Cemetery Symbolism – Stories Etched in Stone

Latest Posts

About the Site

December 31, 2021February 18, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

This site is about all of the artistic and interesting finds in cemeteries. Elaborate marble sculptures, detailed cast-iron gates and fences, unusual tombstones --More

Cemetery Fences and Gates and Their Makers

December 28, 2021February 18, 2022Kim Jacobson 1

The best examples of charming “Lacy Iron” in the cemetery are the elaborate gates and fences surrounding family lots. The makers are readily --More

Story Stones: Knights of the Whip

October 9, 2023October 9, 2023Kim Jacobson Comment

C & O Stage, also known as California and Oregon Stage, was the largest stagecoach operation in the region until the railroad marked --More

New Orleans Cast Iron Mausoleums

July 22, 2023July 23, 2023Kim Jacobson Comment

I. N. Marks cast-iron Family Tomb, Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana --More

Grave Covers

September 26, 2022September 26, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

Metallic grave covers, or “mounds erected over graves” were popular in the late 1800’s. They were not only decorative but were also designed --More

Stone Portraits

August 13, 2022July 24, 2023Kim Jacobson Comment

Stone portraits were popular in early New England from roughly the mid 1700’s to the mid-1800s. James Blachowicz’s meticulous study captured in his --More

Early New England Stone Cutters–The Stone Cutter of Boston

June 21, 2022July 24, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

The Old Stone Cutter has been called a “master craftsman” that set the standard for all later carvers in the Boston area in the seventeenth century. --More

Early New England Gravestone Symbols

June 6, 2022June 6, 2022Kim Jacobson 2

One of the earliest tombstone symbols in the United States is the Death’s Head. Also known as the “winged skull,” it pertains to --More

Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks

June 3, 2022July 12, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

When I first saw Mehtabel Sheafe’s gravestone in King’s Chapel Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts I thought it was a mother skeleton with --More

Parables in Bas Relief

May 26, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

While religious iconography is fairly common in the cemetery, tombstones with a bas relief depiction of a Bible story are somewhat unusual. The --More

Shell Babies AKA “Babies on the Half-Shell”

May 20, 2022May 20, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

Shell babies were popular in the early 1900s as they could easily be ordered from catalogs. They emerged in the United States as --More

Marble Carvers–M. Muldoon & Co.

May 20, 2022May 20, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

Col. Michael Macdonald Muldoon (1836-1911), was the founder of “Union Marble Works, M. Muldoon & Co.,” of Louisville, Kentucky. Born in County Cavan, --More