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Cemeteries in Virginia: A Newsletter from the Department of Historic Resources
July, 2021
Vol. 1 Issue 2
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In this issue: *Mount Fair's Slave Cemetery *Memento Mori Funerary Symbolism *Questions to Ask before Cleaning Grave Markers *Increasing DHR Cemetery Documentation *Profile: Ivy Hill Slave Cemetery *News Clips
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Welcome to our second issue of GraveMatters. Our inaugural issue in April generated a lot of enthusiasm and new subscribers; we trust this summer issue sustains that positive momentum.
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With this issue, we are pleased to announce that the Department of Historic Resources now has on staff a new full-time Cemetery Preservationist. After a wide candidate search and competitive hiring process, in June DHR selected Joanna Wilson Green, a staff archaeologist with DHR since 2003, as the agency’s first Cemetery Preservationist. Joanna is a longstanding member of DHR’s in-house “cemetery team,” and the agency’s specialist on funerary iconography (authoring a regular GraveMatters column on the topic) and the analysis of human remains. Joanna is available to work with individuals and community groups interested in the preservation, stewardship and documentation of their historic cemeteries. You can contact Joanna at phone (804) 482-6098 or by email. Also, we welcome correspondence on all things cemetery; you can contact us at gravematters@dhr.virginia.gov.
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Burial ground at Mount Fair, Albemarle Co.
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Reclaiming and Memorializing a Slave Cemetery
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When John and Dudley Macfarlane purchased a historic farmstead in Virginia’s Blue Ridge in 2003, they knew the work ahead of them—rehabilitating the main house, outfitting the barns, and taming the horse pastures—would take time. Once they were moved in and the Macfarlanes began to walk the fields and woods of their new property and speak with their neighbors, they soon realized there were additional tasks requiring their attention.
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Skull and crossbones, known as memento mori, on a grave marker at Aquia Church Cemetery, Stafford Co.
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Remembering What We’d Rather Forget, Memento Mori
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The image of the naked skull and crossed femurs is a universal symbol that warns viewers of the presence of mortal danger. From poison to pirates, that hard grin is a reminder of the basic fragility of the human body. The same imagery can be seen in artwork, including funerary art, with human skulls and bones used in both portraiture and still life painting to reference the brevity of life. This artistic tradition is known as—memento mori, Latin for “remember death.” Read more. . .
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Lawn-mowing debris covers a gravestone.
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Cemetery Conservation & Stewardship
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Asking the Right Questions Before Cleaning Grave Markers
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Seeing an old gravestone covered in dirt, lichen, moss, and innumerable other encrustations, stained, pitted, broken and off kilter, begging to be taken care of, makes us taphophiles yearn to grab our scrub brushes and pruning shears and get to work.
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Hickory Hill Slave and African American Cemetery.
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Profile of a Historic Virginia Cemetery
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Descendants Use Genealogy and Family Records to Support Preservation
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The Hickory Hill Slave and African American Cemetery is a burial ground established as early as 1820 in Hanover County. Researchers and descendants have collected considerable information about the cemetery and those interred there over the past 30 years. The depth and breadth of information that extends from the 1810s to the recent past provided the basis for nominating the cemetery for listing in the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places. Read more. . .
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An inscribed fieldstone at the Bear Mountain (Monacan) Cemetery in Amherst Co.
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Expanding DHR’s Record of Virginia Cemeteries
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Like many organizations, DHR is challenged with managing and correcting a record of the past that is incomplete and does not yet fit the needs or reflect the complexities of all of our constituent communities. Our staff is making efforts to correct that record however, and some of those results can be seen in the agency’s cemetery records. Read more . . .
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African American Cemetery & Graves Fund
Recent cemeteries and affiliated groups awarded funding:
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- Fairview Cemetery, Staunton / Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project (SVBHP)
- Kipps Free Colored and Slave Cemetery, New Market / SVBHP
- Mount Jackson Colored Cemetery, Mount Jackson / SVBHP
- Newtown Cemetery, Harrisonburg / Northeast Neighborhood Association, Inc.
- Mount Zion Church Cemetery, Loudoun County / Mount Zion Cemetery of Aldie, Inc.
- Oakland Cemetery, Suffolk / Little Bethel Baptist Church
- White Rock Cemetery, Lynchburg / Jackson Street United Methodist Church
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Visit this DHR webpage to see a complete list of the graveyards and organizations that DHR has certified to receive grave funds. For more information about the grant program, visit DHR's Grants webpage.
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Cemetery-Related News from Around Virginia and Beyond:
The Washington Post
The total of likely burials discovered at the location of the old First Baptist Church on Nassau Street in the former Virginia capital now stands at 21, with . . .
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“I found a document where he told where he was, where he had been a slave in Virginia and Mecklenburg County, Virginia, the day of independence, . . .
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According to Rob Orrison, division manager for the County's Office of Historic Preservation, the cemetery was owned by Robert “King” Carter during . . .
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