Founded in 1838, Rochester's historic Mt. Hope cemetery contains over 350,000 gravestones whose images and words speak to us today.  Their symbols and inscriptions express views of life, death, and immortality, which form the subject of my class in the Department of Religion & Classics at the University of Rochester, REL 167: “Speaking Stones." Students study funeral traditions and ritual, and explore the ways in which the images and words on gravestones help to resolve the loss of a loved one by forging symbolic connections between the living and the dead.  As an important part of their research, students are required to select a gravestone or series of stones in Mt. Hope Cemetery and record, photograph, and document all images and inscriptions.  Further, they consult the internment records at the Mt. Hope office and search for other relevant sources to illuminate the deaths and lives of their subjects.  Students learn the proper methods and procedures for collecting and recording data essential to graveyard preservation, and have the rare opportunity to study and carry-out unprecedented research on one of America’s oldest Victorian cemeteries.

The depth, range, and originality of this research are evident in the essays and field reports, which follow.  I have tried to include as many course essays as possible, and new additions will be made on a regular basis.  Entries are arranged alphabetically based on the last name of their subject. 
 

My students and I would like to thank the staff at Mt. Hope Cemetery for their continued assistance, as well as express our sincere gratitude to Ms. Nancy Hilliard, Director of Cemeteries, Mr. Frank Gillespie, photographer and archivist for the Friends of Mt. Hope, and to another Friend, Ms. Laurel Gabel of the Association of Gravestone Studies.  I also want to thank Ms. Megan Dearden for her assistance and patience while preparing the initial essays for this website.  Now, these and many more essays may be accessed from the University of Rochester's UR Research.  I greatly appreciate the fine work of Mr. Albert Robinson and Ms. Suzanne Bell, who made this possible.