Association for Gravestone Studies E-Newsletter | |
February 2023 / Issue 239
ISSN 2833-4892
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Caswell Cemetery, Star Island, NH
Photo by Judi Trainor.
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The Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) was founded in 1977 for the purpose of furthering the study and preservation of gravestones. AGS is an international organization with an interest in gravemarkers of all periods and styles. Through its publications, conferences, workshops and exhibits, AGS promotes the study of gravestones from historical and artistic perspectives, expands public awareness of the significance of historic gravemarkers, and encourages individuals and groups to record and preserve gravestones.
If you're not an AGS member already, we want you to join! If you become a member, you will receive:
-The AGS Quarterly
-The next published issue of Markers
-Discounts on AGS conferences
-News and Notes about Chapter meetings
To join, renew, or for more information, visit
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Past AGS Conference program books have been digitized and can be viewed on the UMass, Amherst Library website:
Also, some back issues of the AGS Quarterly and Markers can be viewed here:
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AGS Publications
Checking your mailbox for the AGS Quarterly newsletter or Markers journal? Don’t worry! They are coming, but our editors are running a bit later than usual on both.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
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AGS 2023 Conference and Annual Meeting: Call for Proposals
The AGS 2023 Conference and Annual Meeting will be held at
the University of Denver in Colorado, June 20-25.
We are accepting applications for general paper and workshop proposals through April 1, 2023 at AGSConfProposals@gmail.com.
SESSION FORMATS: The Program Committee encourages submission of proposals that may include, but are not limited to, the following formats:
- Individual Presentations: Typically, a research-based presentation of no more than 20 minutes and a comment and discussion period after the presentations. Individual papers will be combined into panels. Each panel will have a moderator. There will be a VERY LIMITED number of virtual presentations.
- Special Focus Session/Workshop: Typically, a 75-minute session (although it could be extended, based on the proposal) designed for skill-building and/or intensive discussion and activity on a particular subject or project. Audience participation is encouraged. Special Focus Sessions/Workshops can be given in-person only.
For more information: https://gravestonestudies.org/conferences/2023-conference
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March 2023 AGS Virtual Book Club
Many of our AGS members are avid readers and have shelves full of cemetery/gravestone related books. If that is you, please join us for our AGS Virtual Book Club. Each month, we'll focus on a book about cemeteries, gravestones, mourning customs, funerary practices and death & dying. We hope to include books written by AGS members, classics in our field, newly published books, as well as novels that feature the subjects mentioned above. Grab a coffee or a tea, cozy up, and join our conversation!
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Details for our next book club meeting:
When: Sunday, March 19th, 2023
Time: 7 p.m. Eastern Time
Where: Please register here: https://ags.wildapricot.org/event-5186012
We'll send a Zoom link to the registrants on the day of the book club meeting.
Our selection for March 2023: The Rural Cemetery Movement: Places of Paradox in Nineteenth-Century America by Jeffrey Smith
For more information, including a list of our upcoming selections: https://gravestonestudies.org/welcome/book-club
Looking forward to seeing you in March!
Your hosts: Alma Sinan and Ashlynn Rickord Werner
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AGS Scholarships - Application Deadline is April 15, 2023
Applications are now open for:
The Stockton Student Scholarship Award
Free registration for the AGS Conference!
Eligibility guidelines:
• Awards are open to graduate or undergraduate students at any accredited college or university.
• Students submit an application form (available on the AGS website) with supporting documentation to the AGS Scholarship Committee.
• Research topics may include the study of gravestones (such as marker materials, forms, and motifs, as well as carver studies) and cemeteries (such as surveys, burial practices, and landscape histories).
• Excluded are any research projects already funded by AGS through other awards.
The Stockton Student Scholarship provides the recipient with complimentary conference registration, on-campus lodging, and on-campus meals during the AGS annual conference. The recipient receives a complimentary student membership in AGS for one year beginning June of the year of the award. Additionally, up to $1,000 in reimbursement for allowable out-of-pocket travel expenses is provided. The total value of a Stockton award is about $1,750. Scholarship recipients agree to present their research at the annual conference if asked to do so; their work may also be published in Markers, the AGS Quarterly, or in other ways approved by AGS.
The Slater Student Scholarship Award
Eligibility guidelines:
• Awards are open to graduate or undergraduate students at any accredited college or university.
• Students submit an application form (available on the AGS website) with supporting documentation to the AGS Scholarship Committee.
• Research topics may include the study of gravestones (such as marker materials, forms, and motifs, as well as carver studies) and cemeteries (such as surveys, burial practices, and landscape histories).
• Excluded are any research projects already funded by AGS through other awards.
The Slater Student Scholarship provides the recipient with complimentary conference registration, on-campus lodging, and on-campus meals during the AGS annual conference. The recipient receives a complimentary student membership in AGS for one year beginning June of the year of the award. Additionally, a cash award (typically $250) is provided. The total value of a Slater award is about $1,000. Scholarship recipients agree to present their research at the annual conference if asked to do so; their work may also be published in Markers, the AGS Quarterly, or in other ways approved by AGS.
For details and scholarships application: https://gravestonestudies.org/awards-fund-and-scholarships/scholarships
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Check out our recent website updates!
