Final Post

In my final post I will revisit and answer my initial question, “What are the meanings behind the carvings on the New England gravestones and in what time era were they used?” 

I have covered many symbols and their meanings throughout my blog, but I will come back to a few of the main symbols that were used during the New England colonial era. First, the winged skull, also known as death's head, is found at the top of many New England gravestones. It is one of the oldest gravestone symbols found in New England since it was used mainly in the 17th century. The skull is believed to symbolize physical death, while the wings symbolize spiritual regeneration.

The next most commonly used New England gravestone symbol is the winged cherub. It is a modification of death's head and it represents the soul's flight to heaven. However, the winged cherub did not replace the death's head symbol. Both the cherub and death's head continued to be used after the Great Awakening.

Lastly, I want to talk about the Willow and Urn symbol that was used towards the end of the 1700s and into the early 1800s. The willow symbol signifies mourning and the urn became a popular symbol because of the Great Awakening. During the Great Awakening, Americans were influenced by Greek and Roman architecture. The urn was a Roman invention used to contain ashes of the deceased. The popularity of these two symbols represents higher sentimentality towards death.

The chart below gives a timeline of when these symbols were popular in New England.

The colonial New England era lasted during the 1700s and into the early 1800s. Many of the symbols found on the gravestones were actually ideas that stonecutters brought from their home countries. I love that the gravestones from this era have lasted so long and that we can learn so much from them. By studying these gravestones we can tell that many people back then were illiterate, so they used symbols to communicate. Using symbols on gravestones told the story of that person's life or death and sometimes the personality of that person. I hope that someday I have the opportunity to visit some of the cemeteries in New England and see the beauty and rich history these gravestones have to offer.

Other Gravestone Symbols and Meanings

For my second to last blog post I would like to cover some more gravestone symbols that didn't fit in any other categories.

The first of these symbols is the freemason symbol (seen below).

The Freemasonry was and is a fraternity that dates back before the Middle Ages. It is believed to have originated in Europe and transferred to the early American colonies. By using this symbol on a gravestone it signifies that that man was involved in this fraternity and dedicated his life to it.

The symbol consists of three elements to symbolize the ethics of their group: the letter "G" for "God" or "geometry" (the natural order of things); a carpenter's t-square (for measuring right angles and, via a metaphor, behaving justly); and the compass (used by architects to draw circles and create boundaries, leaving everything in its rightful place).

The anchor, an uncommon symbol during the colonial American era, was a symbol of hope or eternal life. The anchor is also a Masonic symbol for well-grounded hope.

The picture above contains many symbols that I've already covered: the hand (symbolizing life after death or the hand of God) and the Great Chain of Being (symbolizing life on Earth). The arrow in the background symbolizes mortality and martyrdom. The hand holding a heart is a symbol used by the I.O.O.F (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) and Masons, both fraternal organizations. It symbolizes charity.

This gravestone features the willow tree (symbol of mourning) and a lamb, which signifies innocence and is usually found on the gravestone of a child.

The picture on the left is a snake encircling a butterfly. The picture on the right is a snake encircling an hourglass. The snake symbolizes an eternal life without beginning or end. The butterfly symbolizes the soul leaving the body. The hourglass symbolizes the passing of time. 

Drapery symbolizes mourning or an entrance into a new life.

http://www.graveaddiction.com/symbol.html  ---This link will take you to a very informative site on this  subject, which covers many more symbols (it is difficult to determine which ones were used during the colonial time period). 

Next week I will be wrapping up this blog and revisiting my original question: “What are the meanings behind the carvings on the New England gravestones and in what time era were they used?” 

If you have any questions about my blog or want me to research any additional symbols please let me know in the comment box! I will do my best to answer all the questions.

Sources:

N.A. "Gravestone Symbolism". N.D. Web. Retrieved Dec 1 2013. <http://www.graveaddiction.com/symbol.html>.

Rainville, Prof. Lynn. "Gravestones of the Week". LoCoHistory. 2008. Web. Retrieved Nov 20 2013. <http://www.locohistory.org/Albemarle/gravematters.shtml>.

