Gravestone Artwear Blog
The 34th annual conference of the Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) was held at Colby College, Waterville, Maine, June 14 19th. There were lectures, workshops, exhibits, tours of Maine cemeteries and even sales tables something for everyone interested in gravestone studies.
Lecture topics presented included Lynne Baggets Incised Letterform. As demonstrated by Lynne, through careful examination of carved lettering, a stonemason can be identified and his heritage revealed. She also takes this process one step further and creates the most interesting art forms from lettering found on graves and other resources. Even her cast forms taken from contemporary sign lettering have their roots in the ancient carvings.
Always, these lectures and workshops display our cultural heritage and our connections to ancient, medieval, colonial and Victorian influences when it comes to gravestone art and the men and women who carved the stones.
Other papers were presented on topics ranging from images of turn-of-the century Maine; rare Jewish cemetery monuments; portrait gravestones, finger pointing hand carved gravestones of the 19th Century; sandstone markers in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, cemeteries; grave structures in Louisiana and other parts of the South; Yellow Fever Epidemics; Old Dutch Cemeteries, and even a lecture on the allegorical death scene in which an angel guides a soul on the last voyage across water to a distant land. All of these lectures required a great deal of research by each presenter and inspire further study into each topic.
The most noteworthy hands-on two-day workshop during this conference is the Conservation workshop. Its hard work and involves the participants in learning the proper techniques for cleaning, repairing, resetting stones and mortaring them into a base. And thats the Beginner Workshop. That workshop is followed-up by a full day advanced workshop which includes learning how to assess and document gravestones and monuments, use a consumer grade handheld GPS, advanced cleaning techniques, core drilling and removing rusted, damaged pins, adhesive repair of stone fragments and the use of various mortars for infills and replacement of lost materials. WOW! These workshops teach Association for Gravestone Studies participants conservation and restoration skills and they in turn use these skills to work in their favorite burying grounds and cemeteries to restore damaged markers, gravestones and of course monuments.
Other workshops included letter form casting; photography; making foil impressions of gravestones; paranormal experiences; understanding the history and evolution of cemetery markers; gravestone rubbing; and even humor in the graveyard.
The next AGS conference will be in June of 2012 at Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey. Please contact the Association for Gravestone Studies in Greenfield, Massachusetts, for more details. Its web site is: http://gravestonestudies.org/
(Please scroll down to see the Gallery from our travels while we attended the conference)
Here are photos of AGS conferees wearing Gravestone Artwear® t-shirts.
Jane Macomber, President of the Maine Old Cemetery Association
The Phil Wooldridge Family from Great Meadows, New Jersey – Jack, Lorna and Phil
Other Conferees:
The above shows details from a Celtic Cross found in the Mount Pleasant Catholic Cemetery in Bangor, Maine
Several marble gravestones and the ~Death House~ in the background at Mount Pleasant Catholic Cemetery in Bangor, Maine. **Note: In most New England cemeteries, the Receiving House or Death House as it is called in Bangor, Maine, is the place where the deceased were kept until spring when the ground thawed enough to enable proper burying of the deceased.
A close up of the beautiful wreath of glass beads.
The Annie and Captain J. French memorial at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine. This is America’s second garden cemetery, designed by Charles G Bryant in 1834. The first garden cemetery is Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This above photo is the stylish monument which Annie French patented and included the beautiful wreath.
These stones steps at Mt Hope Cemetery were photographed during the funeral scene in Stephen King’s movie, Pet Semetary. For those of us who have seen the movie, Stephen King even made a cameo appearance as the minister who officiated at the funeral of Missy Dandridge.
This beautiful building with its ornate ironwork was a departure and arrival station house for visitors to and from the cemetery by streetcar in the late 19th and early 20th century. **Note: The Mount Hope Cemetery, Bangor, Maine, one of America’s most beautiful rural garden cemeteries encompasses over 250 acres. The cemetery includes the grave sites of Hannibal Hamlin, Abraham Lincoln’s Vice President. Other notables are two U.S. Senators, eleven U.S. Congressmen, two U.S. Ambassadors, five Maine Governors, eight Civil War Generals and numerous others.
And what trip to Bangor, Maine, would not be complete without a drive-by past Stephen King’s house. Shhhh, we’ll never tell you exactly where it is so you can appreciate this lovely facade and especially the unique gate from the photo we snapped. After all, this is what we would expect Stephen’s King’s house to look like. Right?