Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Ruth Upham

Ruth Upham, 1676, Malden, MA
RVTH.VPHAM
AGED.12.YEARS.DIED
DECEMBER.ye.8th 1676

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Aaron Cutter, 1768, Arlington, MA

Here lyes Buried ye Body
of Ar. AARON CUTTER,
Who departed this Life
July the 9th 1768 in ye
47th Year of His Age.
Farewel, bright soul, a short farewel,
Till we shall meet again above
Til we from bands of clay releas'd
Spring out and climb the shining road.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Elizabeth Fox, 1684, Watertown, MA

HERE LYES ye BODY
OF ELIZABETH FOX WIFE
TO THOMAS FOX AGED
A BOUT 70 YEARS DIED
FEBRUARY 22 1684

18th-Century Hoodie

Miss Crewe, c. 1775, by Joshua Reynolds

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Elizabeth Munroe, 1750, Concord, MA

Mrs. ELIZABETH MUNROE, Wife to
Mr. THOMAS MUNROE, Who depar-
ted this Life Febry. ye 12th 1750 in ye 39th
Year of her Age, left a Sorrowfull Hus-
band & Ten Children, was Emenently
Meek in her behaviour, Virtuous &
Examplary in her Conversation in
ye Various Relations which she Sus-
tained, & hath left a Testimony that
She is indeed blessed as are ye dead
which Die in ye Lord, who rest from
their Labours & their works Do follow them

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Hannah Angier, 1714, Cambridge, MA

Here Lyes Buried the Body
of Mrs. HANNAH, Wife of the
Revrnd Mr. SAMUEL ANGIER
and Daughter of the Revnd. Mr.
URIAN OAKES, Sometime President
of Harvard Colledge; and Pastor
of Harvard Colledge; and Pastor
of Cambridge Decd. Augt. 15th, 1714
AEtatis 55.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Jane Crouningshiel, 1771, Marblehead, MA

In Memory of Mrs. JANE CROU-
NINGSHIEL the Beloved Wife of
Mr. WILLIAM CROUNINGSHIEL
& only Daur. to Mr. JONATHAN &
Mrs. JANE THOMSON, died ye 27th
Janry. 1771 in ye 37th. Year of her Age.

Naked as from the Earth we came,
And crept to Life at first
We to the Earth Return again,
And mingel with our Dust
The dear Delights we here injoy
And fondly call our own
Are but short favours borrow'd now
To be Repaid anon.

The epitaph is from a hymn by Isaac Watts, based on Job 1:21. I like the letters on this one — they are so clear and precise.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Gravestone of the Day


Forty-eight of the fifty-six Deerfield residents who were killed during the raid of 1704 are buried in a common grave behind the Deerfield Academy ice rink.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Martha Nason, 1716, Ipswich, MA

HERE LYES JNTERRED
ye BODY OF MARTHA
NASON ye DAUGH
TER OF Mr. WILLA
BY & ESTHER
NASON WHO DIED
MAY ye 22th 1716
IN ye 21 YEAR
OF HER AGE

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Enock Green, 1717, Malden, MA
Enock son of
John & izbeL
Green
Aged. A. Eleven
Months died

Monday, March 22, 2010

Going on Strike Hats

New York City, 1916
These messenger boys are all dressed up to go on strike.

Gravestone of the Day

Hannah Ruggles, 1742, Norwell, MA
HERE LYES ye
BODY OF Mrs
HANNAH RUGGLES
DAUGHTER OF MR
JOHN RUGGLES
WHO DYED APRIL
ye . 9th . 1742 . JN
ye . 12 . YEAR
OF HER AGE

carved by Jacob Vinal, Jr.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Abigail Waldron

Abigail Waldron, 1733, Wenham, MA
Here Lyeth ye Body of
Mrs Abigail Wife to
Mr Nathl Waldron
Who Died April
ye 22nd 1733 in her
73d year ye memery
of ye just is Blesed

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Elizabeth Gardier, 1705, Woburn, MA
HERE LYES ye BOD-
ELIZABETH GAR----
WIFE TO HENERY
GARDIER
AGED 43 YEARS
DIED IUNE ye 3D
1705

Friday, March 19, 2010

101 Ways, Part 119: Took His Youthful Flight . . .

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here.
Nathanael Peaslee, 1730, Haverhill, MA

HERE LIES INtERD ye
PRECIOUS DUST OF Mr
NAtHANAEL PEASLEE IUNr
ye ONLY & DESIREABLE
SON OF Mr NAthLL PEASLEE
WHO WITH COMFORt tOOK
HIS YOUthFUL FLIGht FROM
ye PROMISING IOYS OF
EARthLY POSSESSIONS IN
HOPE OF A FAR MORE EXCEE
DING & EtERNAL WEIGht OF
GLORY ON SEPt ye 9 1730
AGED 23 YEARS

