The Association for Gravestone Studies

elcome to the Association for Gravestone Studies. We are an organization of 1000 members, with about half in the Northeast, and the rest distributed around the country and in some foreign countries, among them, Canada, Japan, Germany, England, Australia.
      Each year we hold a week-long annual conference held at a different college each year, run by volunteers, and featuring motor coach tours to cemeteries, workshops on conservation of gravestones, making foil impressions, rubbings and photographs. Last year 108 members attended our annual conference in June 2008. The conservation workshop gave “hands on” instruction to 24 conferees. Fourteen scholarly lectures were given during the evenings, and a day of participation sessions offered classroom presentations on eight topics. Two scholarships were given to students to help them with conference expenses, two people received our highest award, the Harriette Merrifield Forbes Award and three others received our Oakley Certificate of Merit. In 2009 the conference will be at Union College in Schenectady, New York. Please look elsewhere on our website for more information about it and a registration form to fill out.
      Markers, our annual journal, included articles by seven authors. The last four issues of the AGS Quarterly included fifteen major articles and fourteen book reviews. Our office is located in Greenfield, Massachusetts. The Board of Trustees has 24 members from various parts of the country.
     I encourage you to join us and participate in our conferences, publishing efforts, and to work in your local area to ensure that your cemeteries are mapped, recorded, and cared for, not only for the benefit of current genealogists and historians, but the benefit of coming generations as well.
     If you share any of these interests—art, history, art history, genealogy, archaeology, anthropology, conservation, research and material culture, please join us and support our work. There is much to do and we eagerly solicit your participation. We would enjoy meeting you and including you in our activities.

-Rosalee Oakley, President

The Association for Gravestone Studies
278 Main Street, Suite 207
Greenfield, Massachusetts 01301
413-772-0836

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES:

Officers:
Rosalee Oakley
Ian Brown
Marianne Greenfield
Judi Trainor

Trustees-at-Large:
Jon Appell
Nancy Adgent
Ta Mara Conde
Joseph Ferrannini
Joy Giguere
Janet Heywood
John Martine
Melvin Mason
Tom Mason
John O'Brien
Brenda Reynolds
Beth Santore
Joshua Segal
Sabrina Selfridge
Cathi Taylor

Ex Officio:
Laurel Gabel
Richard Meyer
June Hadden Hobbs
Jim Freeman
Marie Booth Ferrè