videos
The Project is committed to enhancing the understanding of gravestone studies for volunteers. In pre-Covid years we had classes that dealt with background study about gravestones, gravestone carvers, and relevant history.
Because of Covid we found videos enabled us to continue to provide background study at a time we couldn’t get together. These videos were produced and recorded, then made available via Zoom to all volunteers and members of HSOY.
stories behind the stones
Five brief stories were presented: Ruth W. The Wilder Stones, Judi T. Lost at Sea, Kelly M. The Howland Family, Laurel G. The Diaries of Lizzie Ryder Taylor and Melanie B., A Ship, A Pirate and the Myth of Mary Hallet. Stories were generated from the gravestones we have cleaned. Next: Hollywood!
The Wilder Stones
by Ruth Weissberger
Cleaning this lovely carved gravestone revealed a well-known sculptor’s hidden signature.
This video is one of five “Stories Behind the Stones” about people and families represented by gravestones in Ancient Cemetery told by volunteers from Friends of Ancient Cemetery.
The diary of Lizzie Ryder Taylor chronicles the lives that were lived between the birth and death dates chiseled on the family monument.
This video is one of five “Stories behind the Stones” about people and families represented by gravestones in Ancient Cemetery told by volunteers from Friends of Ancient Cemetery.
Elbridge & Lizzie Ryder Taylor
by Laurel K. Gabel
Lost at Sea
by Judi Trainor
A glimpse of the robust history of Yarmouth as a seafaring town is seen through the tragic stories behind the stones of sea captains and seafarers lost at sea.
This video is one of five “Stories behind the Stones” about people and families represented by gravestones in Ancient Cemetery told by volunteers from Friends of Ancient Cemetery.
Howland Family Gravestones
by Kelly Morton
A volunteer experience that turned into a labor of love and discovery centered around six Howland family graves.
This video is one of five “Stories behind the Stones” about people and families represented by gravestones in Ancient Cemetery told by volunteers from Friends of Ancient Cemetery.
A Ship, a Pirate and
the Myth of Maria Hallet
by Melanie Barron
The story of a famous pirate, a lovely maiden, and the enduring legend of their tragic romance.
This video is one of five “Stories behind the Stones” about people and families represented by gravestones in Ancient Cemetery told by volunteers from Friends of Ancient Cemetery.
Understanding Early Gravestones
by Laurel K. Gabel
This presentation introduces the symbolism and special language of gravestones along with the attitudes about death and memorialization that these historic artifacts reflect over time. This well-illustrated presentation is informative as well as entertaining and is guaranteed to make you look at area gravestones, from all eras, with new insight and appreciation.
A Memorable Gale
by Judi Trainor
The storm that hit New England in October of 1841 brought snow inland and heavy rain with strong winds on the coast. Hardest hit was Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with a total loss of 14 vessels and 87 men. Accounts of the storm have been recorded in town histories and by ship captains, but the story of the October Gale is told most poignantly in the cemeteries of Cape Cod.
A Plague of Epidemics
by Laurel K. Gabel
Epidemic diseases have been a part of the human condition throughout history, impacting individual lives, communities, political boundaries, and the world at large. In this presentation, Laurel looks at the lethal history of six epidemics and how the resulting deaths have been acknowledged ~ or ignored ~ on gravestones.
Paul Revere's Liberty Bowl
by Laurel K. Gabel
Paul Revere's iconic Liberty Bowl, our Declaration of Independence, and the US Constitution have been called three of the nation's most cherished historical treasures. This presentation focuses on the Liberty Bowl and the fifteen Sons of Liberty who Revere immortalized when he engraved their names around the rim of the now famous bowl. Who commissioned it and what is the meaning of it's highly political iconography? How and where were these men memorialized after death? Not all is as it seems.
Mill Workers in Life and Death
by Laurel K. Gabel
The “Operatives” helps tell the story of young women who were recruited to work in the cotton mills of Massachusetts' newly created industrial cities. The lives of Lowell, Massachusetts' mill girl operatives, as well as those who died in Lawrence's Pemberton Mill tragedy, are remembered on their gravestones.
This presentation focuses on the deaths of two individuals who died roughly a century apart; Nancy Luce, a local eccentric who wrote poems to her chickens and John Belushi an entertainment star whose funeral, burial, and gravestone are as comic as the characters he played on screen. The graves of these individuals, both of whom were well-known in their time, are located in neighboring towns on Martha’s Vineyard. Their graves remain sightseeing destinations for summer visitors.
Remember Me
by Judi Trainor
Remember Me explores what people choose for inscriptions and images on their grave markers. Many of the examples are gravestones from Cape Cod cemeteries. This is a light-hearted presentation meant to entertain as well as to inform. It might even leave you smiling.
This preliminary analysis is an overview of the collected data of a modest percentage of gravestones in Ancient Cemetery. Data were collected by project volunteers in this collaborative effort between the Town of Yarmouth Cemetery Department and the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth. These results will change as additional stones are included in the database.
Data Analysis
by Laurel K. Gabel
What's in My Bucket?
by Deb Bianchi & Sharon Thurston
Our volunteers, Deb Bianchi and Sharon Thurston explain how they clean gravestones.
