Early  Childhood  18 
Choir  of  the  Capuchin  Chapel  72 
Christus:  a  Mysteiy  71 
Civil  War  86 
Clark,  Jane  F.   19 
Clayton,  George  Jr.  7 1 
Cleveland,  OH  69 
Cocks,  Capt.  John   14 
Cocks,  Mrs.  Sarah   14 


142 


Cole.  Thomas  72,78 

Colegrove,  John   112,113-114,123 

"Comparing  and  Interpreting  the  Early  Dutch  and 

English  Gravemarkers  of  the  Lower  Hudson 

Region"  25 
Connecticut   112,  113,  123 
consolation  literature  71,  72,  88,  102 
Cott,  Nancy   16 
Council  of  Nicea  61 
Counter-Refomiation  65 
Couper,  William   1 03 
Cranston   113,  118 
Crews,  Eliza  86 
Crosby,  Otis   1 1 
Crown  Hill  Cemetery  79,  80 
Crucifixion  64 

Cumberland  County,  ME   1-21 
Currier  and  Ives  72 
Curtis,  Captain  Nehemiah  8-9 
Cuyler,  Rev.  Theodore   100 


Pickett,  Dorcas   15-16,  18 

Finland  33 

Finnish  immigrants  26 

"First  Cradle:  Eve  and  Her  Two  Children. 

The''  47 
Fisher  monument  79,  80 
Flatbush,  NY  27 
Flaxman,  John  67,  68 
Florence,  Italy  67 
flower  imagei'y   1 9 
Forest  Hills  Cemetery,  Boston  59 
Forest  Lawn  Cemetery,  Buffalo  92 
Fort  Christina  26,27 
Fort  Orange,  NJ  27 
Fox,  Asa   1 1 7 
FraAngelico  63 
Eraser,  Charles  86 
French,  Daniel  Chester  59,  74 
French  Huguenots  26 
French  family  monument  78,  89-90 


d'Angers,  David  46 

Danish  immigrants  26 

Danish  sailors  28 

Davis,  John  72 

Debay,  Auguste-Hyacinthe  47,49-51 

Delaware  25,  26,  28,  35,  36 

Dempsey,  Charles  65 

Dewey,  Orville  72 

Dionysus  63 

Duning,  Samuel  7 

Dutch  26-39 

Dutch  Reformed  Church  27 

Eastern  Cemetery   1 6 

Eaton,  Revd.  Elisha   10-11,  12 

Echo  of  Spirit  Voices,  The  88 

Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts,  Paris  46,  47 

Eddy,  Daniel  C.  88 

Elspeet,  Netherlands  29 

Empty  Crib,  The  1 00 

English  Civil  War  64 

Enquiry  into  the  Abode  of  the  Sainted  Dead  96 

Episcopalians  60 

epitaphs   1-23 

European  sculpture  67 

Pairmount  Park,  Phila.  59 
Faith,  Hope,  and  Charily  57 


Gabel,  Laurel   113 

Gabriel  (archangel)  63,96,99,  102 

Gaddess  Marble  Works  86,  87 

Gates  Wide  Open,  The  8 1 

Geannings,  Farancis   123 

Gee,  Rechel  30 

gender  1-21 

gender  in  angel  sculpture  1 02- 1 03 

George  Hogg  monument  74 

German  settlements  34 

Germany  64 

Good  Wives   1 

Gould,  Reverend  Jonathan  6,  1 1 

Graceland  Cemetery,  Chicago  69-70 

Grand  Tour  67 

Granet,  Franijois-Marius  72 

Great  Awakening  65 

Great  Britain  6 

Green- Wood  Cemetei7  57,  67,  68-69,  73,  78-79, 

81,89,90,96 
Green  Mount  Cemetery,  Baltimore  58,  67,  70,  72, 

79,  82,  86-87,  92,  94,  96-97,  101 

Hackensack,  NJ  27,  37 
Harbaugh,  Rev.  Henry  96 
Harmony  Grove  Cemetery  86 
Harpswell,  ME  8,  10,  11,17 
Hartshorn,  Stephen    1 1 7 


143 


Hattie  A.  Burr  gravemarker  81 
Hawkins,  Abigail   119,  121 
Heaven:  or  Inquiiy .  .  .  Dead  96 
Helder,  Den  28 
Hoffman  monument  97 
Holcombe,  Re\.  William  71 
Home  monument  89,91 
Hudson  Ri\  er  School  78 
Hugh  Sisson  Marble  Works  70 
Huguenots  28,  31 
Hurd,Amy   120 

