Masonic Headstone

Image by Svadilfari
A headstone in the South Douglas Cemetery of Douglas, Massachusetts that says Father and Mother and has two Masonic Square and Compasses. It is in the Sibley section

Printer’s Headstone – 1759, NYC

Image by ilovebutter
A headstone in the Trinity Church graveyard in New York City. It reads:

Here lies the Body of Mr. WILLAIM BRADFORD
Printer who departed this Life May 23
1759, aged 92 Years. He was born in
[can't make out], in Old England in 1660
and came over to America in 1682 before
the City of Philadelphia was laid out. He
was Printer to this Government for upwards
of 50 Years and being quite worn out
with Old age and labour, he left this
mortal State in the lively Hopes of a
blessed Immortality.

Reader reflect how soon you’ll quit this Stage.
You’ll find but few atain to such an Age.
Life’s full of Pain. Lo here’s a Place of Rest.
Prepare to meet your GOD then you are blest.
Here also lies the Body of Elizabeth Wife to
the said William Bradford who departed
this Life July 8 1731 aged 68 Years.

—
Restored with the original inscription by
the vestry of Trinity Church May 1863

I find several things interesting about this tombstone. First, the lettering is just beautiful – I took the picture with the intent of making a font with it some day. I also found it interesting that a printer received such a prominent headstone. Printing was a very important trade back then; today we take it for granted. How many printers do you know?

Second, notice the capitalization pattern – certain words like Life and Hope are capitalized when you wouldn’t expect them to be. I am curious what the tradition is for this. Update: it appears the nouns are capitalized, which is also done in the German language. So, I think this is a Germanic carryover which is no longer employed in present-day English.

Third, William lived to be 92 and his wife 68. This was back in the 1700s – before we had antibiotics, Lipitor, surgery – hell back then they didn’t even have the concepts of steralization and sanitation. Yet William lived to what we would consider a ripe old age, and his wife didn’t fall terribly short of current-day life expectancy. My point? We’re always told that people “back then” lived to an average age of 40.

Bullshit. People have this idea that everyone was dropping dead at 40. A lot of babies and small children died ([an 80 year old + a baby/2] = average age of 40), women died in childbirth and men were often done-in by accidents. But, if you could survive those things and the occaision plague that came along, people routinely lived into their 60s, 70s and 80s (walk around an old graveyard sometime) — without the “benefit” of pharmaceuticals and medical procedures. Frankly, I think they were much healthier than we are.

Comments or thoughts? I would love to know what people think about this.

Mount Hope Cemetery, Boston, MA

Image by BostonPhotoSphere
Mount Hope was consecrated as a private cemetery in 1852. Over the years, special monuments have been erected to honor special groups such as veterans from the Grand Army of the Republic to the present, Elks, Boston Police, and the Odd Fellows. A large expanse of land at the rear of the cemetery contains the unmarked graves of the City’s indigent. It is owned and operated by the City of Boston.

Mount Hope Cemetery, Boston, MA

Image by BostonPhotoSphere
Mount Hope was consecrated as a private cemetery in 1852. Over the years, special monuments have been erected to honor special groups such as veterans from the Grand Army of the Republic to the present, Elks, Boston Police, and the Odd Fellows. A large expanse of land at the rear of the cemetery contains the unmarked graves of the City’s indigent. It is owned and operated by the City of Boston.

Nashville City Cemetery

Image by AWJ-photography
©2011 AWJ Photography

Nashville City Cemetery

Image by AWJ-photography
©2011 AWJ Photography

Nashville City Cemetery

Image by AWJ-photography
©2011 AWJ Photography

Sunlight on headstone

Image by nouspique
Sunlight on headstone in York Mills Baptist Cemetery, Toronto

Cherub headstone

Image by KateMonkey
There were a lot of the clichéd Victorian motifs in the headstones, including this little cherub.

L_07 Blackstone – Swan Point Cemetery (1846) – 585 Blackstone Boulevard – H. P. Lovecraft’s Headstone – Heroic Shot 4 – The Whipple V. Phillips Lot – Lot 5 – Group 281

Image by California Cthulhu (Will Hart)
H. P. Lovecraft’s Headstone – Heroic Shot 4.

I was one of those who contributed (a little) to the purchase of this headstone back in 1977, and I was very happy to finally see H.P.L.’s and his mother’s headstones in place. But I couldn’t help feeling that I needed to take a far more heroic looking picture of his rather small (in comparison to the one behind and in front of it) headstone to honor his memory. So I turned my back on his headstone, and bent all the way over until I was looking backward through my legs, with my head down at ground level, and I shot this, and the previous three shots looking up at an heroic angle to produce this landscape, and the previous three shots. For overall appearance, this is my favorite of the four.

