Tomb With A View

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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram 

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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

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: Tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagramMake People Better PodcastScience fiction is becoming science fact. In 2018, the team behind this podcast...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

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: tombwithaviewpodcast@instagram.comFacebookInstagramMake People Better PodcastScience fiction is becoming science fact. In 2018, the team behind this podcast...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

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. tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Death culture historically has been family and tradition-centric, for this reason the LGBTQ+ community often has felt alienated by traditional mourning rituals, and as a result has formed their own diverse traditions, which are often protests of the injustices they faced in life. The fascinating and unique death culture that has emerged is a diverse and vibrant as the LGBTQ+ community itself. tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

For roughly a century in isolated corners of New England the remains of those who died of consumption were exhumed and their remains used as a folk remedy for their relatives, who the population believed were being slowly drained of life by their dead relations. Were these individuals really vampires? Today I examine these fascinating cases and examine the history of this bizarre tradition.tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

The painstaking restoration of the women's comfort station at Oakland cemetery illustrates many of the challenges... and rewards of the field of preservation. Presented by Ashley Shares, Director of Preservation, at the 2019 Georgia Municipal Cemeteries Conference, this presentation addresses both the fundraising, planning, and execution of a major cemetery preservation project.FacebookInstagram Historic Oakland Foundation

For the past ten years Samuel Beetler II has overseen the preservation of the monuments in Savannah's five municipal cemeteries. Recently promoted to director of cemeteries he shares his thoughts on the importance of conservation, balancing burial versus tourism, and many other vital topics to cemeteries today.FacebookInstagramCity of Savannah Cemeteries:Instagram

In 1917 the design and marketing of American cemeteries would again change, as one man, a former chemist and miner, Hubert Eaton had a vision of a cemetery that was about life, not death. Eaton's unique marketing of the "memorial park" would eliminate gravestones, paint a glowing new-age Christian picture of death as a glorious resurrection, and most importantly monetize burial in ways never before imagined. FacebookInstagram

on August 6, 1938 Charles Addams published the first cartoon featuring an unusual, macabre family that would become colloquially known by his name. Though they only represent a small part of his prolific career as cartoonist, they have become an enduring part of American culture to this day. The origins of the Addams family lies in the small colonial town of Westfield, NJ, where Addams spent his youth... wandering where else, but a cemetery.FacebookInstagram

What was it about Mount Auburn that so captured the American imagination, and started the trend of cemetery tourism and spawned dozens of replica rural cemeteries across America? What were some of the criticisms? tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

How did the 19th century change the way that people lived in America, exploring the social, political, industrial, philosophical, and religious changes that swept America in the first half of the 19th century and how they forged a new, completely unique, American model for cemeteries (including the use of the word cemetery!).tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram 

Today we explore how the earliest settlers developed their burial grounds, adapting their practices from both their European roots, and their religious beliefs... and why neither was a great model for long-term success. tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Why do a podcast about cemeteries? Why am I the one doing a podcast about cemeteries? In the first episode I tell the story of how I became interested in cemeteries and became a member of the cemetery community, and why I thought we all needed a podcast about them.tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Everyone knows A Christmas Carol...Why were the Victorians so obsessed with telling ghost stories at Christmas? And why did the tradition never really catch on in the United States?FacebookInstagram

What happens when you can't just let go... In a nice bookend to the story of the wandering case of the corpse of Eva Peron, we travel to Key West for the story of a fake doctor, stolen corpse, and a tale almost too weird to be true. tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

40 years has passed since the controversial design of a young Yale architecture student was unveiled on the National Mall. The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial was as controversial as the war which necessitated it, but ultimately has lead to incredible healing and an evolution in how we design memorials. 

What is the value of a body once it stops living? The messy political landscape of Argentina wondered that for almost 20 years following the death of its enigmatic First Lady Eva Peron, as they preserved and hid her remains.Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

It's Tomb with a View's Third Anniversary, and I openwd up the airwaves for questions!Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

August 31, 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Her death  in an automobile accident at just age of 36 prompted a global outpouring of grief that was unprecedented in history, with half the world's population watching on television and more than a million mourners in person. I take a look at her death, funeral, and how it fits into the overall story of not only royal funerals, but how the world views grief.Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Lizzie Borden took and axe... but what happened next? Following some of the nation's most notorious murder victims to their (sort of) final resting place. Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Often the few words of an epitaph are all that we can use to know them from their tombstone. Today I trace the origins of epitaphs, and the somewhat bumpy road that brought them to the present day. What do they say not only about the person they memorialize, but about society as a whole?Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

On July 6, 2022 a bomb destroyed the Georgia Guidestones. This mysterious monument erected in Elberton, GA in 1980 has been a source of fascination since their erection. Recently the topic of right-wing Satanic panic, that most likely led to their destruction, before that these stones were Elberton's number one attraction and a testament to the skill of the local granite industry, which produces 2/3 of America's gravestones. Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