Indianapolis,  IN  79,  80 

Inman,  Louise  100 

Inventing  the  Renaissance  Piitto  65 

Italian  Renaissance  65 

Italy  61 

Jews  60 

Johnston,  RI   115,118 

Johnston  Historical  Society  1 1 5 

Joseph  Thornton  Jr  1 1 5 

Kane,  Elisha  Kent  46 
Kaulbach,  Wilhelm  von  67-69 
Keck,  David  63 
Kelle  monument  78-79 
King  monument  95 
Kingston,  NY  27,31,32,33 
Knickerbocker  Burying  Grounds  28 
Kolk,  Elbertje  Van  De  29 
Kosciuszko,  Thaddeus  46 
Kosciuszko  Foundation  52 

Lake  View  Cemetery,  Cleveland  69 

Lancaster,  MA  34,  35 

Lane,  Betsey   19 

Laurel  Hill  52,92 

Laurel  Hill  Cemetery  41,  51-52,  57-58,  84,  92, 

95,  96,  98 
Linden-Ward,  Blanche  66 
Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth  70-7 1 
Longfellow,  Stephen   14,16 
Longfellow,  Mrs.  Tabitha  14,16 
Long  Island,  NY  25,  37 
Loomis-Phipps  monument  93 
Louise  Inman  monument   100 
Luther,  Martin  63,  96 
Luther,  Seth   1 1 7 
Lutherans  27 


Magnolia  Cemetery,  Charleston  86,  88 

Maine   1-21 

Manhattan  26 

Marshall,  Peter  63,  64 

Marston,  Zachariah   1 8 

Martineau,  Harriet  83 

Mary  Schumacher  marker  86 

Massachusetts  34,  35,  86,  117 

Mather,  Increase  8 1 

Mather,  Cotton  64 

Maxey,  Levi   117 

Merolla,  Stephen   115 

Michael  the  archangel  63,  96,  102 

Midwife's  Tale   15 

Mifflin,  George  Dallas  46 

Milan,  Italy  92 

Milmore,  Martin  59 

Milmore  Memorial  59 

Minnie  Hays  monument  82,  85 

Minot,  Reverend  Stephen   14 

Moody,  Hannah   1 

Mot,  Elisabeth  De  37 

Mother  and  Twins  monument  40-55 

Mount  Auburn  Cemetery  66,  69,  83,  86,  92,  96 

Mount  Vernon,  NY  29,  30 

Narragansett  Basin   113,  117 

Native  American  woman  37 

neo-Gothic  markers  66 

neoclassicism  66.74,  82 

Neshanic,  NJ  32,37 

Netherlands  27,29 

Neustadt  on  the  Rhine  43 

New  Amsterdam  27 

New  Braintree  1 1 

New  England  6,  29,  35 

New  Gloucester,  ME  2,  1 1 

New  Hampshire  2 

New  Jersey  25,  29,  34,  35,  36,  37 

New  Netherland  26-39 

NewPaltz,NY  31,32 

Newport,  RI   115 

New  Sweden  26.  36 

New  York  25,  26,  28,  29,  30,  3 1 ,  32,  33,  34,  46 

New  York  City  35,59,103 

New  York  City  burial  grounds  25 

Nike  (Victory)  57,  61,  102 

Norwegian  immigrants  26,  28 


144 


Oakland  Cemetery,  Atlanta  58,  100 

Obren,  John  30 

Old  Common  Burying  Ground   1 7 

Old  Dutch  Church,  Albany  27 

Old  Dutch  Churchyard,  Kingston,  NY  3 1 

Old  Dutch  Churchyard  of  NYC  26 

Old  Paramus  Burial  Ground  32,  37 

Old  Swedes'  Churchyard  36-37 

Olney,  Elizabeth   123 

Obey,  Mary   120 

Olneyviile  section  of  Providence  1 1 6 

Oneco  Cemetery   1 1 3 

On  the  Celestial  Hierarchy  62,  71 

Opir  (rune  master)  34 

Our  Children  in  Heaven  7 1 

Over  the  River  90,  92 

Palmer,  Erastus  Dow  59 

Paris,  France  47 

Payne,  Frank  Owen   1 02- 1 03 

Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  46 

Pennsylvania  Dutch  gravestones  96 

Percy  Graeme  Tumbull  monument  101 

Philadelphia  46,  57,  59,  84,  95,  96,  98 

Pieterszkuyte,  Oolee  28 

Pittsburgh,  PA  58,  61,  74,  76,  82,  85,  89,  91,  93 

Plymouth,  MA  117 

Polish  InsuiTection  46 

Porter  angel  92 

Portland,  ME  6,  7,  8-9,  15-16,  19-20 

Portland  Marine  Society  9 

Pre-Raphaelite  74 

predestination,  doctrine  of  65 

Presbyterian  65 

Preston  monument  94 

Protestant  Cemeteiy,  Rome  59 

Protestants  56ff 

Providence   1 1 8ff 

Pseudo-Dionysus  62-63,64,  102 

Pulaski,  Casimir  46 

"Put  My  Little  Shoes  Away"  99 

Puritans  64 

putti  65 

Rachel  [?]  gravemarker  87 
Rainville,  Lynn  2 
Raisio  Church,  Finland  33 
Randall,  Major  Paul   1 5,  1 7 