Floral Symbols

“Man can feel no religious awe more genuine and profound I believe, than the awe he feels when treading the ground where his ancestors – his roots – repose." – Nikos Kazantzakis

This week I would like to share what I have found out about floral symbols on gravestones and what they mean. Like I said in one of my first posts, gravestone symbols were actually used as a language to tell people about the deceased and how they died because many people during the colonial New England era were illiterate. The more I find on the interpretations of symbols the more I am amazed by the forms of communication people come up with!

This first list of interpretations is from Memento Mori: Bringing the Classroom to the Cemetery by Laura Suchan.

• lily/rose: purity
• foliage/fruit: lushness of heaven
• ivy: Christian constancy
• palms: peace/victory
• unopened bud/broken flower: life cut short or life budded on earth but will bloom in heaven
• floral wreaths: symbol for mourning-often used to frame an epitaph

This second list is from Keenan Andersen of The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

• floral motifs are usually associated with women and children to symbolize beauty and innocence.
• bud and the broken stem suggest that the flower will never get an opportunity to grow and blossom
• Floral patterns and specific flowers can also be used as a sign that the deceased was attractive.
• calla lily: beauty
• Easter lily: purity
• tulip: love and passion
• corn: fertility
• grapes: Blood of Christ
• morning glory: resurrection, beauty, loss of young child
• passionflower: passion of Christ
• sunflower: devotion to God
• floral wreath: victory over death

Now, the items that are highlighted purple above are probably more contemporary symbols rather than colonial. I say this because, although the Puritans did believe in the resurrection of Jesus, they did not believe that any other being was capable of resurrection (in the case of the second coming of Christ). The Puritans also did not believe in the Eucharist or Communion, which means they would not have used grapes as a symbol of the Blood of Christ.

Also, I would like to point out from my post last week about hand symbols, the last hand symbol is holding a chain. I wondered if it meant anything, but couldn't find anything on it...until now! I found out the chain (or "Great Chain of Being") symbolizes life on earth, and since it is broken it symbolizes that that life on earth has ended. Just in case anyone else was wondering!

Sources:

Suchan, Laura. "Momento Mori: Bringing the Classroom to the Cemetery". The History Teacher, Vol. 42, No. 1. Nov 2008. Society for History Education. Retrieved Nov 14, 2013. (JSTOR) Web.

Andersen, Keenan. "Gravestones- floral motifs". The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Spring 2009. Retrieved Nov 14, 2013. Web. <http://www.ettc.net/njarts/details.cfm?ID=1450>.

Decoding The Hand Symbol

This week I would like to revert back to decoding New England gravestone symbols. After researching the stonecutters, stone materials, and the events of this time period it is easier to understand the language of the carvings found on colonial gravestones.

I want to discuss the symbolism of the hand or clasped hands.

The clasped hands shown above signify the goodbyes during the death, the farewell to their earthly body, or the reuniting of a couple who might have been separated by death.

Praying hands symbolize devotion to God

If the hand is pointing up it signifies the reward of the righteous or the confirmation of life after death. (not sure how they're "confirming" that, but okay).

If the hand is pointing down it signifies a sudden death or mortality.

***UPDATE 11/14/13: While researching this week I have found another source which talks about the hand symbols on gravestones. This author has the same interpretations for the first three hand symbols (hand shake, praying, and pointing upward) BUT her interpretation of the downward pointing hand is that it usually represents the hand of God. She also states that the downward pointing hand is the most rare of the hand symbols (Suchan, 50).

I think the meaning of the hand symbol is easy to understand. These symbols are still used today and still have the same or similar meanings. I really thought the downward facing hand was interesting because it is more rare than the other hands, and I wouldn't have guessed that it meant sudden death. 

The next section of this post is a passage from Gravestone Studies: Symbolism on Gravestones by Jessie Lie Farber. Farber explains why in many New England graveyards the headstones are oriented east or west.

