Links
to resources
on cemetery history
and
preservation
Cemetery Preservation
Cemetery Lists and Directories of
Decedents
Education Programs
- GraveNet, a
project to give K-12 students an opportunity to investigate community
history, geology, etc., through cemeteries, by providing lesson plans and
other resources.
- Cemetery Studies:
taking 8th grade classes on cemetery field trips.
Online Discussion Groups
- alt.society.funerary, Usenet
newsgroup.
- Grave-L, a
mailing list for taphophiles: "Grave-L focuses primarilly on the
sociological, anthropological, historical, artistic, spiritual, folklore,
and other nonmorbid aspects of cemeteries and sepulchral culture. We're
not a Goth or horror list, though persons with such interests are welcome
to join and participate in the discussion. Genealogists should be aware
that we aren't much of a help for cemetery look-ups, though you can always
ask."
- CEMETERY-L: "An
'Old Bones' mailing list for people interested in the many aspects of
family graves from caring for the grave of one ancestor to the restoration
and preservation of the family cemetery. Areas of discussion will center
around the restoration, preservation, and recording of small cemeteries
and will include cleaning and repairing broken headstones and recording
headstone inscriptions, how to better read old headstones, and determining
where ancestors are buried. This is not a list for cemetery lookups."
Collections of Cemetery Links
- Cemeteries (long
established worldwide links page, based in Germany).
- Cemetery Culture: City of the
Silent, "The Web's most extensive cemetery site," has many annotated
links.
- Joseph Culligan's Cemeteries page.
- Cemeteries
(formerly "World Wide Index of Cemeteries on the Net").
- Cemeteries,
Memorials, and Ancient Burials on Webster's Death, Dying and Grief
Resources site, with a huge number of interesting links.
- The Tombstone Tourist.
- The
Sepulcher, with many cemetery and related links.
- Dark Side of the
Web (page on Cemeteries, Funeral Homes, and Death).
- Geographic list
of online cemeteries by Michael Kinsella.
- Yahoo's Cemeteries
page.
Organizations and Publications
- Association for
Gravestone Studies home page.
- National Federation of
Cemetery Friends ("Caring about the future of Britain's
cemeteries").
- Benton County
(Ark.) Cemetery Preservation Group home page.
- California Historic
Cemetery Alliance, working to protect and preserve California's
historic cemeteries.
- Chicora Foundation: a Columbia,
South Carolina-based non-profit heritage preservation organization founded
in 1993; work includes archaeological and historical research throughout
the Southeastern United States, public education (primarily in South
Carolina), and work in conservation and preservation with museums,
libraries, archives, historic organizations, and private citizens. See
also Chicora's pages on cemetery
preservation, conservation (appropriate
and inappropriate treatments), cemetery fences
(ornamental ironwork), cleaning
stones, resetting, cemetery recording
forms.
- Coalition to
Protect Maryland Burial Sites, formed in 1991, is committed to the
protection of human burial sites from unauthorized and unwarranted
disturbance, by man or nature.
- Connecticut
Gravestone Network, organized in 1995, to educate the public on how
important old graveyards and cemeteries are to history, and that
gravestone carving is a valuable art form. Projects include cemetery
preservation, recording, photographing, carver identification research,
and controlling vandalism.
- Grave
Concern, Inc., promoting preservation, restoration, and maintenance
of historic graveyards in Lancaster County, Pa.
- New Hampshire Old
Graveyard Association, a group of graveyard/cemetery devotees who
promote the knowledge of New Hampshire history by bringing together people
interested in old graveyards. Goals include the discovery, maintenance,
records preservation and cataloging of graveyards and cemeteries.
- Ohio Cemetery Preservation
Society "To record, interpret, restore and preserve the art, history
and environment of Ohio's cemeteries and burying grounds."
- Save Our Cemeteries: founded
in 1974 in an effort to prevent the demolition of nine city blocks of wall
vaults surrounding most of the three squares of St. Louis Cemetery No. II.
Since 1974, SOC has broadened its focus from only the historic cemeteries
of New Orleans to include those of the state of Louisiana.
- State Association for the
Preservation of Iowa Cemeteries, dedicated to the preservation of
cemeteries in the State of Iowa, listing resources for preserving
cemeteries, repairing monuments, upcoming events and where to go for
help.
- Texas
Historical Commission, working to designate and preserve cemeteries in
Texas.
- Tomb With A
View, cemetery interest newsletter.
- 1Media.org, photo agency,
sells CDs of gravestone images, including Jewish cemeteries in Germany,
Irish cemeteries, Old German cemeteries. Accepts PayPal.
