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Breaking the Ice in the Language of the Dead: Victorian Funerary Symbolism

Presented by Laurel Hill Cemetery at Laurel Hill Cemetery

January 21, 2012

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You are invited to join Laurel Hill Cemetery for the first program of 2012! Victorian Philadelphians loved visual symbolism, and even their simplest grave markers are likely to be ornamented by ivy (for eternal life), lilies (for resurrection) or hour glasses (for brevity of life). Oftentimes, the symbolism is both lavish and individualized. A civic reformer is memorialized with a bas-relief showing the Schuylkill Canal and the Philadelphia Water Works. A prison reformer is celebrated with a grand model of Moyamensing Prison. A shattered column, a cavalry officer’s sword and a pair of spurs mark the resting place of one of the first soldiers to die at the Battle of Little Big Horn, infamously known as Custer’s Last Stand. A mother who died in childbirth is compellingly depicted clasping her two dead babies. Nineteenth-century Philadelphians understood Laurel Hill not only as a cemetery, but also as a vast sculptural garden and retreat. Accordingly, they came by the thousands to read the symbolic messages that the dead had left for the living.

This walking tour will be led by Dr. Michael Brooks, Professor Emeritus of West Chester University. It will conclude with cookies and refreshments.