"In many, but by no means all, early New England burying grounds the graves are positioned east/west.  This east/west orientation is the most common orientation in other parts of the country and world as well.  The earliest settlers had their feet pointing toward the east and the head of the coffin toward the west, ready to rise up and face the "new day" (the sun) when "the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised"  or when Christ would appear and they would be reborn.  If the body was positioned between the headstone and the footstone, with the inscriptions facing outward, the footstone might actually be facing east and the decorated face of the headstone facing west.  If the headstone inscription faces east, the body would most commonly be buried to the east of it.  Much depends on the layout of the graveyard -- if there was a church or other building in the center of the burial site, where the high ground was located, the location of access roads, etc.  Early graves were seldom in the neat rows that we are used to seeing.  Burials were more haphazard, more medieval in their irregularity; families didn't own plots and burial spaces were often reused.  The north side of the cemetery was considered less desirable and is often the last part of the burying ground to be used, or you may find the north side set aside for slaves, servants, suicides, "unknowns," etc. In many burial grounds graves face all four points on the compass. Sometimes a hilly site will have stones facing all four directions.  With the coming of the Rural Cemetery Movement in the 1830s and 40s, an entirely new style of burial became popular.  The ideal of winding roads and irregular terrain dictated the orientation of the monuments to a large degree.

Sources:

Farber, Jessie Lie. Symbolism on Gravestones.The Association for Gravestone Studies. N.d. Retrieved Nov. 10 2013.

The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials

(In the picture above, the girl on the right side is found guilty of witchcraft and is praying/pleading towards heaven. The jury sits at the table in the back. And on the left you can see one girl's fearful face as she is pointing to the accused woman. The girl is probably Elizabeth Parris and the other pointing hands are more girls who follow Elizabeth in accusing people of witchcraft, the Devil's magic.)

The Witch Trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. This event caused 200 innocent people to be accused of witchcraft, and 20 of them were hanged. It all started with two girls, Abigail and Elizabeth Parris (ages 9 and 11), who started having screaming fits and made strange noises. They were diagnosed with side effects of supernatural witchcraft. The two girls blamed their fits on three women in Salem. After those women were arrested and accused more girls joined Abigail and Elizabeth, and more and more innocent people of Salem were blamed for witchcraft. This event went on until the Governor William Phipps and his court got orders from England to stop the witch trials immediately and release those who were accused. 

I think the reason this event is still talked about and studied to this day is because we want to believe that the Parris girls were acting, but we aren't 100% convinced. There have been many studies on why this activity occurred. Some think the girls were simply looking for attention, and once they realized the power they had they took great advantage of it and were fully aware of what they were doing. Another theory is that the girls may have been exposed to fungus ergot, which is found in rye and wheat and can cause muscle spasms, vomiting, and hallucinations. These actions would make the girls' testimonies very convincing.

Examination of the witch

By: Matteson, Tompkins H.

Still, I have a hard time understanding how the adults trusted these young girls. Were the Puritans so afraid of being unfaithful that they would believe anyone was guilty of doing the Devil's magic? Or did they see children as the most innocent beings that no one could prove the Parris girls wrong? 

I have included this event in my blog about New England gravestones because I believe it was a crucial event in colonial America that was based upon Puritan religion, death, and death practices. The witch trials occurred right after the English Bill of Rights was passed and about 20 years before The Great Awakening, or spiritual revival, took place.

Sources: 

Blumberg, Jess. A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials. Smithsonian Magazine. Published Oct 4 2007. Retrieved Oct 27 2013. Web.

The Substance of the Stone

The New England gravestones are an example of the Puritans' finest craftsmen, and are the one unchanging record of their dedication to death. Although many other artifacts (furniture, houses, pewter, and churches) from their time are handsome works of art, the most artistic detail was always put into the gravestones.

Materials:

Gravestones were made from many different types of stones including: slate, quartzite, clay stones, greenstones, schists, and freestones (Forbes, 7). Many of the stones were found in the wild with slate being the most commonly used because of the quarries in Massachusetts (before the marble quarries were discovered in western Massachusetts and Vermont). Below you can see the difference between two different types of slate used to make the gravestones. The first is a green and gray mix and the second is a gray and orange cameo look.

