Association for Gravestone Studies E-Newsletter | |
February 2024 / Issue 251
ISSN 2833-4892
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Arabella Whitiny Gravestone, Stow, MA
From Bret Kramer's query, below.
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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 Mailing Address
Please note that the AGS has a new mailing address:
Association for Gravestone Studies
PO Box 2975
Amherst, MA 01004
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2024 AGS Conference and Annual Meeting: Call for Papers
Tuesday, June 18 - Sunday, June 23, 2024
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
We welcome all proposals, but the committee reserves the right to deny proposals, determine the best placement of each proposal within a session, and to decide whether proposals are acceptable for the indicated format. Applicants MUST utilize the form on the AGS website to be considered. Applications are due by March 29, 2024, emailed to AGSConfProposals@gmail.com. If you have any questions about the process, please see the website at www.gravestonestudies.org/conferences/annual-conference or use the above email.
SESSION FORMATS: The Program Committee encourages submission of proposals that may include, but are not limited to, the following formats:
• Individual Presentations: Speakers should expect to give a presentation of no more than 25 minutes and a comment and discussion period after the presentations. Individual papers will be combined into panels. Individual presentations can be given either virtually* or in-person.
• Special Focus Session/Workshop: Typically 60-minute session (although 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 virtual presentations - Those presentations that will be aired virtually must be pre-recorded 25-minute presentations – PowerPoint with audio – due to the conference organizer (info@gravestonstudies.org) by May 31st. These are research-based papers. Virtual presenters are expected to be online for their full session including a live question and answer period. Each paper session will have an assigned moderator. All presenters must ensure by May 31st they have all necessary image permissions.
Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by April 12, 2024. The final schedule will
be posted on the AGS website (www.gravestonestudies.org) by June 10th.
For form and details: https://gravestonestudies.org/images/Conference/2024/AGS_2024_Conference_Call_for_Papers.pdf
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AGS 2024 Conference Student Scholarships
AGS welcomes applications for free conference places from undergraduate and graduate students interested in all or any aspects of gravestone and cemetery studies. The annual conference, held in June each year, provides an opportunity to learn about both new academic research and best practice in preservation and management, while networking with academics, advocates, other students and early-career professionals.
Every year, AGS offers one or more conference scholarships. The exact terms each year depend upon funding and registration fees, but the principal scholarship will offer a fully-paid free residential place at the conference including registration and all meals, together with one year’s student membership. It is sometimes possible to make a contribution towards travel costs.
Scholarship winners are required to attend the conference in person and to deliver a short paper or talk about an aspect of gravestone studies.
For details and to apply:
https://gravestonestudies.org/awards-fund-and-scholarships/slater2
https://gravestonestudies.org/awards-fund-and-scholarships/stockton-scholarship
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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 24th, 2024
Time: 7 p.m. Eastern Time
Where: Please register here: https://ags.wildapricot.org/event-5628656
We'll send a Zoom link to the registrants on the day of the book club meeting.
***We are thrilled to announce that editor, Loren Rhoads, will join us at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (after our book club discussion 7-8 p.m. ET), to answer questions about her book.
Our selection for March 2024: Death's Garden Revisited, Edited by Loren Rhoads.
The book Death's Garden Revisited collects 40 powerful personal essays — accompanied by lovely photographs— to illustrate why people visit cemeteries.
Genealogists and geocachers, travelers and tour guides, anthropologists, historians, pagan priestesses, and ghost hunters all venture into cemeteries in these essays.
They discover that cemeteries don't only provide a rewarding end to a pilgrimage, they can be the perfect location for a first date or a wedding, the highlight of a family vacation, a cure for depression, and the best possible place to grasp history. Not to mention that cemetery-grown fruit is the sweetest.
Spanning the globe from Iceland to Argentina and from Portland to Prague, Death’s Garden Revisited explores the complex web of relationships between the living and those who have passed before.
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For a list of upcoming and past reads, visit the book club page on the AGS website at: https://gravestonestudies.org/welcome/book-club
Looking forward to seeing you!
Your hosts: Alma Sinan and Ashlynn Rickord Werner
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Death's Garden Revisited: A Reader's Guide
This information comes from Loren Rhoads. The AGS Book Club is going to read my book Death’s Garden Revisited in March. I’ve created a free Reader’s Guide to accompany the book. The Reader’s Guide is designed to be a fun introduction to cemeteries for readers who are new to the subject, but hopefully seasoned taphophiles will enjoy it too. It includes an annotated table of contents from Death's Garden Revisited, discussion/contemplation questions, a soundtrack of cemetery songs, and a game to introduce readers to cemetery symbolism and encourage them to visit. The Reader’s Guide can be downloaded at https://dl.bookfunnel.com/e9ui7pus7w
Loren Rhoads
Editor of Death’s Garden Revisited
Author of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die
& Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel
www.cemeterytravel.com
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AGS Pennsylvania Chapter, Spring Meeting
Mark your calendars! The Spring meeting of the PA AGS Chapter will be held Saturday, May 11 in Gettysburg! We will have our morning session with presentations and lunch at the Gettysburg United Methodist Church, followed by tours at three local cemeteries.
More information and registration forms will be forthcoming, but if you are interested in being a presenter during the morning session, please email Joy Giguere at jmg66@psu.edu with a title and abstract (150-200 words) of your topic. Our event host, Jean Green, will be one of our presenters, so we are currently seeking 2-3 more to fill out the morning session.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069484365887
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AGS Western New England Chapter, Spring Meeting – Shrewsbury MA
SAVE THE DATE – Saturday April 27th – We’re planning to meet in Shrewsbury (just east of Worcester) from 10 AM to noonish at a place to be confirmed, followed by a visit to one or more local cemeteries after lunch (weather permitting). Presenters, their topics, and additional details will be provided in the March eNewsletter and via the Chapter email list.