- Books about
cemetery history and preservation from Frontier Press.
- Save Southern
Cemeteries, to educate people as to the dangers facing cemeteries
(development, neglect, vandalism); locate forgotten cemeteries; transcribe
as many cemeteries as possible; prevent the destruction of cemeteries in
the South; encourage legislation to protect cemeteries; encourage
community groups to adopt neglected cemeteries.
- Save Texas
Cemeteries, organized in November 1994 as a statewide, educational
organization to help save all cemeteries in the state of Texas from
destruction.
- Washington State Cemetery
Association, to research, protect, restore, and preserve old and
abandoned cemeteries in Washington state, to maintain their history, and
to provide education and awareness of old and abandoned cemeteries and
their care to the public.
History, Culture, Sociology, and Images
- Cemeteries and Cemetery
Symbols: Exploring the meaning of cemetery symbols and other graveyard
mysteries, from religious iconography to secret societies. For genealogy
sleuths, taphophiles and goth kids.
- Cemetery
photos by John Thomas Grant: mausoleums, gravestones, statuary, and
other images, mostly from New York City cemeteries
- Farber Gravestone
Collection at the American Antiquarian Society; over 13,500 images
documenting the sculpture on more than 9,000 gravestones, most of which
were made prior to 1800, in the Northeastern part of the United
States.
- Cemetery Culture: City of the
Silent, "The Web's most extensive cemetery site," with many different
categories of information.
- The Art
of Dying: Headstone Art of North Carolina
- Cemetery Images, with
many photos of cemeteries in upstate New York and elsewhere.
- The Tombstone Traveller's
Guide, exploring American cemeteries and funeral practices; photos,
stories, essays, research.
- The Undertaker's Grave,
with photos from more than a dozen different cemeteries in the U.S. and
Canada.
- The Adams
Residence, with a cemetery photo gallery featuring sites in England
and Europe.
- Cemeteries of Florida,
with many cemeteries listed and photographed.
- Don's
Cemetery Page, with brief history and images of cemeteries in Canada.
- Cemeteries
and the Sociology of Death.
- Second Page of the
Dead, with photos and information about a number of crypts and
monuments in Europe.
- Mostly Cemeteries,
with many nice images of cemeteries in Georgia, California, and elsewhere.
- Northstar
Gallery, "fine art photography of cemetery and memorial art from
around the world, including Pere Lachaise, Monumental and Novodevichye."
Also, an essay on
"Sensuality in Memorial Art."
- White
American attitudes concerning burials (with much interesting history).
- Writ in Water,
a gallery of cemetery images from around the world.
Services for Historic Cemeteries and
Researchers
- David Simpson
Photography: Cemetery Research and Genealogy Photography, Blacksburg,
Virginia.
- Cemetery Updating
Services, offering record keeping and computerization: "We update
cemetery records so anyone can access the information quickly, efficiently
and easily."
- Gate City
Caretakers: "Gate City Caretakers provides landscape gardeners for the
upkeep of privately owned perpetual care lots as well as entire
cemeteries. Our suggestions are made with sensitivity to historic
appropriateness, symbolism, location and the safeguarding of monuments,
coping walls and other decorative architectural and landscape features."
- Virtual Underground:
cemetery mapping using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR).
- Discover Rods, a dowsing
system for finding lost graves and buried headstones. I'm skeptical, but
lots of folks think its worthwhile.
Specific cemeteries and sites: U.S. by
state and city or county
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Santa Cruz County
- Black Oak Cemetery (a pioneer cemetery), Canelo, 9 miles south
of Elgin -- Partial
listing of headstones and burials.
- California
- San Franscico Bay Area
- Bay Area Cemeteries -- Web site
with pages for eight Bay Area cemeteries, with profile of each and photos;
created by Christis Loizou.
- Santa Cruz
- Los Angeles
- Catholic cemeteries -- Official web site provided
by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, with information and photos for eleven
cemeteries.
- Evergreen Cemetery -- web
page at USC with brief history and photos.
- Connecticut
- Hartford
- Cedar Hill Cemetery -- official web site, with
visitor information, history, tours, events, customer information, etc.
- New Haven
- District of Columbia
- Washington
- D.C. Cemeteries -- Web
site with pages for seven Washington and nearby cemeteries, with
profile of each and photos; created by Christis Loizou.
- Congressional Cemetery -- Web site with
news, brief history, newsletter, etc.
- Oak Hill Cemetery -- Brief
history (with emphasis on connections to Smithsonian Institution).
