A Graveyard Preservation Primer

by Lynette Strangstad

This slender volume encapsulates more information on graveyard preservation than any other restoration guidebook available. Packed with effective methods of maintenance and repair, A Graveyard Preservation Primer will help you restore and prolong the life of the stones in your care. Numerous photos and illustrations further clarify and demonstrate different problems and remedies for the beginning preservationist. Strangstad, who is familiar with historic yards from Halifax to Savannah, provides a step-by-step guidebook that is an indispensable reference tool for anyone interested in graveyard preservation.

Genres: History, Reference, Nonfiction

126 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1988

Reviews

[Renee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I paid too much money for this book. People on videos regarding cleaning headstones often praised this book, saying that it was an absolutely must read. It barely touched what pertained to me (cleaning marble and granite and metal headstones) and it's outdated. If you want to learn how to clean and restore headstones, you can learn far more by watching reputable and experienced professionals online, or connect with professionals who do this for a living. This book dealt mostly with major repairs of pre-1800 stones (which we never come across here) and entire graveyard reconstruction. I just want to clean a stone safely without doing any damage. That's evidently a different book.

[Liz Clappin · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this volume has been updated it's still a bit out of date so some advancements have been made in terms of solvents and other materials but it remains as comprehensive, accessible, and detailed guide for amateur and experienced preservationists alike.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now want to help restore a graveyard- especially the preservation of historic vegetation and grave goods.

[Dorothea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't think I was going to spend half my evening reading about graveyard preservation. I just happened to be walking home from a lecture at the university, and passed by the old cemetery, and had a look around. What a pity, I thought, some of those stones are covered with lichen and they're hard to read. I wonder what's involved in taking care of a place like this.

Then I walked a little farther and I got to the main university library. Hmm, I wonder if they've got any books about cemeteries?

I got home very late, but I had a lovely evening. The library had the first edition (1988) but I see that a second edition was published just this year. Good -- that's the one I'll inevitably buy if I ever do anything remotely related to graveyards.

This is a great little book. It is short (less than 100 pages if you don't include the appendices) and is very clear about what it's for. It's for when you like an old graveyard, and you want to take care of it but you're not sure how, and you might not even know -- yet! -- that some of the well-intentioned things you think you could do to take care of it are actually very bad ideas.

For instance -- don't pull the lichen off. The stone might well come off with it. And people who want to make rubbings of gravestone inscriptions can do a surprising amount of damage, but if you put up a sign saying No Rubbings you will annoy half the public who could possibly be interested in helping you preserve the cemetery. Also, do not tidy up your old cemetery by pulling up all the crooked headstones and footstones, making a long straight line of wet concrete, and embedding all the stones in it. (Yes, this has been done. There's a photograph in the book. In addition to the unconscionable destruction of the historic record, concrete is stronger than old gravestones, so after a few years they start snapping off like broken teeth.)

I wrote down the chapter headings and sections so you can see what kind of information is in this book:

Chapter 1: Assessing the Problem
+ The Importance of Early Graveyards
+ A Few Definitions
+ Developing a Plan [*]

Chapter 2: Organizational Concerns
+ Gravestone Rubbing
+ Working with Volunteers
+ Public Awareness
+ Security
+ Graveyards as an Educational Tool
+ A Word about Funding

Chapter 3: Collecting Data
+ Documenting the Yard
-- Existing Documents
-- Inscriptions
-- Mirrors [**]
-- Recording Detailed Information about Each Gravemarker
-- Documentation of Repairs and Condition of Stone
-- Carvers' Attributes
-- Photographs
-- Mapping the Graveyard
+ Archaeology

Chapter 4: Remedies
+ Cleaning and Maintaining the Site
+ Caring for Stone Fragments
+ Landscaping
+ Finding a Gravestone Conservation Professional
+ Cleaning Old Gravestones
+ Repairing Old Gravestones
-- Is Resetting Necessary?
-- Is Resetting Practical?
-- Setting Incomplete Tablestones
+ Probing [***]
+ Monument Repair
-- Tablestones, Especially Marble
-- Composite Stone Repair
-- Large Stones
-- Sandstones
-- Slates
-- Brick and Stone Crypts and Box Tombs
-- Urgency
+ Removal of Stones: A Question of Ethics

[*] According to the author there are eight parts to developing your graveyard preservation plan:
1. Identifying who legally owns the graveyard/gravesites and what laws govern what can be done with the graveyard
2. Security (preventing vandalism of the site, which must be balanced with encouraging the public to visit)
3. Documenting the markers and their inscriptions
4. What restoration and conservation work needs to be done, and who can do it, and what will it cost?
5. Is an archaeological survey called for?
6. What kind of landscaping needs to be done?
7. Public interest: how to promote and maintain it
8. Fundraising

[**] Mirrors are important for reading and photographing inscriptions on gravestones. This is best done when the sunlight strikes the face of the stone at an acute angle so that the inscriptions are shadowed. When the sun isn't at the best angle for a particular stone, you can get a big mirror and bounce the light back.

[***] Probing: gently poking into the ground with a pointy metal stick in order to locate missing gravestones and fragments that may have fallen over and been covered by soil.

A funny thing about this book is that it doesn't ever mention corpses, bones, skeletons, or anything like that. The closest we ever get is a reminder that the purpose of a gravestone is to mark a grave (which is partly why it's a bad idea to move stones) and a short discussion of why people might be reluctant to have an archaeological survey done (but you shouldn't be reluctant because the archaeologist will just look at a small bit of soil, and won't dig up the entire place, and can be helpful in confirming sites where graves were probably once marked by a wooden marker that has since disintegrated but that left a trace on the soil).

[Connie Fairchild · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have this as my #1 reference book on cemetery care and preservation. I have given several copies away to cemetery sextons and church committees for their use.

Excellent, well written, good graphics.

Have had this in my library for many years.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

If or when I ever want to help restore or preserve a graveyard this will be the book I reach for. Anything you want to know about Graveyard Preservation in a simple to understand format with sample forms in the back of the book to get you started.

[Kate Cythr Lang · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned how to properly reset gravestones.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone interested in cemetery preservation should begin by reading this work.