I established this website for educational purposes, to incite interest in graveyard studies, and as partial fulfillment of the requirements for a capstone project for the degree of Master of Arts in History with a major in Historical Administration and Public History at Florida State University. All photographs found in this site have been photographed by me, unless specified otherwise. When studying the historical narrative of death and burial in 19th century America, I asked how a newly formed city, Tallahassee, fit within this narrative. More explicitly, how did 19th century residents of Tallahassee mourn their dead as evidenced through epitaphs found on gravestones?
In order to answer this, I identified burials from the 19th century in Old City Cemetery and St. John’s Episcopal Cemetery. I photographed each headstone that met the time constraints with a total of 313 headstones between the two cemeteries. Due to neglect and vandalism, or a lack of date, the number of headstones examined does not reflect the total of burials within both cemeteries as many headstones for graves are missing or too badly damaged to discern name or date of death. After photographing the headstones, I proceeded to transcribe the epitaphs to the best of my ability and divide them into categories. This is not a comprehensive examination of death in Tallahassee due to several factors mentioned above and because not everyone could afford headstones and/or the often expensive lettering for epitaphs.
Below is a copy of my report.
In order to answer this, I identified burials from the 19th century in Old City Cemetery and St. John’s Episcopal Cemetery. I photographed each headstone that met the time constraints with a total of 313 headstones between the two cemeteries. Due to neglect and vandalism, or a lack of date, the number of headstones examined does not reflect the total of burials within both cemeteries as many headstones for graves are missing or too badly damaged to discern name or date of death. After photographing the headstones, I proceeded to transcribe the epitaphs to the best of my ability and divide them into categories. This is not a comprehensive examination of death in Tallahassee due to several factors mentioned above and because not everyone could afford headstones and/or the often expensive lettering for epitaphs.
Below is a copy of my report.
final_draft_of_paper_fall_2014-2_web_copy.pdf | |
File Size: | 474 kb |
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