The Association for Gravestone Studies

Thank you for joining us at our Open House that was held on May 21 and our annual conference held June 23-28. You are always welcome to stop by and visit, pick up that book or t-shirt you've been wanting, or just let us know what you have planned in the cemetery this season!
Call us at 413-772-0836 or email info@gravestonestudies.org

MARKERS XXVI HAS BEEN MAILED! If you have not received your copy please contact the AGS office info@gravestonestudies.org.

CGN Logo for news Connecticut Gravestone Network

Annual Spring Symposium

March 20^th 9am to 4pm

Admission is $10 pay at the door - $5 CGN members

Guest Host: East Hartford’s Friends of Center Cemetery

Location: South Senior Center in 70 Canterbury St., East Hartford

Lectures:

9:30 AM Traditional Introduction For First Timers on Preservation and Reading Old Burying Grounds, by Ruth Brown

10:45 AM The Talcottville Civil War Monument Restoration, by John Spaulding

1:15 PM The Resurrection of Pine Island’s Cemetery History, by Holly Cuzzone and Dana Laird

2:30 PM The Hartford’s First Burying Grounds and some of their Mysteries, by Ruth Brown

Door opens at 9:00 am with coffee and breakfast snacks ready.

Directions: From Hartford you take 84 east to route 2 east and get off at exit 5C for Maple St. Turn left and at stop sign turn onto Handel St then 2^nd right is Canterbury. Street ends in a cul-de-sac where center is located. There is plenty of parking. Look for Connecticut Gravestone Program signs.

If you’re coming from route 2 west then you need to use exit 5E follow through and take left in front of Wendy’s restaurant to reverse direction.

Those using route 3 and the Putnam Bridge can come down to Main St. Glastonbury and head north toward East Hartford past the Plaza and your next four way intersection will be Maple St. on your right.

For more information contact Ruth Shapleigh-Brown shapbrown@cox.net or 860-643-5652

http://www.ctgravestones.com/

BOARD MEMBER RECORDS PODCAST

Board of Trustee member and chair of the Membership and Development Committee Joy Giguere recently participated in a podcast interview with Robert Cassanello at University of Central Florida. Please click the link below to connect to the University's Public History page, which provides a direct link to the 20-minute very interesting and content-rich interview played via iTunes (for free).

http://publichistorypodcast.blogspot.com

Impressions from the Grave - by Judith Trainor (AGS Trustee)
Ms. Trainor's exhibit is now closed - For more information, e-mail jtrainor@wpi.edu
Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s (WPI) Gordon Library Class of ’41 Gallery featured an exhibit for the Halloween season on New England gravestones. On display were gravestone rubbings created with foil and on paper by Judith Trainor. In her work, Trainor captures the imagery of death including skulls, skeletons, hourglasses, winged cherubs, birds and flowers. The rubbings are done with light-weight foil to show the depth of carving and design detail. Trainor has taken this form of gravestone rubbing in new directions by using a variety of foils, finishes, rubbing techniques, and framing methods and applying them to different types of gravestones. Most of the impressions were done in the early cemeteries of Massachusetts but there are some from other New England states and New York. Through her work Trainor strives to interest people in exploring and preserving local burying grounds.

The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife 2010 Conference

Call for papers - "Dressing New England: Clothing, Fashion, and Identity"
To be held at Deerfield, MA June 18 - 20, 2010

The New Hampshire Chapter of AGS held their first meeting on Sunday, November 15, 2009 and it was a rousing success. The agenda included a meet and greet, followed by talks on such subjects as: What is AGS? An overview, by Joshua Segal - Using the Graveyard as a Genealogical Tool, by Neil Jenness - The Rhetoric of the Cemetery, by Liz Wright - The Restoration of the Circa 1796 Private Graveyard of Wentworth Cheswil, by Richard Alperin - and Conservation/Preservation, by Kai Nalenz. The next meeting is schedule for Spring 2010. Check back for details on the date and place.

If you would like to start a state chapter in your area, please contact the AGS office at info@gravestonestudies.org

To read Albany Rural Cemetery newsletters
(one of the sites for our 2009 annual conference)
click on the links below:
Spring
Summer
(pictures and article about the conference workshop)
Fall

Visit Preservation Directory.com for a listing of AGS and other national events.

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