Tomb With A View: A Cemetery Podcast

On one hill, in one cemetery, in a small town in Massachusetts are buried several American literary giants. The cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, in Concord, MA is in many ways a manifestation of the ideology that they popularized and launched a movement to conserve land. Email: [email protected]

Did your college or university have a cemetery on campus? A surprising amount of schools do. They exist of a number of reasons (well just one actually, but there's plenty of different stories). Celebrate back to school in the best way possible...cemeteries!Email: [email protected]

Zinkies, or white bronze headstones are a perennial favorite of all taphophiles. Today we explore their origin, manufacturing, preservation, and discussed how the company that made them revolutionized sales techniques.Email: [email protected]

The rural cemetery movement coincided with an intellectual fascination with past cultures. These elements of society combined to create a century of architectural distinction in American cemeteries. Email: [email protected]

Cemetery Symbolism is often the hook that lures people into the cemetery world. What is it? What does it mean? Symbols and how they are interpreted is a complicated and much debated topic in art history. Email: [email protected]

Radiation can both help and harm, from the atomic bomb to life saving cancer treatment the way that radioactive elements and isotopes impact the human body was little understood until the mid-20th century. The answers came from cemeteries, where scientists looked to corpses that had died of exposure to radiation to study the phenomenon, and better understand how to harness it's power in the future. Email: [email protected]

Between 1895 and 1945 San Francisco not only outlawed burial within city limits, but within the entire county. Following that, a fast-growing western port town hungry for land rallied for the removal of the thirteen major cemeteries. Meanwhile, to the south a quiet farming community, less than two square miles was slowly transforming into something extraordinary, America's first true necropolis with more than 1.5 million burials. Email: [email protected]

The United States largest cemetery is a Catholic cemetery. One of it's most intact mortuary archaeological sites is a Catholic cemetery. Yet despite this, little has been written about Catholic cemeteries themselves, how they are founded, how the y should be run, or how they are designed. Catholic cemeteries are all about one thing... and they do it well. Volume. Email: [email protected]

The discovery of KV62, or the tomb of King Tut was one of the most significant archaeological finds in history. 100 years ago, Howard Carter, the son of an illustrator and self-taught Egyptologist under the patronage of Lord Carnovan, first glimpsed the undiscovered tomb. In the wake of his discovery, a new wave of Egyptomania would sweep the world, and no where was this more evident than in cemeteries. Email: [email protected]

What are the biggest challenges that historic cemeteries face when it comes to the issue of preservation? No answers this week, just putting a name on the things that stand in the way of successful preservation. [email protected]