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Show Death is not now looked upon by most Christians as a negation of life, but rather as a passage of the soul into a state of tranquility or happiness among peers and kin in beautiful gardens irradiated by the presence of God. Monuments and rituals for the dead have been common since the dawn of recorded history, but more than a century and a half have passed since gravestones in the United States have been burdened with the dour images of death's heads, skulls and crossbones, or dangling skeletons, as they were typically in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They are no longer situated beside the parish chapel or in musty catacombs thereunder, but rather in suburban wooded parks. This trend coincided roughly with the settlement of the American West-the 1830s to 1860s-and in the Intermountain West the sites chosen favored elevated land which was often difficult to irrigate. Consequently, for many years it was difficult to give cemeteries the park image that most of them now have. One can learn a great deal about the deceased in a cemetery: indications of their civic pride; their family groups or clans and the individual members thereof; their professions, trades, occupations, and affiliations (Fig. 138); the ethnic groups to which they belonged; the fraternal orders of which they were members; terms of military service; disasters and tragedies they experienced. The name and dates of birth and death, inscribed on the body of the stone, convey the literal message, but what about that couplet or quatrain of elegiac verse, or other text, nearly always situated below the identity of the deceased (Fig. 139)? What about the floral sprays, pony's head, sheaf of grain, weeping willow (Fig. 140), dove (Fig. 141), lilies of the valley, rose? Why are there books and scrolls, heavenly gates, stumps and logs, clasped hands, or baby's shoes with one lace untied? Why the plow, the horse and cattle, the deer, the fishing rod? Anyone who has visited a cemetery knows that grave markers come in infinite variations- simple wooden crosses or plaques, smooth stones lying flat in the earth, simple rectangular stones set on end in the soil itself or in a base of concrete. Often the upper edge of the rectangle is rounded slightly, producing a canopy. Within the canopy itself, or centered on the level where the canopy and the rectangular body of the stone meet, is a medallion containing engraved figures which have both denotative and connotative meanings-both what is actually before the eye, and what it connotes or suggests beyond what is actually there about life, death, eternity, or the individual himself. The body of the marker usually consists of a rectangular slab on which is inscribed the vita of the deceased-name, age, sex, parentage, marital status, children, and the like. If the vita extends beyond the bare identification that is due alike to rich and poor, male and female, old and young-if, that is, it also gives data that builds Fig. 138 Gravestone rubbing, John H. Williams stone. Elko, Nevada, Cemetery. White marble (original). 1883. H: 90 cm. W: 47.5 cm. Collection of Utah Arts Council. All elements of this memorial, from the brakeman's coupling device at the top to the personalized epitaph at the bottom, reinforce the importance of railroading in the life of the deceased. The omission of the birthdate, specifics about the circumstance of death, and the inclusion of the inscription "aged 37 years" all point to an untimely death on the job. Fig. 139 Gravestone rubbing, James Hendricks stone. Richmond Cemetery. Grey marble (original). 1870. H: 107.5 cm. W: 52.5 cm. Collection of Utah Arts Council. Like many stones in the Great Basin region, this particular gravemarker includes not only the vital statistics of the deceased-name, dates, and place-but also a short narrative, or minilegend, describing life experiences. The inclusion of verse, proverbs, or scripture on the base of the marker was also common practice. 138 |