Photo taken by Will Hart on 20-August-1990.

See and hear more Lovecraftian Items at the sister sites to these Flickr collections at:
cthulhuwho1.com
and
www.youtube.com/user/CthulhuWho1

Nashville City Cemetery

Image by AWJ-photography
©2011 AWJ Photography

Nashville City Cemetery

Image by AWJ-photography
©2011 AWJ Photography

Nashville City Cemetery

Image by AWJ-photography
©2011 AWJ Photography

Mount Hope Cemetery, Boston, MA

Image by BostonPhotoSphere
Mount Hope was consecrated as a private cemetery in 1852. Over the years, special monuments have been erected to honor special groups such as veterans from the Grand Army of the Republic to the present, Elks, Boston Police, and the Odd Fellows. A large expanse of land at the rear of the cemetery contains the unmarked graves of the City’s indigent. It is owned and operated by the City of Boston.

Mount Hope Cemetery, Boston, MA

Image by BostonPhotoSphere
Mount Hope was consecrated as a private cemetery in 1852. Over the years, special monuments have been erected to honor special groups such as veterans from the Grand Army of the Republic to the present, Elks, Boston Police, and the Odd Fellows. A large expanse of land at the rear of the cemetery contains the unmarked graves of the City’s indigent. It is owned and operated by the City of Boston.

Mount Hope Cemetery, Boston, MA

Image by BostonPhotoSphere
Mount Hope was consecrated as a private cemetery in 1852. Over the years, special monuments have been erected to honor special groups such as veterans from the Grand Army of the Republic to the present, Elks, Boston Police, and the Odd Fellows. A large expanse of land at the rear of the cemetery contains the unmarked graves of the City’s indigent. It is owned and operated by the City of Boston.

Mount Hope Cemetery, Boston, MA

Image by BostonPhotoSphere
Mount Hope was consecrated as a private cemetery in 1852. Over the years, special monuments have been erected to honor special groups such as veterans from the Grand Army of the Republic to the present, Elks, Boston Police, and the Odd Fellows. A large expanse of land at the rear of the cemetery contains the unmarked graves of the City’s indigent. It is owned and operated by the City of Boston.

Memorial Day – Headstone from Above

Image by rbieber

Red Crescent Headstone Mandala Mosaic

Image by cauld lad
Fallen headstone…Walked right past this spot many times. Twas covered in leaves and other detritus .Major TLC required!! ….1919 vintage!!

Block headstones of Freemasons, Oahu Cemetery

Image by Joel Abroad
Block headstones of Freemasons, Oahu Cemetery, Honolulu, April 2010

Book headstone

Image by Anita Dalton
Though I have seen them in books, I think this was the first book headstone I have seen in person. Books as headstones or images are funerary symbols of either the Bible or a sort of Book of Life, showing the deeds of man and how life has a beginning and an ending. The writing on this particular book was too faint to read.

Redwood City Headstone

Image by Ed Bierman
Redwood City Headstone

Baby’s headstone

Image by Etsy Ketsy
Misson Delores Cemetary baby headstone

Canton Corner Cemetery, Founded 1707

Image by BostonPhotoSphere
The Canton Corner Cemetery dates back hundreds of years. In 1707, one acre was set aside within the district as a burial ground. The first burial occurred in 1716. Today the cemetery features hundreds upon hundreds of graves as well as Veterans Memorial Park, which includes the town’s war memorials and memorial benches.

In the 1700s and early 1800s, Canton Corner Cemetery was also the location of the town’s first three meetinghouses. A schoolhouse stood next to the second meetinghouse from 1735 to 1749.

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA

Image by BostonPhotoSphere
Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts, was founded in 1831 as “America’s first garden cemetery” or “rural cemetery”.

Canton Corner Cemetery, Founded 1707

Image by BostonPhotoSphere
The Canton Corner Cemetery dates back hundreds of years. In 1707, one acre was set aside within the district as a burial ground. The first burial occurred in 1716. Today the cemetery features hundreds upon hundreds of graves as well as Veterans Memorial Park, which includes the town’s war memorials and memorial benches.

In the 1700s and early 1800s, Canton Corner Cemetery was also the location of the town’s first three meetinghouses. A schoolhouse stood next to the second meetinghouse from 1735 to 1749.