Gravestone of the Day

Josiah Lichfeild, 1752, Scituate, MA


HERE LYES THE
BODY OF JOSIAH
LICHFEILD SON OF
Mr JOSIAH & Mrs
TAMSIEN LICHFEILD
WHO DIED NOUEMBER
ye . 7 . 1752 AGED . 3
Years & . 3 . MONTHS
AND . 3 . DAYS

This gravestone can be found in the "Men of Kent" cemetery in Scituate, Massachusetts.

Carved by Jacob Vinal, Jr.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

101 Ways, Part 118: Hurried From This Life

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here.

Mary Eaton, 1817, Haverhill, MA
 SACRED
may this marble long remain,
the jut tribute of a huba(n)d's affection,
to the memory of
MRS. MARY EATON,
wife of FRANCIS EATON ESQ
who was hurried from this life by
the rapid ravages of a 
Puerperal Fever,
on the 15 day of Feb. AD. 1817.
AEt. 31.
She left an excellent example in all
The various relations of Wife, Mother,
Sister, Daughter, Neighbor, Friend, and 
Christian.

See also: #74: Rested from the Hurry of Life.

Gravestone of the Day: Emerline Heath

Emerline Heath, 1821, Haverhill, MA

It is entirely possible that Dustin and Rebecca Heath named their little girl "Emerline." People have been giving their children strange names forever and will continue to do so forever. Yet, I think it's more likely that her name was Emeline and that this is another Annar/Susannar/Marther situation.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Devastation at Amesbury's Union Cemetery

I went out with my camera today to take advantage of the fantastic weather. I decided to go up to Amesbury, where I found the Union Cemetery on Route 110 in complete disarray. The storms of the past week have downed at least 6 full-sized trees and many smaller branches. As far as I could tell, only a few monuments were broken, but the trees are huge and there may have been more crushed stones that I couldn't see. Most of the damage is in the 19th-century section — the 18th-century stones were largely untouched. I saw at least one City of Amesbury truck in the cemetery, so I imagine that they're on top of the situation.

Gravestone of the Day

Henry Sewall, 1792, York, ME

In Memory of
Mr. HENRY SEWALL.
Bricklayer;
who departed this Life
Novr. 2d. 1792: in the
66th. Year of his Age.

He was an honest Man,
and a Christian . . . . . .

"No farther seek his Merits to disclose,
Or search his Frailties from the dread abode;
There they alike in trembling hope repose
The bosom of his Father, and his GOD."

The final verse is the last stanza of Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard" (1750).

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The New 1776

I have a soft spot in my heart for Robot Chicken's many, many jokes about 300.

"This is SCRUMPTIOUS!"

My younger brother sent me this one (stable copy here, in case YouTube takes down the embedded version):

Only click through if you want to see a Ken doll playing a shirtless, flag-caped John Hancock vault over a phalanx of green-skinned redcoats to sign the Declaration of Independence.

Gravestone of the Day

Joseph Rice, 1711, Stowe, MA
HERE LYES ye
BODY OF JOSEPH
RICE AGED About
76 YEARS DECD.
DECR. ye 23D 1711

Monday, March 15, 2010

Go Huskies!


Good for the New York Times for putting this story on the front page of the online edition. I'm tired of reading stories about how UConn's greatness is ruining women's basketball. They're great athletes playing phenomenally and should be honored for their accomplishments.

By the way, they are the Huskies, not the Lady Huskies.

Watching "The Pacific"


I watched the first episode of The Pacific with my parents last night and was actually a bit disappointed.

Of course, I understand that it's not supposed to be Band of Brothers: West Coast, but I thought that the first half hour was a muddle. The boot camp episode in BoB introduced all of the characters and established them in time and space, but the first half of this first episode jumped among its 3? 4? main characters in a way that was hard to follow. Instead of introducing one, then another, then another, it switched scenes between Curly and Italian Guy, then introduced Southern Boy, and then, all of a sudden, we were at Guadalcanal with Curly 9 months later.

Maybe it's just that I have a hard time distinguishing between young white guys who are all dressed the same. I suppose they must have mentioned these characters' names at least once during the episode, but I've watched it twice and can't catch them (Curly introduces himself to a girl at the beginning, but his name is not repeated). I looked them up on IMDb, but having appearance-derived nicknames helps me keep them straight. I gather that Southern Boy is from the South because of his family's accents and that Curly is from the Northeast somewhere because the bus depot had a bus leaving for New York, but I have no idea about Italian Guy — Chicago? New York? No idea.