America is a country of immigrants; however, since 1994 death of those seeking to cross the southern border of the United States have skyrocketed. What happens to these individuals, stuck, in death, somewhere between the countries they left behind and America?Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

When Harvey Milk was assassinated on November 27, 1978 he left an enormous hole in the LGBTQ+ community of San Francisco. His legacy, not just as the first openly gay politician in California, but as an empathetic and compassionate social activist created an inclusive community that serves as his true legacy.Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Ulysses S. Grant died essentially penniless, but 90,000 people donated more than $600,000 to memorialize him with a massive tomb in New York City. A century later a dedicated college student stepped in to save the day after decades of neglect. Celebrating Memorial Day with the comeback story of Grant's Tomb.Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

On May 6, 1937 the Hindenburg crashed in Lakehurst, NJ. On the 85th anniversary I examine the strange lack of memorials to the many airship disasters of the 1920s and 1930s and the dedicated individuals and corners of the world that keep the memory alive. Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Is cemetery sculpture art? Who decides? and where does it fall in the spectrum of art history?Beth Roark is a professor of art history at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA and today we discuss what it is like to be a cemetery scholar.Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

The celebration of the 200th birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted continues with a discussion of Olmsted's grave at the Old North Burial Ground in Hartford, CT and the many cemetery projects taken on by the Olmsted Brothers in the 20th century. Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

April 26, 2022 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of Landscape Architecture in America. Olmsted only designed one cemetery, Mountain View in Oakland, California, early in his career. Over the next two episodes I explore how his landscape design shaped American cemeteries and elevated the landscape to a piece of art.Olmsted 200Email: Tomb with a View PodcastFacebookInstagram   

German painted Caspar David Freidrich painted 10 oil paintings with the subject of cemeteries. Why did he chose those as his subject? How are they a reflection of the greater culture of the time? And most importantly why was Hitler such a fan?Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Seventy years ago Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA started a museum. They had been collecting art, both funerary and otherwise and their collection had grown to such an extent it needed a home. That museum is still a huge part of Forest Lawn's landscape today.  I kick of Artistic April with James Fishburne, the curator of the Forest Lawn Museum and discuss the collection, art history, the " memorial impulse" and what the future of art looks like. Forest Lawn Memorial Park Museum Read more about James and his work at Forest Lawn here!Follow along with the Forest Lawn Museum InstagramEmail: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

The K-9 Corps was founded 80 years ago on March 13, 1942. Since them more than 30,000 dogs have served in the US military, many who never came home. How are these dogs trained, what is their relationship to their handlers, and most importantly how are they remembered when the loose their lives in the line of duty?Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

America has produced some incredible and innovative things in terms of burial traditions... but what about the unsuccessful ideas. Today I explore the brief lifespan of "marble cemeteries" .Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagramThe New York Marble CemeteryThe New York City Marble Cemetery

The Lindbergh kidnapping is one of the most notorious true crime stories in American history. How did two cemeteries come to be at the center of the story and why was the supposed perpetrator known as "Cemetery John"? FacebookInstagramEmail: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com

Childhood mortality has declined since the 19th century, but how has the was we memorialize children changed over time?Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Everyone has seen cast iron ornamental fences around family lots in cemeteries, but the history of cast iron and cemeteries doesn't end there. Looking at how cast iron became a hot commodity in American cemeteries in the 19th century.Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comInstagramFacebook

Everyone who has visited a cemetery has seen a Masonic grave... but why is so little actually known and written about them? Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Harriette Merrifield Forbes was and extraordinary woman for her time, well educated, a phenomenal researcher, and a talented photographer... and without intending to, started the field of gravestone studies. Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

About a month ago I got a letter in the mail... today I'm sharing the weird and wonderful tale that unfolded from that letter, with surprising cemetery connections.Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Burford holly is one of the most popular ornamental shrubs in gardens across the United States, and its origins are in Atlanta's Westview Cemetery. In a story that involves Queen Victoria, eccentric gardeners, and English ballads I will explore how this Christmas symbol connects to cemeteries. Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

So many of our mourning traditions come  from the Victorian era... the traditions all very much tied to the death of Queen Victoria's husband Albert and how she mourning him. Email: tombwithaview@gmail.comInstagramFacebook

On December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor Hawaii was bombed and torpedoed by Imperial Japanese troops. The military and civilian deaths that day lead to a massive recovery effort, temporary cemeteries, and one of the most visited memorials in American.Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

The story of the Pilgrims is the quintessential American story... so we have always treasured and protected their final resting place...right?Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram

Islam is the primary faith of 47 countries globally, with 1.9 billion practitioners, yet the history of Islam in America is difficult to trace and their cemeteries are hard to find, and even more difficult to establish new ones. Looking at the trends, or lack thereof in Muslim cemeteries in the United States. Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comFacebookInstagram