Cemetery Tours And Programming: A Guide (American Association For State And Local History)

Cemeteries are liminal spaces which communicate grand ideas about mortality and values. They link the past and the future, and both isolate and provide a place for communication with the dead. Founders of America s first rural cemeteries recognized this and viewed cemeteries as significant civic improvements with the potential to inspire and instruct visitors as well as provide relief from the pressures of an increasingly industrialized society. By the end of the 19th century, changes had occurred to more narrowly define the role of the American cemetery. The development of municipal parks gradually claimed cemeteries recreational patronage. America was moving towards a more modern approach to death, with the rise in funeral homes and commercial enterprises to market death services. Monuments became more standardized and sold through catalogues. Cemeteries began to lose their functional diversity and cultural significance. As the 21st century begins, burial grounds are facing increasing pressures regarding their relevancy. Americans are embracing cremation (expected to be greater than 50% nationwide in 2025), and are increasingly more interested in the practical disposal of the dead than in the ceremony and memorialization that was once common and expected. Americans today are moving and living far from where their parents did and the connection to a local burial ground is lost. As time goes on, a cemetery costs more and more money to maintain, as land becomes developed, monuments sink and become worn and roads need to be paved and maintained. Those cemeteries, faced with increased maintenance and labor costs/shrinking endowments and cemetery income, have often become places of disrepair and neglect. Cemeteries are cultural institutions. With their physical demise, many of the stories illustrated by the art, architecture and horticulture are lost as well. Faced with these challenges some cemeteries are creating events and programming in an effort not only to bring in income, but to return the cemetery to its place as an integral part of the community s fabric. Cemetery Tours and Programming: A Guide shows the range and opportunities of cemetery programming which go beyond the basic starting points like dog-walking or traditional historic walking tours. While most cemeteries do not have a large paid staff, the book is accessible to anyone (a paid staff, volunteers, a Friends Group or museum or historical society) looking to broaden the scope of how their local cemetery is utilized. While other books guide readers through the symbolism present in cemeteries or how to use a cemetery for genealogy, this is the only one on developing programming in cemeteries. It illustrates the reuses of both historic and contemporary burial grounds through the lenses of recreation, education and reflection."

• | Author: Rachel Wolgemuth
• | Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• | Publication Date: Mar 08, 2016
• | Number of Pages: 174 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1442263180
• | ISBN-13: 9781442263185