The battle scenes on Guadalcanal were harrowing, but, again, hard to follow. Some of that is intentional — confusion is an important part of the feeling for these scenes — but some was not. Who were those tortured dead guys in the jungle? American paratroopers? Fighter pilots? Australians? And how did Italian Guy's regiment get to Guadalcanal at the end of the episode? Did the American Navy fight its way through after we saw it get run off to sea? How long was Curly's unit on the island? We saw maybe two nights, but then they were all ragged and had week-old sores, so a month maybe? Some of this might heighten an authentic sense of experiencing random events with little understanding of the bigger picture, but it was not very satisfying as a narrative.

I think that the producers recognize that Americans know less about the war in the Pacific than the war in Europe, but I don't think that they make many concessions to that lack of knowledge. It's hard to know what's going on in the battles without going online and reading some background info (which I did between my 1st and 2nd viewings). A few well-placed lines like, "The Japanese are going to attack us from the sea," or "I'm glad our Navy was able to come back and drive off those Japanese ships that just sunk all our ships 5 minutes ago" would have gone a long way to making things clearer.

I was pretty excited to watch The Pacific — my Papa fought in the Pacific theatre, though not on the islands (he was in China-Burma-India, flying supply runs over the Himalayas). I'll probably keep watching, especially now that I've gone and read all of the auxiliary material that explains who all the characters are. I will reserve final judgment until I've seen more, but I thought that episode 1 was an inauspicious start.

Pink Ribbon Hat

Portrait of a Child
probably New England

Gravestone of the Day

Polly Harris, 1787, Charlestown, MA
this Stone is
in Memory of
Miss POLLY HARRIS
who departed this Life
NOVEMBER 26th 1787
Aged 30 Years.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Elizabeth Blanchard, 1688, Malden, MA

HERE LYES ye BODY OF
ELIZABETH BLANCHARD
WIFE TO JOSHUA BLANCHARD
AGED 21 YEARS DIED IULY 15
1688

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Lucy Keating, 1803, Arlington, MA
Sacred
To the memory of
Mrs. LUCY KEATING
The amiable consort of
Mr. Oliver Keating
Ob. Oct. 15, 1803
Æt. 44.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Tabitha Taylor, 1789, Boxboro, MA

In Memory of
Tabitha Taylor,
Daugr. of Capt. Silas
& Mrs. Mary Taylor,
who departed this
Life Jany. 3d. 1789
Aged 4 years, 4
months & 18 days

Thursday, March 11, 2010

New Templates!

The lovely and talented Pete has been working diligently for several months to bring new templates to Blogger users.

If you have a Blogger blog, you can customize your template by going to Blogger in Draft, clicking on "Layout," and selecting the "Template Designer" option. Then, you can play with templates, colors, backgrounds, and fonts.

I will be fiddling around with VPI's template over the next day or two, trying to find something I like. I liked Scribe well enough, but every history blogger used it and it was too narrow, so I'm excited about getting something new.

Good job, Pete! Congrats on launching your project!

Gravestone of the Day

Jonathan Melven, 1737, Concord, MA


Here lies the Body of
Mr. Jonathan Melven
who died February 13th
1737 In the 49th Year
of his Age
Job, XIV. 12.
So man lieth down and riseth not
till the heavens be no more;
they shall not awake, nor be raised
out of their sleep.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

John Hammond, 1709, Watertown, MA

Here lyes buried ye
bidy of lieutenant
JOHN HAMMOND aged
85 years & 4 mo who
deceased novmbr 22nd 1709
blessed are ye dead that die in ye Lord

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Connecticut Cemetery Theft

Many thanks to commenter jnyfritz for pointing me toward this very sad story.

Police in Norwich, Connecticut have arrested a man for stealing and destroying a 120-year-old bronze statue from a Yantic cemetery. The statue used to adorn the grave of Sarah Osgood (d. 1881), but has been cut into pieces by the thief or thieves, who tried to sell it for scrap metal.

A restoration expert says that the statue can be repaired, but that it will be expensive and some pieces may have to be remolded.

