Ancient Cemetery R. I. P. Project (Record, Investigate, and Protect)
The effort to clean, photograph, record and preserve the gravestones in Ancient Cemetery (on Center Street in Yarmouth Port) began in 2018 under the leadership of Patricia Armstrong, then Director of Parks, Recreation and Cemeteries for the Town of Yarmouth, who secured multi-year CPA funding, including work in Ancient Cemetery. Volunteers were recruited for the Project and, after they were trained by a certified gravestone conservator, worked through the summers of 2018 and 2019 to safely clean a limited number of selected gravestones.
As a way to continue to support and expand volunteer efforts, an Ancient Cemetery Gravestone Preservation Project proposal, was successfully submitted by the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth to the Yarmouth Community Preservation Council in collaboration with the Town of Yarmouth for 2020-2021.
At the end of 2020, volunteers have cleaned, photographed and recorded information from 688 gravestones and documented more than 780 records of memorialized individuals. Twenty volunteers, have been officially trained, signed liability waivers with the Town of Yarmouth, and are over the required age of 15. Starting in 2021, additional volunteers are now engaged in genealogy and vital statistics research on some of the cleaned stones. Bill Bullock (Yarmouth Cemetery Foreman) has been an invaluable partner and helpful supporter in each step of this process.
A detailed spread sheet captures the reported information from the volunteers, which is then sorted and analyzed as part of the ongoing Project. The Project has started to inventory the Town of Yarmouth cemetery maps for all of Yarmouth’s cemeteries. The maps will be catalogued, preserved as appropriate and stored in suitable map cases in the Town Cemetery Department.
Monthly education meetings were carried out in 2019, but were rendered impossible by the Covid restrictions of 2020 and early 2021. To continue the teaching aspect of the project, we organized a series of Zoom Seminar Programs which have been uploaded to The Friends of Ancient Cemetery YouTube channel, available to the Project volunteers and members of the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth. The ZOOM presentations are designed to expand a viewer’s appreciation and knowledge of gravestones and cemeteries, and their place in history.
Descriptions and links to the seven videos are listed here.
If you would like to learn more about gravestones and cemeteries, we suggest you look up the Association for Gravestone Studies: https://www.gravestonestudies.org/
Ancient Cemetery videos created for educational and informational purposes only are provided under the Copyright Protection of Fair Use.
These videos are only for Ancient Cemetery volunteers and HSOY members. Do Not Share.
VIDEO ONE
A Plague of Epidemics: Speckled Monsters, Destroying Angels, and Strangling Distempers
Presented by Laurel K. Gabel
Epidemic diseases have been a part of the human condition throughout history, impacting individual lives, communities, political boundaries, and the world at large. In this illustrated Zoom presentation (about 30 minutes), Laurel takes a look at the lethal history of six epidemics and how the resulting deaths have been acknowledged ~ or ignored ~ on gravestones.
Laurel K. Gabel is a scholar in the field of cemetery and gravestones studies, a popular lecturer, author of numerous essays and articles, and co-author (with Theodore Chase) of Gravestone Chronicles I and II, two books about early New England gravestones and the men who carved them.
VIDEO TWO
Understanding Early Gravestones
Presented by Laurel K. Gabel
This fifty-minute slide presentation introduces the symbolism and special language of gravestones along with the attitudes about death and memorialization that these historic artifacts reflect over time. With an overview of early gravestones and their carvers, the Rural Cemetery Movement, fraternal and heraldic symbolism, and the historic and modern use of memorial photography, this well-illustrated presentation is informative as well as entertaining and is guaranteed to make you look at area gravestones, from all eras, with new insight and appreciation.
Laurel K. Gabel is a scholar in the field of cemetery and gravestones studies, a popular lecturer, author of numerous essays and articles, and co-author (with Theodore Chase) of Gravestone Chronicles I and II, two books about early New England gravestones and the men who carved them.
VIDEO THREE
A Memorable Gale (of 1841)
Presented by Judi Trainor
The storm that hit New England in October of 1841 brought snow inland and heavy rain with strong winds on the coast. Hardest hit was Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with a total loss of 14 vessels and 87 men. This presentation will tell the story of the memorable gale through the cemeteries of Cape Cod. There are gravestones in every town of Cape Cod for those who never returned from the sea. Yet, it was the October Gale that was most memorable, for it was devastating in the number of lives lost at one time and the economic impact on the fishing fleet. Accounts of the storm have been recorded in town histories and by ship captains, but the story of the October Gale is told most poignantly in the cemeteries of Cape Cod.
Judi Trainor recently retired as Associate Vice President of Finance at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts. She previously worked in historic preservation for the State of Rhode Island and has a M.A. in history and historical museum work from the University of Connecticut in conjunction with Old Sturbridge Village. She has presented papers at numerous conferences of the Association of Gravestone Studies and has an interest in gravestones that show cause of death. She is a former trustee and treasurer of the Association of Gravestone Studies.
