I was taking a walk in a large (for this area) cemetary in Portsmouth, OH today. (I’m not weird, it’s just quieter and more relaxed atmosphere than the sidewalks on the streets.) Several of the graves are quite old, many dating back to the U.S. Civil War era.
I noticed that some of the fancier headstones are obelisks, and some are tall pedastals with an urn carved on top of it. Does the urn have any significance, or was it just a decorative feature that was popular for awhile?
I also noticed several of these tall monuments were carved to appear to have a piece of cloth draped on them. The obelisks usually had it covering the whole top. The urns-on-pedastals would have the half covering the urn, and one had it draped over the pedastal with the urn sitting on top of it. Does the cloth have any meaning?
Y’know how the story of Jesus’ Resurrection talks about the women arriving at the tomb and finding only the “wrappings”? I.E., the shroud, or the grave clothes? I’m thinking that the cloth on the headstones symbolizes a hope of coming Resurrection, with the cloth left behind.
We suffered a great Greek Revival period in the USA around that time. Regular sized family homes with Greek columns out front, urns here and there.
I like Melin’s shroud idea, too.
Were there any cannons in the cemetary? They, if not too large (and useful) a diameter, were offered and accepted by cemetaries at that time as memorials.
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
Yep! Greek Revival. Tombstones go through fashion changes like most everything else.
They just go though them slower.
The stones from some of our oldest cemetaries in New England were big on winged death heads (skull). They strike people as morbid today. You need to take the time and the people into consideration.
We also walk in the nearby cemetary - a lot of people around here do - it’s quiet, well-maintained and no cars. There are lots of mini obelisks from that time - possibly what was good enough for General Washington was good enough for them (work on the Washington Monument started in 1848). We also have some that are carved (chiseled?) to look like tree trunks. Scary. I haven’t particularly noticed any urns or cloths - but I’ll be on the lookout for them now.
The tall column idea seems to have been popular for Civil War monuments, too. A lot of small towns in Ohio and Indiana have them - a pillar surmounted by a soldier, usually so tall you can’t really get a good look at the figure. I’ve never understood that.
Titanic causualties Isador and Ida Strauss have a large but beautifully subdued Art Deco-ish marker.
But dime store magnate Frank Woolworth has a tomb with a tacky Egyptian theme (the bare breasted sphinxes are a nice touch). Makes me think the tomb was actually built a few years after Frank’s death, when the world was going through a King Tut frenzy.
Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you. Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.
We lived in Newport RI for a while and “The stones from some of our oldest cemetaries in New England were big on winged death heads (skull).” that Doug Bowe mentioned were pretty frightening. I remember a tiny grave yard near the road where we sometimes walked, it had the death’s head type stones and I used to wonder if I should look or not.
The poems or statements under the death’s heads did have a kind of comfort in them. Not as boring as today’s comments.
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
In Woodlawn Cemetary in the Bronx, there’s a long epitaph on a specific stone that describes in detail the way the guy died.
Apparently, this teenage guy worked in the New York Life building and he was so good looking that one day several women chased him around the office. Sadly, in running away from the ladies he fell, impaled himself on a pen and died. Or something like that.
All of this information can be found on the headstone. I have the exact quote at home.
Poor guy. If it weren’t for his clumsiness I’d swear we were related.
Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you. Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.
George Spencer Millet
“Lost life by stab in falling on ink eraser, evading six young women trying to give him birthday kisses in office of Metropolitan Life Building.”
I too spend an inordinate amout of time in the old cemeteries, my observations are such: The winged skulls fell out of favor in exactly 1799. In all my travels in the northeast, I’ve never found a seath’s head in dating from 1800 or beyond. The stones were about the same shape for a while; I imagine they were leftovers.
The draped urn was displayed in cemeteries that did not allow graven images on stones or memorials. May non-sectarian (any faith can be buried) cemeteries forbade statues, and of course Jewish cemeteries never allowed statues. (An interesting exception to that rule is the gravesite of Harry Houdini in Machpelah Cemetery in brooklyn. Not only is there a ststue of a kneeling woman, at one time a bust of Houdini was at the site.
“If I pinch my nose with my fingers, close my mouth tight,
and blow real hard, I can make my ears bleed. It’s
not as cool as Superman’s X-ray vision, but it’s my own
special talent.”
SYMBOLS POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION TERMS DEFINITIONS
Angel, flying Rebirth
Trumpeting: Call to the Resurrection Weeping: Grief
Arch: Victory of life; or victory in death
Bird: Eternal life.
Birds in flight: Flight of the Soul
Candle flame: Life
Columns, Doors: Heavenly entrance
Crown: Glory of life after death
Dove: Purity, devotion
Figs, Pineapples: Prosperity, eternal life
Flower: Frailty of life.
Severed blossom: mortality
Garland: Victory
Hand pointing: Heavenly reward
Heart: Love, mortality, love of God
Hourglass: Time’s inevitable
Lamb: Innocence
Pall, Pick, Spade: Mortality
Rooster: Awakening, the Resurrection
Scythe: Death, the divine harvest
Shell: The Resurrection, life everlasting
Skull, skeleton Mortality
Sun setting: Death
Sun shining/rising: Renewed life
Tree: Life. Tree sprouting: Life everlasting.
Severed Branch: Mortality
Vine: The sacraments
Weeping Willow: Nature’s lament
Winged Face: Effigy of the soul of the deceased
Winged Skull: Flight of the soul from mortal man
Wreath: Victory
Wheat Sheaves: The divine
I had these on hand but they are all 18th century grave stone symbols - your urn must be strictly 19th century. There are grave yard preservation societies about, perhaps one of them could give you a difinitive answer.
All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people.
