101 Ways, Part 104: Left to Go and Be with Christ

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

I thought I had posted this picture before, but now I can't find it, so perhaps I did not.

This beautiful gravestone was carved by Solomon Brewer and can be found in Hadley, MA. Like many stones from the Connecticut River Valley, Sarah Hopkins' is made from red sandstone, but it is a finer, firmer sandstone than you sometimes see in Connecticut. It's in amazing shape — no major flakes are missing.

I'm not sure I've ever seen curly brackets on an 18th-century gravestone before.

Here rests SARAH, wife of ye

Revd; S. HOPKINS, & Relict of ye

Revd; C. WILLIAMS; an Exem-

plary Christian, pleasant &

lovely in her Life, & lament-

ed in her Death. She left {to

go & be with CHRIST,} A sorrow-

ful Husband & 14 Children

Febr, 5th AD 1774 AE 48.

Favour is deceitful, & Beauty is

vain: but A Woman that feareth

the Lord, she shall be praised.

Pachence

Here's another creative spelling of Patience.

Pachence Stevens

d. 1750

Marshfield, MA

A Herd of Majestic Giraffes!

Thanks to Stephen V. for recommending that I take a look at the Emergence of Advertising collection at Duke. This digital collection includes several thousand scanned images of advertisements from the 19th and 20th centuries, including colorful cartoons, broadsides, and Kodakiana.

One of my favorites is this pamphlet advertising the Sells Brothers' Circus.

Spelling of the Day

It's a little unfair to call this a "Name of the Day" — there are plenty of people named Patience.

Observations

Tutor Hopkins: Today, we will practice using material objects as historical sources. When you are approaching an object, the first thing you should do is take some time to look at it carefully. Try to rid your mind of preconceptions and just make concrete observations about the object. Anything goes — just tell everyone what you see.

Undergrad #1: It's made of stone.

Tutor Hopkins: Ok, good. Does anyone know what kind of stone?

Undergrad #2: Slate?

Tutor Hopkins: You're right — it's a nice, fine-grained slate. What else?


Undergrad #3: There's a skull with wings.

Undergrad #4: And some Latin on the top.

Tutor Hopkins: Great. We're looking at the material, the iconography, and the language. Who here speaks Latin and can translate for us?

Undergrad #5: Remember Death? Time is fleeting?

Tutor Hopkins: Yep. Time flies. What else do you see?

Undergrad #6: There's an ornate floral design on the bottom.

Undergrad #7: And the top is bumpy.

Tutor Hopkins: Is this the same design aesthetic as the Georgian buildings Prof. X showed you?

Undergrad #8: No — it's sort of symmetrical, but not really geometric like the buildings.

Tutor Hopkins: Keep looking. Anything else jumping out at you?

— silence —


Tutor Hopkins: Anything surprising or unexpected?

— silence —


Tutor Hopkins: Anybody?

Undergrad #1: It's kind of . . . small.

Tutor Hopkins: I suppose. I'm a little surprised that no one has noticed the GIANT BREASTS on the borders. There are eight of them.

Undergrads #2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8: Oh! I saw those, but I didn't think they could really be . . . you know.

Tutor Hopkins: Were you expecting to see GIANT BREASTS on a gravestone from 1710?

Undergrads: No. (nervous giggling)

Tutor Hopkins: The first lesson of using objects as sources: make concrete observations without hampering yourself with expectations. You may find some strange and unexpected things.

(Very attentive undergrads go on to spend a lovely hour noticing things in the graveyard.)

Name(s) of the Day

Patriot minister Jonathan Mayhew's parents were named Experience and Remember.

101 Ways, Part 103: Was Suffocated

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

I've been experimenting with mirrors for those occasions when the light isn't right for a particular stone. Unfortunately, the full-length mirror is too heavy and the hand-held only lights up a line at a time. I'm working on it.

I have not been able to find any information on the schooner Globe. I'm assuming that it sank, but have not been able to find it in the newspapers. Then again, the the odd language (suffocated vs. drowned) and the fact that no Massachusetts newspaper reported the loss of this ship in 1841 or 1842 (as far as I can tell) suggests it might have been a stranger incident. No idea.

In Memory of

Mr. LUTHER N.

CURTIS

Son of Mr. Eli &

Mrs. Clarissa Curtis

who was suffocated in the

cabin of the schooner

Globe Feb. 18 1841,

AEt. 21 Years.