VIDEO FOUR
Remember Me
Presented by Judi Trainor
Remember Me explores what people choose for inscriptions and images on their grave markers. Many of the examples are gravestones from Cape Cod cemeteries. This is a light-hearted presentation meant to entertain as well as inform. It might even leave you smiling.
Judi Trainor recently retired as Associate Vice President of Finance at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts. She previously worked in historic preservation for the State of Rhode Island and has a M.A. in history and historical museum work from the University of Connecticut in conjunction with Old Sturbridge Village. She has presented papers at numerous conferences of the Association of Gravestone Studies and has an interest in gravestones that show cause of death. She is a former trustee and treasurer of the Association of Gravestone Studies.
VIDEO FIVE
Fifteen Men, Forty-five Gills, and "The Glorious Ninety-two:" Paul Revere's Liberty Bowl and the men who commissioned it
Presented by Laurel K. Gabel
Paul Revere's iconic Liberty Bowl, our Declaration of Independence, and the US Constitution have been called three of the nation's most cherished historical treasures. This presentation focuses on the Liberty Bowl and the fifteen Sons of Liberty who Revere immortalized when he engraved their names around the rim of the now famous bowl. Who were these patriots who commissioned the bowl and what part did they play in subsequent history? What is the meaning of the bowl's highly political iconography? And how and where were these Sons of Liberty memorialized after death? Not all is as it seems.
Laurel K. Gabel is a scholar in the field of cemetery and gravestones studies, a popular lecturer, author of numerous essays and articles, and co-author (with Theodore Chase) of Gravestone Chronicles I and II, two books about early New England gravestones and the men who carved them. A registered nurse in "a previous lifetime," Laurel has been an active member of the Association for Gravestone Studies since 1979, when a life-long passion for research, genealogy, social history, and folk art came together in a study of American cemeteries.
VIDEO SIX
The “Operatives”: Mill Workers in Life and Death
Presented by Laurel K. Gabel
The “Operatives” helps tell the story of young women who were recruited to work in the cotton mills of Massachusetts' newly created industrial cities. The lives of Lowell, Massachusetts' mill girl operatives, as well as those who died in Lawrence's Pemberton Mill tragedy, are remembered on their gravestones.
Laurel K. Gabel is a scholar in the field of cemetery and gravestones studies, a popular lecturer, author of numerous essays and articles, and co-author (with Theodore Chase) of Gravestone Chronicles I and II, two books about early New England gravestones and the men who carved them. A registered nurse in "a previous lifetime," Laurel has been an active member of the Association for Gravestone Studies since 1979, when a life-long passion for research, genealogy, social history, and folk art came together in a study of American cemeteries.
VIDEO SEVEN
Cherished Chickens and Magic Mushrooms: Grave Sightings on Martha’s Vineyard
Presented by Judi Trainor
This presentation will focus on two deaths roughly a century apart. The graves of those individuals, both of whom were well-known figures in their time, are located in neighboring towns on Martha’s Vineyard. Their graves remain sightseeing destinations for summer visitors. Nancy Luce (1814-1890) was considered eccentric because she named and wrote poems to her chickens. When they died, she erected marble headstones in a graveyard next to her house. John Belushi (1949-1982) was a star of television (Saturday Night Live) and movies (Animal House, The Blues Brothers). The events surrounding his funeral, burial, and gravestone are as comic as the characters he played on screen.
Judi Trainor recently retired as Associate Vice President of Finance at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts. She previously worked in historic preservation for the State of Rhode Island and has a M.A. in history and historical museum work from the University of Connecticut in conjunction with Old Sturbridge Village. She has presented papers at numerous conferences of the Association of Gravestone Studies and has an interest in gravestones that show cause of death. She is a former trustee and treasurer of the Association of Gravestone Studies.
VIDEO EIGHT
Comments and Data Analysis of the Ongoing Ancient Cemetery R.I.P. Project 2018-2020
Presented by Laurel K. Gabel
An Overview of the collected data, spreadsheet fields, and interpretive graphs, this is a preliminary study of a modest percentage of gravestones in Ancient Cemetery. Data presented here was collected by twenty Project volunteers in this collaborative effort between the Town of Yarmouth Cemetery Department and the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth, Yarmouth, Massachusetts. These results will change as additional stones are included in the database.
Laurel K. Gabel is a scholar in the field of cemetery and gravestones studies, a popular lecturer, author of numerous essays and articles, and co-author (with Theodore Chase) of Gravestone Chronicles I and II, two books about early New England gravestones and the men who carved them. A registered nurse in "a previous lifetime," Laurel has been an active member of the Association for Gravestone Studies since 1979, when a life-long passion for research, genealogy, social history, and folk art came together in a study of American cemeteries.