This article is part of a series on How Historic Laurel Hill Cemetery Is Reinventing Itself. It is based on an interview with Ross Mitchell, Executive Director of Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, PA. Stoneangels: You have an artifact exhibit in the building next door-I remember seeing things when we were over there taking donated […]
The Afterlife Referenced in Cemetery Symbolism (Part 3): Tiffany Stained Glass
Tiffany Stained Glass The American painter and designer, Louis Comfort Tiffany, essentially brought new high quality, high technology stained glass as an art form to the world in the late 1800s. Prior to that time, most of the stained glass used in windows came from Europe, and then only as seconds. European craftsmen kept the […]
The Afterlife Referenced in Cemetery Symbolism (Part 2): Stained Glass
Stained Glass Another symbol intended to help prepare us for the great beyond is the stained glass window. Does this come as a surprise? In the mid-1100s, Abbot Suger of the Abbey of St. Denis (the royal abbey of France) believed that the presence of beautiful objects would lift men’s’ souls closer to God. This […]
The Afterlife Referenced in Cemetery Symbolism (Part 1)
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I can’t help but notice that cemeteries live and breathe reminders of lives well spent and just rewards. Besides the ambiance, symbolism is just one of the many things cemeteries offer-perhaps it is the main thing. Take a short tour through some cemeteries as […]
Saving Graces: The Art of Sensual Statues in Cemeteries
On walking through just about any cemetery established after 1850, one is likely to see sensual female figures, carved, or rather released, from a variety of material – granite, marble, bronze. This is principally true in France and England, the birthplaces of “garden cemeteries.” For the uninitiated, garden cemeteries are essentially outdoor sculpture gardens, conceived […]