We have a new page with information about our Book Club: https://www.gravestonestudies.org/welcome/book-club
We also have a new section with information about AGS awards and scholarships, located at the bottom of the homepage (https://www.gravestonestudies.org/). Here you can:
- Apply for funding for projects that further the study and preservation of gravestones by providing financial assistance to scholars and educators (the Joe Fund)
- Students: Apply for scholarships to attend and/or present at the AGS Conference (the Stockton and Slater Scholarships)
- Nominate an individual or organization for 2024 Fred and Rosalee Oakley Certificates of Merit and the Forbes Award
There is also a new section with information about the AGS Archives:
https://www.gravestonestudies.org/ags-archives
Please consider supporting these important funds with a donation and designate your donation for scholarships, archives or the Joe Fund: https://ags.wildapricot.org/Donate
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Spring Meeting, Western New England Chapter
Our Spring meeting will be at the Lee Public Library in Lee, MA on April 29th.
CALL FOR SPEAKERS: If you would like to be included on the morning program, contact Bob Drinkwater: soulestones@gmail.com.
Additional information about the meeting will be provided in the March e-news and via the Western New England Chapter email list.
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News from NDY Preservations Gravestone Photography Project
This information comes from Harry Klane of Not Dead Yet Preservations. "I am releasing the attached update on my Massachusetts gravestone photography project. 2022 was a great year and added to the incredible work I’m lucky to have undertaken."
Project Update
Harry Klane
NDY Preservations
Worcester, MA
harry.klane@klane.works
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Conference: Remembering the Departed, From Mourning to Legend
Remembering the Departed: From Mourning to Legend
Isles of Shoals Historical and Research Association (ISHRA)
Star Island, New Hampshire
June 18-22, 2023
Explore Victorian mourning traditions and funerary customs. Try your hand at the art of Victorian hairwork jewelry and join us for an Island Death Tour. Observe or assist AGS member Ta Mara Conde in the conservation of the Beebe Cemetery. Take some time this winter to ponder your own ancestors’ legends and lore and come prepared to share their stories. The conference play will take the form of a dramatic presentation of the Boone Island shipwreck complete with sound effects. This will segue into AGS member Judi Trainor teaching us about the U.S. Lifesaving Service, its history, rescuers, and memorials. Take a side trip to the Wood Island Lifesaving Station.
The conference is held on Star Island, which is about ten miles from Portsmouth, NH. There are three historic cemeteries on Star Island and another on neighboring Appledore Island, reachable by excursion boat. Participants enjoy spectacular sunsets and picturesque ocean views.
For more information and to register go to:
https://starisland.org/program/ishra-june/
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Caswell Cemetery, Star Island, NH
Photo by Judi Trainor.
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Documentary: Built on Graves
The streaming channel Tubi features this 5 episode documentary.
Description: "This literally groundbreaking show takes on real issues of grave recycling, cemetery abandonment, and how developers build over bodies in the earth."
https://tubitv.com/series/300006074/built-on-graves?start=true
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Article: "Even in Death, Black Americans Have Been Denied the Right to Rest in Peace"
This article is posted on the New York Times website.
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Article: "A Gravestone Pedlar"
We received this interesting piece that was published in the Springfield (MA) Republican in 1830.
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Transcription:
Gravestone Pedlar
Pedlars. --- My door has been constantly assaulted by essence pedlars, book pedlars, trinket pedlars, rat-trap pedlars, till patience has been exhausted, and the disposition to violence has been restrained only by the admonitions of self-respect : but there was still a cap-sheaf to this bundle of evils, and I must confess I was fairly astounded when the GRAVE-STONE PEDLAR came ! A pedlar of Gravestones --- with the best of marble – neatly cut, ornamented in the newest fashion --- ready to be inscribed with the hic jacet of any son of Adam – and urging upon you with so much earnestness, that if you had no dead relatives who required the memento mori, you would almost think it incumbent upon you to kill a few for the accommodation of these benevolent laborers in the vineyard of the dead. My son had been dead scarce a week, and these vultures had been watching his demise and sharpening their beaks to fatten upon the last kind act which affection pays to its broken ties. I could have spurned the applicant, but with wounded feelings and indignant pride, at being reminded by an avaricious dolt, whose heart is as unfeeling as his marble, of this last duty to the memory of my child, I turned away and left him. --- Such acts are improper and insulting. --- They are deserving of Publick reprehension --- it is time the public voice was raised against them, and I call upon all honest men to erect their faces against a set of mercenaries who would sponge the living and feed upon the dead.
There is one plain rule which should govern all men --- to live and let live --- and in order to do that we should encourage regular mechanics. Pay your neighbour for his labor, and he will repay you by his patronage and good will. You will be better served, cheaper served in the long run, and will not waste your substance upon a set of drivellers, who are roving up and down, seeking whom they may devour. If you want a trinket, go to the jeweler, and you will know whether you obtain fine gold or impure --- If you want a Gravestone, go to the stonecutter, and you may get a “white stone” without blemish and without fault.
New Haven Herald.
Source: Springfield Republican, Aug. 25, 1830 – posted online, submitted by Al McKee
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The Association for Gravestone Studies
278 Main St., #209
Greenfield MA 01301
www.gravestonestudies.org
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