Hope to see you there! We encourage AGS members and friends from eastern and central New England to join us.
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Cemeteries Tours in Italy
Tui Snider is organizing an art tour group that will be visiting several monumental cemeteries in Italy, September 1 - 11, 2024.
From Tui: The itinerary is jam packed with fascinating places, including Etruscan tombs and an ossuary, as well as historic monumental cemeteries. (The tour was organized by a woman who leads art and history tours. And, of course, there will be tasty Italian food along the way!)
The event is tailor made for us taphophiles, I must say. It’s going to be so fun!
https://www.lisastatkus.com/tui-snider-sept-1-11-2024-monumental-cemeteries-of-italy-tour/
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Article: "170+ year old Dallas cemetery could soon get increased protections"
This article was sent in by Betsy Farris: Attached is a link to a news article announcing that historic White Rock Cemetery in Dallas, Texas, will be further protected from future development. It has black and white burials.
There is a video but it appears to get cut off toward the end. The written article has the full information about the latest designation as a historical site. It has become landlocked with apartments surrounding it.
I also believe that the Dallas County Pioneer Association has had a tour or workday here in 2023. DCPA keeps track of all cemeteries in Dallas County, Texas.
170-plus-year-old Dallas cemetery could soon get increased protections
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St. Anne's Cemetery Committee (Annapolis, MD) Needs Your Help
St. Anne’s cemetery committee in Annapolis, MD needs you. They are looking to do the first major update in years for both St. Anne’s and St. Anne’s Cedar Bluff cemeteries. If you have information about individuals buried in either cemetery (name, death date or place, plot information, cemetery deed, burial plot receipt, funeral home, or obit), we are interested in hearing from you -- Tina Simmons, tns0301@gmail.com.
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Query: Looking for Carver Examples
This query comes from Bret Kramer, bretkramer@gmail.com.
I am looking for more examples of the work of a carver designated "the carver of Thomas Baird style stones" in the Farber collection. https://farber.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/FBC~100~1
James Blachowicz documents 10 of these stones in his book, From Slate to Marble: Gravestone Carving Traditions in Eastern Massachusetts,1750-1850, Vol II, pp. 526-27 :
Bancroft, Eunice 1777 Auburn
Bancroft, Nathaniel 1777 Auburn
Rice, Bethiah 1779 Auburn
Rice, Gershom 1781 Worcester
Baird, Thomas 1782 Auburn
Bancraft, David 1782 Auburn
Boyden, Maj. Daniel 1782 Auburn
Hapgood, Ruth 1784 Stow
Whitiny, Arabella 1785 Stow (see cover photo, above)
Whitiney, Jason 1785 Stow
Recently I spotted an additional stone for Eliza Patch, d. 1795, in Bolton which I believe should be counted among the works of the "Thomas Baird" carver. James Blachowicz has suggested that these stones were carved by William Young (1711-1795) in conscious imitation of the work of Ivory Soule. I feel that, considering the date of Eliza Patch's death, just three months before Young himself died, that he could not be the carver.
Considering the ten years between the Eliza Patch stone and the Whitney stones in Stow, I think it is reasonable to assume that other "Thomas Baird" style stones might be found. I was hoping that readers might help me in locating them. Since the carver is unknown, I can only suggest that these stones might be found in the area between Auburn, MA and Stow, MA. Eliza Patch was the daughter of Joshua Patch, son of Nathaniel Patch of Worcester, so there is a likely connection to that area.
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Eliza Patch Gravestone, Bolton, MA | |
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Query: Looking for GPR Service in Wisconsin
Does anyone know of someone who could do this type of service? Or references of someone who would know more about this?
Tom Sprague, john155@athenet.com
50 Adams Way
Little Chute, Wi 54140
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Query: Images and Information from Westborough, MA
AGS member and epitaph scholar John Hanson’s current research is focused on Westborough, MA. If anyone has images of interesting gravestones from the Memorial Cemetery, and/or information on carvers active in Westborough in the late 1700s, please contact John at readinggravestones@gmail.com.
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Books Available from AGS Member
From Bill Baeckler: I have a rather urgent need to downsize from two houses to one; therefore I am offering an assortment of materials to anyone for mere shipping fees:
Markers XXIV; XXX; XXXI; XXXII; XXXV; XXXVI; XXXVIII
Also, Sarapin, Old Burial Grounds of New Jersey
Kull, New England Cemeteries: A Collectors Guide
Also, a dozen other books and regional tour guides of various cemeteries and DOZENS OF PREMIUM GUIDES TO FAMOUS CEMETERIES & RELATED TOPICS
If interested, please contact: Bill Baeckler gulfcoast43@gmail.com or (941) 321-3833.
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Thank you to our Donors
In early December of 2023, I sent a note to Association for Gravestone Studies members that we needed financial help to get us through the vagaries brought about by the pandemic. Many members and even some who are simply friends of the organization dug deeply into their pockets, some very deep indeed. I am pleased to report that 112 people rose to the occasion and contributed more than $26,000. All of us on the Board of Trustees would like to thank you for believing in the mission of the AGS.
--Dennis Montagna, AGS President
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The Association for Gravestone Studies
PO Box 2975
Amherst, MA 01004
www.gravestonestudies.org
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