Raphael,  archangel  96,  102 

Raphael  (painter)  63 

Raritan  Valley,  NJ  32,  35 

Reformation  63-64 

"Reaper  and  the  Flowers"  (poem)  71 

Renaissance  63,65,82,  102 

"republican  motherhood"  15 

"Resignation"  (poem)  71 

Revolutionaiy  War  15 

Rhode  Island  115,  118,  121 

Rhode  Island  Historical  Society   1 15 

Ring,  Andrew   1 2 

Rodin's  "The  Thinker"  49 

Romantic  era  57,  59 

Rome,  Italy  57,59,67 

Roney,  Lila  James  26 

Rose  monument  84 

Rude,  Francois  46 

runestones  27,  32,  34,  37 

Rural  Cemetery  Movement  57,  59-60 

Salem,  MA  86 

Saint-Gaudens,  Augustus  74 

Sarah  Morley  Memorial  67,  68 

sarcophagi  57,  66,  92,  94 

Saugerties,  NY  26 

Saunders,  Henry  Dmochowski  45-52 

Sawye,  Thomas  35 

Scandinavia  27,  32,  64 

Scandinavian  colonists  27-28,  34 

Schaaff  Helena  43,  45,  46-47 

Schenectady,  NY  28 

Schenectady  Dutch  Refonned  Churchyard  29 

Schleswig-Holstein  27 

Schumacher,  Mary  86 

Schuylkill  River  41,45,46 

Sears,  Roebuck  &  Co.  69 

Second  Great  Awakening  66 

Sexton  monument  70,  90 

Shirley,  Joshua  8 

Sloane,  David  99 

Smith,  Andrew  Foster  75 

Smith,  Eliphal   120 

Society  and  Politics  in  Colonial  America   1 0 

St.  Paul's  Churchyard  29 

Standish,  ME  7,  11 

Sterling,  CT  112,  113,  123 

Stiles,  Henry  26 

Stone,  Gaynell  25 


145 


Stor>'.  William  Wetmore  59 
Swedish  immigrants  26,  32,  35 
Sweden  33,  34 
Swedenborg.  Emanuel  67,  77-78 

Taking  the  Veil  72 
Thornton,  Borden   1 1 2- 1 24 
Thornton,  John   1 1 5 
Thornton,  Joseph   1 1 5 
Thornton,  Joseph,  Jr.   115 
Thornton,  Lucy  1 22 
Thornton,  Pardon   115,  116 
Thornton,  Richard   115 
Thornton,  Silas   124 
Thornton,  Solomon   1 1 5 
Thornton,  Susannah   120,124 
Titus,  Jonah   1 1 7 
Tukey,  Captain  Stephen  6-7 
Tunibill,  Percy  Graham   101 


Winter,  Fredrick  25 

Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union   16 
wooden  gravemarkers  28-29 
Woodlawn  Cemetery  75 

Yarmouth,  ME   12 
York,  ME   1 

Zuricher,  John  34 


Uirich,  Laurel  Thatcher  1,  12,  15 
Ulster  County,  NY  26 
Under  the  Cope  of  Heaven   1 0 
Unitarian  70 
Unitarians  60 
University  of  Paris  63 
Uppsala,  Sweden  32,  33,  34 

Van  Wyk  family  33 
Viele,  G  34 
Virgin  Mary  99 
Voices  of  the  Heart  8 1 
Voyage  of  Life  78 
Vrooman,  Jan  3 1 


Walloon  immigrants  26 
Walsham,  Alexandra  63 
Washington,  D.C.  46 
Washington,  George  49 
Washington  Art  Association  46 
Weir,  Robert  72 
Weise,A.J.  28 
Welch,  Richard  25 
West  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery  96 
WestNyack,NY  32 
White,  David  Appleton  86 
Williams,  Roger  115 
Wilmington,  DE  26,28,36 
Wilno,  Poland  46 


146 


^^'^ 


Virtuous  Women,  Useful  Men,  & 
Lovely  Children:  Epitaph  Language 
and  the  Construction  of  Gender  and 
Social  Status  in  Cumberland  County, 
Maine,  1720-1820 

Joy  M.  Giguere 

New  Netherland's  Gravestone  Legacy: 
An  Introduction  to  Early  Burial  Markers 
of  the  Upper  Mid- Atlantic  States 

Brandon  Richards 

Myths  and  Realities  of  Laurel  Hill's 
''Mother  and  Twins"  Monument 

Janet  McShane  Galley 

Embodying  Immortality:  Angels  In 
America's  Rural  Cemeteries,  1850-1900 

Elisabeth  L.  Roark 

Borden  Thornton  (1762-1838), 
Rhode  Island  Stonecaver 

Vincent  Luti 

The  Year's  Work  in  Cemetery 
and  Gravemarker  Studies: 
An  International  Bibliography 

Compiled  by  Gary  CoUison 


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