![]() ![]() ![]() Epitaphs moved to verses of consolation rather than damnation. The evolution toward a ritualistic grieving process was embraced in motifs and epitaphs on tombstones. Jesus himself was rumored to have wept at the tomb of Lazarus. In contrast, nineteenth century Americans saw an evolution toward a ritualistic grieving process that focused on expressing sadness for the loss of others. Hijiya argued these cultural changes toward death in the 1820s were the “single most important turning point in the history of mortuary art.” For New England Puritans intense bereavement was viewed as a rebellion against the will of God, and mourning was censored. In Ohio, the developments in transportation greatly facilitated the movement and demand for marble to the Cleveland region and the rest of Ohio.Īs religious and intellectual views evolved as a result of the First and Second Great Awakenings and the rise of Neoclassicism, motifs and epitaphs on tombstones evolved. Classical revival symbols taken from the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians became popular in architecture, reflecting timeless principles of past civilizations and presenting a divine logic blended with intellectual and aesthetic appeal. Similar to the Ancient Greeks, the use of marble became popular in America. The revival of past cultures influenced politics, the arts, and philosophy. Neoclassicism became the vogue in Europe and North America by 1750. Americans paid homage to ancient cultures such as the Romans and Greeks, merging the classical and Christian worlds. People began to doubt they were wicked enough to deserve perpetual pain and damnation, and began to minimize the inevitability eternal damnation. The stern, rigid, and oppressive sensibilities of the Puritan past gave way to softer, romantic, and sentimentalized attitudes. Grim death’s-heads carvings common on tombstones before the First Great Awakening began to be replaced by hospitable angelic faces with wings. With the religious revival movements of the First (1730-1750) and Second Great Awakening (1790-1840), there was a shift away from the Calvinistic fear of definite damnation in Hell toward an increased emphasis on salvation. The tombstones reinforced the fear of premature death and eternal damnation encouraging people to live morally without sin. Individual tombstones provided a warning to the living of the closeness of Hell through grim carvings of death’s-heads and fearful epitaphs. They were generally located in urban areas for all passersby to contemplate mortality, rarely encouraging remembrance of the deceased.Įighteenth century tombstones were unadorned, usually made of unattractive brown or gray slate, with little biographical evidence carved into them. They were used as a highly visible reminder of the brevity of life and the uncertainty of the afterlife. Attitudes toward mortality and spirituality, the significance of perpetual commemoration, the emulation of social status and gender, and the subtle transition of attitudes toward death leading into the twentieth century are the focal points of this study.įrom approximately the mid-1600s to the mid-1700s, cemeteries in North America were a utilitarian place. The goal of this study is to examine the social and cultural attitudes towards death in the nineteenth century reflected through pictorial evidence of cemetery iconography, epitaphs, and architecture of tombstones in Northeast Ohio. The diverse motifs, expressive inscriptions and distinct architecture of tombstones provide a lens through which to view these attitudes. A cemetery can reveal much about the social and cultural attitudes of individuals buried within its borders. However, cemeteries and tombstones provide a wealth of knowledge to historians, architects, geologists, archeologists, and sociologists. It can serve as a nuisance to a community’s expansion or linger on as a wasted parcel of land. Exhibit: Understanding Tombstones in Cleveland: Religion, Memory, Social Status, and Gender in CemeteriesĪn old, dilapidated cemetery is often viewed as an eyesore by a community due to the oddly shaped, tilting, snapped, and flaking markers littering the unbalanced landscape.Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2010. Book Review: Do They Miss Me at Home? The Civil War Letters of William McKnight, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry.Acknowledgements, introduction, notes, selected bibliography, index. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2009. ![]() Ohio University Press Series on Law, Society, and Politics in the Midwest. No Winners Here Tonight: Race, Politics, and Geography in One of the Country’s Busiest Death Penalty States. Book Review: The Untried Life: The 29th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. ![]()
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