Gravestone of the Day

Thomas Moody, 1737, Newburyport, MA

HERE LYES BURIED
the BODY OF MR
THOMAS MOODY WHO
DIED the LAST DAY OF
MARCH & IN the 69
YEAR OF HIS AGE
1737

Monday, March 8, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Joseph Capen, 1704, Ipswich, MA

HERE LIES ye BODY
OF JOSEPH CAPEN
SON OF ye REVR. Mr.
JOSEPH CAPEN
MINISTR. ATT TOPSFEILD
DIED ATT IPSWICH ye
11 DAY OF JANUR. 1704
IN ye 11 YEAR OF HIS AGE
FLOS FLORIDUS MORTE CARPITUR

Prams and Hats

c. 1889
My favorite of these hats is the overlarge, wide-brimmed number behind the pram on the left.

via the Library of Congress

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

John Appleton, 1699, Cambridge, MA

HERE LYES ye BODY OF JOHN
APPLETON ye ELDEST SON OF
COLLO. JOHN APPLESTON OF
IPSWICH & ELIZABETH HIS WIFE
AGED 15 YEARS & 10 MO. DYED
SEPTEM. ye 24 ANNO DOM: 1699
& IN ye FIRST YEAR OF HIS
ADMISSION INTO HARVARD
COLLEDGE IN CAMBRIDGE

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

Elizabeth Russell, 1771, Marblehead, MA

Here lies interr'd, ye Remains
of MADAM ELIZABETH RUSSELL,
who Departed this Life Feby.
the 4th. 1771. AE: 80 Years

Weep not for me my Son most dear,
I am not Dead, but Sleeping here,
My debts are paid, my grave you see,
Wait but a While, you'll follow me.

The Memory of the Just is Blessed.

The Righteous shall be had in
Everlasting Remembrence.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Gravestone of the Day

MA, 1696, Deerfield, Massachusetts

I've been so busy lately and this blog is suffering. I think that I'll try posting a gravestone of the day without much comment, just so that there is something new here every day.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Traditional Food?

CNN has an article up today focusing on a blogger's recent challenge to her readers to eat "real food" for a whole month. Participants committed to avoiding all processed foods, including white flour, sugar, refined oils, and low- or non-fat milk, for 28 days.

There are several interesting things about this article, but the one that really caught my eye was the use of the word "traditional" to describe the foods prepared during this challenge. Though the CNN article does not really elaborate on what "traditional" meant, other websites have lengthy descriptions:
What are Traditional Foods? The traditional food movement focuses on real, whole foods: foods that our ancestors ate. The main deviation from the standard American diet can be found in the attitude towards fat and carbohydrates. Generally, traditional foodists eat fewer carbohydrates (particularly in grains and sugars) than most Americans and don't feel it necessary to limit their fat intake. A typical day for someone who eats according to traditional foods may start with eggs, bacon, and some fruit, followed by meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables for lunch and dinner. If grains are eaten, they're generally soaked to neutralize anti-nutrients called phytates contained in raw grain products. Meats are generally grass fed, and dairy products are eaten raw: that is, not pasteurized. Processed foods, soy, trans fats, white flour products, and factory farmed meat and dairy products are generally avoided.
I'm trying to imagine an era in which anyone's "ancestors" ate cheese, but not grain, and I've got nothing.*

Captions!

Lois Porter, 1792, Hadley, Ma

If you use Blogger, you can now caption photos! Just make sure you are using draft.blogger.com, then upload your photo. After it appears in the post, click on it and select "Add Caption." The caption will move with your photo if you resize the photo or change the alignment.

African Burial Ground National Monument Opens in New York

On Saturday, the visitor's center at the African Burial Ground National Monument opened in Lower Manhattan. The museum and memorial mark the location of a graveyard used by New York's enslaved and free black communities between 1690 and 1790. In the 1990s, construction uncovered more than 400 bodies, which have been catalogued, studied, and reburied beneath the new monument.

The New York Times has a lengthy review of the new museum. The author, Edward Rothstein, is a bit skeptical of some of the exhibits' politics and questions whether the conclusions on display are supported by the evidence. I haven't visited yet, so I can't really speak to his specific criticisms, but I know that it can be very tempting to over-interpret evidence in graveyards. Still, I wish that Rothstein had interviewed some of the attendees about what the memorial meant to them. As he notes in the first sentence of his review, "Cemeteries are at least as much for the living as the dead." That's very true, and I do not necessarily think that that is a bad thing. It is the main contention of my dissertation that colonial American graveyards were political spaces from the first, so it is unsurprising that they still are today.

I'm not a great lover of New York (too big for me), but I'm excited about visiting this memorial. Wouldn't it be great if we could get a visitor's center for God's Little Acre in Newport?

Monday, March 1, 2010

Waiting for the President Hat

Miss Tarkington waits on the steps of the White House for a chance to see President Harding, 29 June 1922.

via the Library of Congress

Happy Mareh!


John Conn
d. 1759
Groton, MA