Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Marther Stone

It's been a while since I posted a gravestone. The snow is mostly gone, but it's still very cold and icy, so I haven't been able to go on graveyard field trips. 
When going through some photos from last fall, I noticed this one from the North Burial Ground in Providence:
I took this picture because I was looking for examples of that strange plant-like shape — I didn't even notice the spelling of "Martha" as "Marther."
 We've seen this spelling variation before with Annar Lawrence and Alletherr Grosvenor.
Love it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My friend just sent me the link to your blog, and its almost just like mine, i am currently a grad student at trinity in hartford and am doing my research methods project on gravestones in norwich ct. certain ones, that at this point i am not sure if they are footstones or headstones...how crazy is that?

Robert J. said...

Job 17:13 is a pretty depressing verse. Not one of the customary hope-of-resurrection choices.

I had to run an errand into Boston yesterday and stopped in at Copp's Hill for a minute to say hello to two of my 10th-great grandparents. A beautiful clear day and hardly anyone else there.

The Mather tomb really needs some work -- it's disappointing to see an important one like that receive so little attention.

Caitlin GD Hopkins said...

Great! I always love to hear from another taphophile!

I grew up in Willimantic and have some familiarity with the local graveyards, so if you ever need a tip or want to float a theory, drop me a line @ chopkins@fas.harvard.edu.

Caitlin GD Hopkins said...

RJO,

You're absolutely right — the Mather tomb is in terrible shape. When I saw it last summer, the sandstone slab was broken into at least 3 pieces and the bricks were looking pretty sad. I can't imagine that the winter weather has improved things much.