Cemetery Symbolism – Stories Etched in Stone

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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

Early New England Gravestone Symbols

June 6, 2022June 6, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

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

Emblems and Hieroglyphicks

June 3, 2022June 18, 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 mama 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

Victorian Rustic

April 30, 2022April 30, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

Treestones were a product of the Victorian Rustic era and were popular funerary monuments from the 1880s until the early 1930s. Together with --More

Tomb Types

April 19, 2022May 28, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

Sarcophagus The sarcophagus looks like it could contain a body, but it is rare that it actually does. The Scipio style sarcophagus is --More

Gone Goth

April 7, 2022April 20, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

Gothic Influences in the Cemetery Gothic Revival architecture was most popular from about 1840 through the 1870s in the United States. Launched in --More

Children’s Graves

April 2, 2022June 21, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

Children are memorialized with a variety of symbols, with cherubs or baby angels being among the most common. The little lamb conveys innocence, --More

Beads and Bangles, Pebbles and Pennies

March 19, 2022March 24, 2022Kim Jacobson Comment

Many people pay tribute to a deceased person by placing memorabilia on their grave as a symbol of respect and support. The most --More