Project Idea:
Using the Burial Ground as a Teaching Resource for the K-12 American History Teacher

Studying old burying stones:

  • is one of the several methods in which a student’s own community can be used as a "laboratory for learning."
  • provides students with a primary source in American history.
  • gives students an awareness of their historical environment.
  • allows students to use the physical presence to understand the past.
  • provides students with a means of making associations and connections of the past with the present.

Information that can be gained:

  • Setting
  • Design: death head, cherub, urn, willow
  • Inscription: morbid to serene
  • Infant Mortality
  • Plague
  • Fecundity
  • Longevity
  • Causes of Death
  • Matrimonial Practices
  • The Individual: personality and distinctions
  • Ethnicity
  • Gender

Some Possible Projects:

Have students:

  • Go on a cemetery scavenger hunt. This could be to find directed information, or simply to find their own information.
  • Determine average life span during a certain period of time as represented in a particular cemetery. Also, comparisons can be made between male and female life expectancy.
  • Record evidence of an epidemic.
  • Compare names on stones with placenames in the community.
  • Determine frequency of remarriage or length of life span after the death of a spouse.
  • Find the contributions of a local carver.

A Project can combine many of the ideas above: For example, locate three pre-1830 grave markers that document three of the following categories: cause of death, infant mortality, longevity (80s and 90s), remarriage, gender distinction, ethnicity, military service, historical event, occupation. Completely transcribe each epitaph and note the cemetery and town of its location. Depending on what period and topic you are studying in American history, this project could be varied.


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