Quartzite is another stone used to make gravestones. It is usually solid gray, but on occasion it creates some cool effects on the gravestone. Although rare, quartzite gravestones will be a white translucent color (I couldn't find a good picture of one). They can also have streaks of red, yellow, and purple like the one pictured below. This gravestone is found in Warren, Massachusetts.

Schist was a stone that was preferred by stonecutters because it has so man varieties. It is harder to make out the inscriptions on schist stones, but they are unique and beautiful in their own way. I couldn't find a good picture that shows the shimmering qualities of a schist gravestone but here is a close up of a piece of schist. Imagine a cemetery of schist gravestones at dusk reflecting the sunset!

Source(s):

Forbes, Harriette Merrifield. Gravestones And the Men Who Made Them. Da Capo Press. New York. 1967. Retrieved Oct 13, 2013.

The Stonecutter

THE STONECUTTER

(google images: www.hypnotica.org)

This week I would like to take a break from decoding gravestone symbols and focus more on the carvers, or stonecutters, who created the gravestones. Stonecutters in the New England region usually had a full time job in addition to stone carving, because stone cutting alone wouldn’t provide enough income in the late 16^th century. This makes it difficult to identify who the stonecutters were because they were not employed to just one title. Many stonecutters doubled as masons, bricklayers, cordwainers (making leather goods), tuckers, and braziers (Forbes, 17).

Puritan stonecutters were very detail-oriented, artistic, and compassionate towards the families who lost their loved ones. New England gravestones represent some of the best artwork to come out of early colonial America. Gravestones were so important to the New England Puritans because their lives revolved around God and the afterlife.

Many colonists could not speak English, but they could interpret symbols. That is where the idea for the gravestone carvings came in. However, some gravestones did have poems and phrases written in English or Latin that had to do with the deceased and afterlife. One of the most interesting poems I’ve found so far is this:

 AS YOU ARE NOW,

SO ONCE WAS I;

AS I AM NOW,

SO YOU MUST BE.

SO PREPARE FOR DEATH

AND FOLLOW ME.

(Gillon, ix)

How were gravestones purchased:

The gravestone and the cost of carving the gravestone were separate. The stone cutter would usually purchase the gravestone from a merchant or have it imported from England (although importing gravestone was quite rare). Then he would charge for his labor and the cost of the stone. In some other cases, the family would purchase the stone and then pay the stone cutter to carve it. There aren't many records showing how much the gravestones cost or when they were purchased because they did not make itemized receipts back then. Everything was filed under "Debts due to/from the estate" (Forbes, 12). 

Sources:

Forbes, Harriette Merrifield. Gravestones of Early New England and the Men Who Made Them. Da Capo Press. New York 1967. Received Oct 5 2013. 

Gillon, Edmund Vincent Jr. Early New England Gravestone Rubbings. Dover Publications, Inc. New York 1966. Received Oct 2 2013.

The Willow and The Urn

This week I would like to focus on the symbols that followed the death head and the cherub, which I discussed last week. This week's symbols are the willow tree and the urn. The table shown below is a great visual aid showing the change in popularity of each symbol throughout the 1700s and 1800s.

(http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/deathshead.html)

After The Great Awakening took place in early America, citizen's philosophies began to change along with political ideals. Americans began to imitate Roman and Greek styles in their architecture and, surprisingly, on their gravestones. 

The urn was an Imperial Roman device used to contain ashes. It symbolized the immortality of the soul.  The willow was an ancient mourning symbol. The combination of these two symbols showed an increase in sentimentality towards death. The urn and willow symbol continued to be used on gravestones up until the 1930s (eyesofscyld). 

During the late 1700s there was also a change in the entire shape of the gravestone. The earlier gravestones had rounded upper corners, while the later ones were square. This change was also because of the neoclassical era inspired by the ancient Romans.

The picture above is an example of the urn and willow symbol. Although this gravestone has rounded corners, it has a more intricate edge than the earlier stones. 