- Florida
- Georgia
- Atlanta
- Columbus
- Milledgeville
- Memory Hill Cemetery -- web site with history,
index, gravesite photos and more.
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Chicago
- Matt Hucke's Graveyards
of Chicago, with detailed information and great photographs of many
Chicago-area cemeteries.
- Iowa
- Cedar Rapids
- Wapello County
- Kitterman Cemetery -- web
site with listings and photo.
- Kentucky
- Mayfield
- Highland Park Cemetery, Maplewood Cemetery,
and Oak Rest Cemetery -- Mayfield
Cemeteries web site with interment listings; includes a large photo of
"the strange procession that never moves" (unusual monument).
- Louisiana
- Cheneyville
- Trinity Church Cemetery -- tour with six
photos.
- Fenton
- Fenton Cemetery -- web site with photos
and burial list.
- Kinder
- Kinder McRill Memorial Cemetery -- web site with
photos and burial list.
- New Orleans:
- Maine
- Bangor
- Mount Hope Cemetery -- official web site with photos,
history, searchable database of burials, and sales information.
- Saco
- Laurel Hill Cemetery -- web page by Saco Bay
Trails, with photo, map, description, and a list of prominent burials.
- Massachsetts
- Barnstable County
- Cambridge
- Mount Auburn Cemetery -- Official Site with photos and
history; tour
with many photos (by University of Virginia History of Landscape
Architecture); web
page of the Friends of Mount Auburn organization; brief article about
creation of "Trees of Mount Auburn Cemetery" map.
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- New Jersey
- Plainfield
- Plainfield Burial Ground (at Friends Meeting House) -- burial
listing.
- Princeton
- New York
- Brooklyn
- Greenwood Cemetery -- photos by Tony
Saunders.
- Buffalo
- Forest Lawn Cemetery -- official home page with photos,
history, tours, events, map, and sales information.
- New York
- New York Marble Cemetery (or Second Avenue Cemetery) -- official web site with records,
interments
- New York City Marble Cemetery (on Second Street) -- official web site with vault owners and
some interment information
- Rochester
- Mount Hope Cemetery -- web
site sponsored by Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery, with history,
photos, tours, etc.
- Troy
- Oakwood Cemetery -- web site sponsored by
Friends of Oakwood Cemetery, with some photos, links, and references.
- North Carolina
- Charlotte
- Settlers Cemetery -- web
site with virtual tour
- Ohio
- Oregon
- Salem
- Pioneer Cemetery -- web site sponsored by Friends of
Pioneer Cemetery.
- Pennsylvania
- Philadelphia
- Congregation Mikvah Israel Cemetery -- web page at
ushistory.org
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Austin:
- Oakwood Cemetery -- web
page at the University of Texas, with one photo, listing prominent
burials.
- Texas State Cemetery -- official web site with history,
photos, and a searchable burial list with some headstone photos and
biographical information.
- Denton County
- Harris County
- Utah
- Mendon
- Mendon City Cemetery -- web site
with a few photos, map, history, and complete burial listings.
- Virginia
Specific Cemeteries and Sites: World
Books About Cemeteries
(in association with Amazon.com)
- Cemetery History, Art, Architecture
- Cities and Regions
- Eric J. Brock, New
Orleans Cemeteries
- John Gary Brown, Soul
in the Stone : Cemetery Art from America's Heartland
- Robert Florence, City
of the Dead : A Journey Through St. Louis Cemetery (New Orleans)
- Robert Florence, New
Orleans Cemeteries : Life in the Cities of the Dead
- Janet Greene, Epitaphs
to Remember : Remarkable Inscriptions from New England Gravestones
- Leonard V. Huber, New
Orleans Architecture Vol III: The Cemeteries
- Matt Hucke & Ursula Bielski, Graveyards
of Chicago: The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County
Cemeteries
- Carolee Inskeep, Graveyard
Shift : New York City Metropolitan Area Cemeteries
- Jack Neely, The
Marble City : A Photographic Tour of Knoxville's Graveyards
- Vicki Blum Vigil, Cleveland
Cemeteries
- Bryan Woolley et al, Final
Destinations : A Travel Guide for Remarkable Cemeteries in Texas, New
Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana
- Famous Graves
- Researching Cemeteries
- Cemetery Preservation and Operation
Created and maintained by Lawrence Kestenbaum.
Send me mail at political.graveyard@gmail.com; visit my
homepage at http://www.potifos.com/.
Page created in 1996; last changed July 28, 2013