Happy Halloween

Today, I will conclude this year’s exploration of the headstones in our oldest New England burying grounds. Should you come to Boston, there are three burying grounds you must see. They are all within walking distance and found along the Freedom Trail. This burying ground overlooks the Old North Church.

This wonderful stone has the cartoon on the top arch. The boarder has wonderful carvings of hourglasses, corn cobs, grapes and cherries. Take a look.

Please pardon the mud on this stone. We had heavy rains the day before we went to Boston. But look a the wonderful carvings on this headstone.

Another wonderful cartoon with the grim reaper (see the scythe?) and points out that time flies.

Here is the full stone for you to read.

I hope you have enjoyed the headstones I’ve posted. Have a happy Halloween. Momento Mori.

Eine kleine Nactpost, What’s new?

With all of the annual headstone postings, I got a little backed up on current events. I’ve just published my second calendar, 2012 Lighthouse Calendar. The preview object has not been created yet but you can see it at my publishing profile page.

My 2012 Gloucester Schooners Calendar was a fun project and will be on my office wall next year. This features many of the schooners that call Gloucester their home port and many schooners that visit us. You will see our Ardelle, Thomas E. Lannon and Bald Eagle plus one of the old Essex build schooners such as the Roseway. In addion there is the Liberty Clipper, Dove II, Virginia, American Eagle, Alabama, Fame, Estrela, Harvey Gammage and Bluenose II out of Nova Scotia.
 
In recent events, today I saw some of our winter birds are starting to come in. American Black Ducks, Redneck Grebe, Brant, Red-throated Loon and Common Loon to name a few.




I love Brant, they are not much bigger than a Herring Gull.
In other news, I bumped into buddy David Cox out shooting the rollers pounding the back shore.  Yah, great minds think alike, the blue sky and surf were just too tasty to pass up.
We had a Nor’easter over the weekend. Much of New England got dumped on by snow. We were lucky, just wind and water. Since it has the apparency of being a bit somber here, with all those graveyard shift posts, perhaps I better lighten it up a little with some lighter fare.


I couldn’t believe this guy! I’m glad he climbed up there with a red hoodie. Makes for a good shot to give you scale. Those of us, like David and me, who love life prefer to use long lenses to get an up close view.

Pretty cool roller! The wind is blowing the crest of the wave back out to see.

Tomorrow I will have the last of the graveyard posts for the year. Until then, stay dry and sleep well.

North Cemetery, Portsmouth, NH

Continuing with my Halloween tradition of bringing you the headstones from some of New England’s oldest burying grounds, today I will show you some of the unique headstones from the North Cemetery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Portsmouth is a historical city on the seacoast of New Hampshire. This cemetery has headstones that span a wide history, from the early Puritan style carved in slate and red sandstone up through the Victorian period with the rich symbolism into the late 19th century when cemeteries began to be more like parks. As you can see from the photo above of just one section there are a wide variety of styles of headstones. Unfortunately, the white marble stones are taking a beating and will probably be disintegrated in the years to come. Today, I want to show you some of the more unique headstones in the cemetery

The headstones below are a two good examples of the transition from the 18th century style where graves were marked with headstones that warn of death to the early 19th style with its layers of symbolism. The skull is a symbol of death ascending into heaven. On the right, the weeping willow and urn are both symbols of morning and sorrow.

Detail of an angle on a 1765 headstone. Note that this woman lived to the age of 84 attesting to the fact that it was possible to live a long life.

These purple markers hold up to the elements very well.

This wonderful carved marble memorial is for a child that passed away at the age of five months and ten days.

I’ve seen this sun motif on other stones, but this is the only one I’ve seen in this cemetery.

Another stylized angle. (Note, this is John Langdon, Jr., not Gov. John Langdon referred to in the historical marker. He is in a tomb is this same cemetery.)

This wonderful headstone is from 1803, a period when we see a transition in headstone motifs.

This is a very unique headstone. I wonder if this was erected at a later time. I have seen this in some occasions where a grave marker was upgraded at a later date. I’ll never know.

Another example of an angle.

Finally, I present this wonderful carving.

I hope you enjoyed visiting this cemetery. If you are interested in New England headstones, you may want to check out my previous headstone posts.

Old Burying Point, Salem, Massachusetts

This is the time of year that I bring you to some of the unique burying grounds and cemeteries in the area. Today it is Burying Point in Salem, Massachusetts. This is a wonderful place, not because of the witches, but because it has a wealth of different angle style carvings on the headstones. This first headstone is rather unique in that during the time that it was carved it was more usual to see long bones crossed than what appears to be oars.

Another winged skull symbolizes death ascending into heaven. This stone is from 1710. I have seen this many time where a wife will not only be identified by her husband but her parents as well. The carving on the sides of the marker are a common motif, but I’m not sure what they represent.

Note that this marker has an angle with little wings, almost child like.

What follows next is a woman’ headstone has a majestic angel with brilliant scroll carvings.

This winged skull belongs to a woman who died at 25 years. Notice that she is referred to as a consort.

This is a detail of an angle on a child’s headstone and is beautifully executed and in wonder condition.

Another child’s marker from the late 18th century proclaims “Time Passes away”. Carved roughly at the same time but with a different stylized angle.

I really didn’t look at this stone during the photo shoot, I just liked the angle. But looking at the stone, it tells a sad story. Beyond that it is unusual in that it has the angle plus the two sun motifs.

This stone memorializes a man who passed away in 1796 and has a striking ouroborus motif proclaiming that death follows life.

Another angel motif beautifully executed.

This is a wonderful 17th century tablet with a unique angel and a wonderful boarder. If anyone knows what theses side boarders represent, please let me know.

Woops!

This is the other side of the stone above! You’ll have to click to enlarge to read the epitaph.

Here is a highly stylized angel motive, very unique and I’ve never seen any other like it.

Another unique headstone executed very simply, yet is laid out with absolutely flawless inscribing.

Do you recognize this angel from above? Look at how this carver scribes the digit one!It is the same as above.

This headstone is one of the most primitive carvings I’ve seen. Note that he hourglasses remind us that time passes.

Finally another unique headstone with an angel and a scull and crossbones beautifully carved.

Well, that’s quite a few headstones with different carvings. I hope you found the high resolution photos interesting and you got a sense of the different carvers work. I encourage you to visit my other headstone posts as there many more carvings to view.