Scituate, MA

Harbor View

As I stood on Burial Hill in Plymouth the other day, it occurred to me that this hill would have offered the best vantage point for viewing the harbor before the trees got so tall. The Pilgrims built their first fort on this site in 1621 and I can only imagine that they chose it for the harbor view. They probably cleared nearby trees for materials and visibility.

If 18th- and 19th-century residents of Plymouth wanted to watch ships depart, they probably stood here, among the gravestones. What an auspicious beginning for Plymouth seamen's voyages.

Generation Gap?

I am utterly mystified by the coverage of Jenny Slate's debut on Saturday Night live. Apparently, during a skit in which she played a "foul-mouthed hard-core biker chick," Slate slipped up and uttered what the pearl-clutching media is delicately calling an "F-bomb."

Gasping ensues. Will she be fired? Will she go into an unstoppable spiral and commit suicide? Will we ever forgive her? When will those naughty writers learn to be civil? Will NBC have to pay outrageous fines?

Give me a break. For the life of me, I cannot understand why an adult saying "fuckin'" in its most innocent, adverbial form at 1 in the morning deserves any notice whatsoever. Neither I nor any of my fellow Millenials would bat an eye at hearing this usage in normal conversation. It's not like she was testifying in front of congress — it was a skit called "Biker Chick Chat."

Name of the Day

I came across this gravestone in Marshfield, MA. While Googling the name Welthea, I misspelled it and found another version: Wealthea. Ex: Wealthea Margaret Buffington Swab.

Elaborate Urn

Sometimes, the urns on 19th-century gravestones are embellished with delicate details — initials, fronds, garlands, and, very rarely, soul effigies.

This teeny, vestigial soul effigy is about an inch tall. It is very rare to find soul effigies on gravestones carved after 1820 unless the carver was specifically trying to replicate an outdated style.

Capt. Atwood Drew

d. 1823

Plymouth, MA

Cemetery News

In New Haven, CT, preservationists are opposing a proposal to alter the sandstone wall surrounding the Grove Street Cemetery.

While I'm not 100% clear on the details, it seems that Yale wants fences put into the wall to make the sidewalks near its new residential colleges more friendly. Preservationists argue that the changes would destroy the integrity of the wall and (implicitly) that they have no interest in cooperating with a university that shows precious little respect for inconvenient historic structures that stand in its path.

Salem Witch Trial Memorial

I meant to post this on Tuesday, but it slipped my mind. I take comfort in the fact that the Gregorian shift makes any "anniversary" celebrations for events occurring before 1752 imprecise anyway.

On September 22, 1692, eight people (seven women and one man) were hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. These eight were the last of the accused to be executed in the crisis.

A few weeks ago, Pete and I found ourselves in Salem and decided to visit the burying ground. Despite having been born in Beverly and having visited Salem dozens of times over the past 25 years, I have never visited the Salem burying ground before. It feels indecent somehow.

Anglo-Saxon Treasure Discovered in UK

This story kind of makes me want to get a metal detector.

Hark! A Vagrant

If you think you'd like to read more comics about naval impressment, John Adams as prankster, and history in general, you should check out Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant.

Sunset Over Harvard Yard

Watson's Corner Casualties

 

Three of the men who were killed at Watson's Corner on April 19, 1775 are buried beneath this monument in the Old Burying Ground between Harvard Square and Cambridge Common. The fourth casualty, Isaac Gardner, is buried in Brookline.

ERECTED BY THE CITY

A.D. 1870

TO THE MEMORY OF

JOHN HICKS,

WILLIAM MARCY,

MOSES RICHARDSON,

BURIED HERE.

JASON RUSSELL,

JABEZ WYMAN,

JASON WINSHIP,

BURIED IN MENOTOMY.

MEN OF CAMBRIDGE

WHO FELL IN DEFENCE OF

THE LIBERTY OF THE PEOPLE

APRIL 19, 1775.

OH WHAT A GLORIOUS MORNING IS THIS

Happy Autumn

Pete and I spent the weekend at a wedding in the Catskills, which gave us an excellent opportunity to appreciate the turn of the season. If I had my way, it would be October all year long.

Pete says that I am biased because I have an October birthday, which may be true. Still, I love everything about autumn – the smell of leaves, the crisp air, the quality of the light.

I'm looking forward to spending the next few weeks traveling to graveyards after having been confined all summer.

Minnie Maria Gorton, d. 1853

Providence, RI

photo taken October 15, 2008