Funeral Symbolism

[bizzilizzit]

(Moderator Note: I'm breaking out a good set of comments on funerary symbolism from a recent event announcement. Hopefully it won't be a stilted transition. Regards, Elizabeth Clark)

Victorian Philadelphians loved visual symbolism, and even their simplest grave markers are likely to be ornamented by ivy (for eternal life), lilies (for resurrection) or hour glasses (for brevity of life). Oftentimes, the symbolism is both lavish and individualized. A civic reformer is memorialized with a bas-relief showing the Schuylkill Canal and the Philadelphia Water Works. A prison reformer is celebrated with a grand model of Moyamensing Prison. A shattered column, a cavalry officer's
sword and a pair of spurs mark the resting place of one of the first soldiers to die at the Battle of Little Big Horn, infamously known as Custer's Last Stand. A mother who died in childbirth is compellingly depicted clasping her two dead babies.

Nineteenth-century Philadelphians understood Laurel Hill not only as a cemetery, but also as a vast sculptural garden and retreat. Accordingly, they came by the thousands to read the symbolic messages that the dead had left for the living.

Elizabeth Topping

[rebjeb04]

Hello Mrs. Topping,

New Orleans and the gulf South has alot of funerary symbolizm as well. St. Louis cemetery No. 1, which dates back to late 1700's is full of these icons. I remmember seeing alot of the hourglass with wings, but can't remmember its meaning. I'm sure there are others as well. They also have the above ground tombs which is to compensate for the Big Easy being "below sea level". I've wondered if they did'nt have some other reason for burying the dead with such tombs. I have seen very nice cemeteries with these same above ground tombs in the North and South where regard for sea level is not a worry or issue.

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Many of these above ground tombs/crypts are done in the Egyptian Revival style which is reflected in cemeteries with simple obelisks and in monuments with towering obelisks (like the Washington Monument). With money comes desire to illustrate it, even in death.

[Drygoods]

The hourglass refers to 'time's swift flight.'

[Jeff Prechtel]

There is also several other's including an anchor...
which, I believe, symbolizes you as being anchored with
the Lord, or anchored in heaven. I think that one dates
from the 1850s through the early 20th century. There's also
sheaves of wheat....referring to the resurection. The old winged
skull headstone motif, which dates from the 1600s through
the mid 1700s exemplifies the soul flying away to heaven.
There's many more examples, but those are ones I could think
of off the top of my head. Most of the older ornate headstones
we have out here only date from the early to mid 1850s

-Jeff Prechtel
Oregon Terr.

[Vuhginyuh]

I’m from a school that divides funeral practices (and burials) and grave markers into two different categories. The stone usually came well after the funeral and burial, especially in stone poor southern coastal centers. In Wilmington it was not unusual for the family to wait a year or more for a quality cut stone. In the meantime the grave site was marked with a simple anthropomorhic cedar or cypress plank with the deceased's initials applied in brass tacks. On many occasions this ended up being the only marker. A century or two later scores of these boards still stand watch.

Many of my favorites, the local slave burials, are covered with Lightening Welk shells.

Most of the wartime yellow fever plots were unmarked and remain that way today.

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I highly recommend anyone interested in this “dig up” M. Ruth Little’s award winning book Sticks and Stones; Three Centuries of North Carolina Gravemarkers (UNC Press. Chapel Hill, 1998)

http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/FMPro?-DB=pubtest.fmp&-Format=a-detail.html&-RecID=12816354&-Script=visited&-Find


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Funeral notices often echoed popular marker symbolism. The dominate theme in the attachment is the willow style Tree of Life, one of several popular eternal life after death symbols.

Private collection.

[Carolann Schmitt]

Kay Cogswell is doing a presentation on the symbolism in Victorian cemetary art at the 2007 Ladies & Gentlemen of the 1860s Conference. Over the past several years Kay has been visiting and photographing memorials in cemetaries from across the country. She has catalogued 200+ different symbols to date. I've seen some of the images for her presentation and they are wonderful, ranging from the sweet and sentimental to the macabre. Some make you cry, others would scare you to death on a dark night, and some are hilarious. You can find more information on the Conference and Kay's presentation at www.genteelarts.com

[Drygoods]

Maureen Delorme's book Mourning Art & Jewelry says that the anchor refers to "Symbol of hope and steadfastness; when set amongst rocks, can represent the death of a mariner, or St. Nicholas, the patron saint of seamen; was used by early Christians under persectuion as a disguised cross. An anchor with a broken chain stands for cessation of life."

I always took the anchor to mean eternity and strength. Well, you learn something every day.:p I was happy to find the link to the new book Sticks and Stones, very nice.

[Shockoe Hill Cats]

Mods. please remove this deemed "unecessary" post.

Thanks,

Jason

[springkeeper]

Many of the old cemetaries here in the South have cedar trees ( evergreens for eternal life). I have seen many family cemetaries have two or more. Unfortuantely the cedars that are 100+ years old have displaced markers, rock walls, iron fences, et as they have grown.

Was this a common practice up North as well?

[NC5thCav]

My paternal family cemetery is located WAY out in the woods in Avery county, NC. It is in a slight valley in the middle of an open field. Of the app. 13 graves, only three have inscribed markers. The others are simple field stones. All of the graves have footstones as well. Two of the inscribed stones are Civil War era. One is 1859, the other 1864. The interesting thing about them is that the names are in all capitols with the family name, Carpenter, spelled with backward E's. I beleive the E's are normal everywhere else on the stones. Also, I think the cemetery may be built on a Cherokee mound. It is on a small, almost perfectly round hill that is about 20-25 feet high with just enough room for hte 13 graves and one or two large trees.

[Mrs. Buttrick]

When making a December visit to Forest Home Cemetery, one of Milwaukee's oldest and most prominent Victorian cemeteries, we noticed many graves, mainly of the leading citizens, 1860s-1870s, covered with a blanket of pine boughs. I'm not sure if this was a Victorian practice related to the symbol of evergreens/eternal life or just Northerners trying to provide a little extra warmth in the season. I have been a pilgrim in cemeteries in all seasons and have never observed this before.