I’m giving a talk on Puritan-era gravestones this Thursday, and I’ve been obsessing over the slides I’m going to show during the talk. So I had this idea of doing a sort of music video with death’s heads and cherubs and other images from gravestones, all jumping around to the music. Well, I don’t have the time to do something like that, so I made this video instead… which I admit is a little quirky.
[For you gravestone geeks out there, the stones were photographed at Old Hill Burying Ground in Concord, Mass. (most of the ones in the first third of the video, including those carved by the Lamson family and the Worcester family), the old burying ground in Acushnet, Mass. (many of the broken stones are from there, including the one that appears to be carved by one of Stevens family from Newport), the Naskatucket graveyard in Fairhaven, Mass. (including another possible Stevens stone and the phenomenal sunrise stone towards the end), and Westport Friends burying ground (the granite stone marked “R.B” comes from there).]
2:13.
If you are even in South Natick, you should check out the stones behind the Eliot Church. I think you would like them. Orginally, South Natick was the home of the “Praying Indians,” who generally did not use markers, so a small plot was set aside for the whites. However, the stone of Daniel Takawampbait, the only Native American fully recognized by the puritans as a minister is on the front lawn of the church…
…Of course I meant “ever” in South Natick…not “even”