Another change which occurs at the end of the 16th century is the statement carved on the gravestone. Earlier stones read "Here lies" or "Here lies the body of", and the later stones read "In memory of" or "Sacred to the memory of". This allows the stone to be placed without having to have the body buried beneath it. This would make sense if, say, someone died at sea, or if the body could not be salvaged.

Sources:

Deetz, Patricia Scott and Fennell, Christopher. Death's Head, Cherub, Urn and Willow. Dec 14 2007. Retrieved Sept 29 2013. Web.

eyesofscyld. New England Gravestone Symbolism. YouTube. Mar 3 2013. Web. Retrieved Sept 8, 2013.

Iconography of the Gravestones. City of Boston. Web. Retrieved Sept 22, 2013.

Gravestone Symbols

In my first post I forgot to mention my research question..

“ What are the meanings behind the carvings on the New England gravestones and in what time era were they used?”

Since I very briefly covered the history of the New England time era I now have a better understanding how old some of these gravestones are. Many of them are over 300 years old!

This week I have focused on finding the actual translations of the symbols found on New England gravestones. I found a great video that goes through an extensive list of symbols and their meanings. To watch it follow the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EYs5nI9bi4g

The maker of this video, "eyesofscyld", says he spends a lot of time in cemeteries because he finds them interesting and solemn. He also says, "...you begin to notice a language in the headstones beyond what is written on the epitaphs.." It is not because colonial Americans were illiterate, but because they communicated with symbols and text much like we do today.

The first symbol I want to decode is that of the "winged skull" at the top of many New England gravestones. 

This symbol is called death's head. It was used in the times of early orthodox puritanism and represented the death of the individual buried below. This symbol is non-religious because the Puritans were against attributing humans to spiritual beings. Some speculate that the skull symbolizes the physical death while the wings symbolize spiritual regeneration. This symbol was mainly used in the 17th century.

Another symbol I would like to cover today is the "winged cherub".

The winged cherub, or soul effigy, is the second version of the death head. As you can see it is no longer a skeleton and has hair, eyes, a nose, and a smiling mouth. One would think this change in symbols had something to do with the religious changes during The Great Awakening. However, historians have discovered that the use of the cherub does not chronologically match up with any changes in religion and that the death head was still used after the cherub was discovered. The cherub symbol represents the soul's flight to heaven.

Sources:

eyesofscyld. New England Gravestone Symbolism. YouTube. Mar 3 2013. Web. Retrieved Sept 8, 2013.

Iconography of the Gravestones. City of Boston. Web. Retrieved Sept 22, 2013.

Introduction to New England Gravestones

Hello and welcome to my blog about gravestones of colonial New England!

This blog is for a project in one of my classes at Southeast Missouri State University. My posts will be covering my research on the topic, and hopefully we will learn all about the symbols on gravestones in New England and what they mean.

The reason I chose this topic to research is my passion for art and art history. Although I am not an art major I love creating artwork and studying the symbolism in art. I feel that studying the meanings of the carvings found on gravestones will help me understand people's opinions on the relationship between life and death. I am very excited to understand more about the colonial New England time period.

First, I would like to briefly introduce some major events that took place during this crucial time period between England and the United States. Below is the first map on New England printed in North America. It was made by John Foster in 1677.

 

During the late 17th and early 18th centuries there were many political and military conflicts between England and the new settlers of New England, also known as Puritans. These conflicts, along with the encouragement of French and English officials, caused the French and Indian Wars. The wars caused the Puritans to believe they were being punished by God for their sins, and that lead to witchcraft hysteria (which I will be researching and covering at a later time).

 

Another couple of important events which occurred during this time were the Glorious Revolution in England and the Great Awakening in New England. The Glorious Revolution began in 1689 with the English Bill of Rights, the Toleration Act, and the Mutiny Act. The Great Awakening was a spiritual revival in New England started by minister Jonathan Edwards in 1735.

 

I will touch on more important event and dates later in my blog. Thanks for visiting!