Until this book was published, there has not been a good text about the development and proliferation of pet cemeteries. Faithful Unto Death is beautifully illustrated by the author's photos. It's full of stories that will tug the heartstrings of anyone who has loved an animal. Ultimately, its message of love between human and animal companion is uplifting. The book would make a wonderful gift.
The remarkable stories of beloved pets - from the famous and unusual to the everyday - memorialized at burial sites around the world, accompanied by a rich selection of archival photos and the author's evocative images of their final resting places.
When a little dog named Cherry died in 1881, his owners arranged for a grave in a nearby gatekeeper's garden in London. At this time, the idea that a pet, even one that had lived as a family member, might be given a dignified burial was considered comical. But when other pet owners, likewise determined to memorialize their companion…
This is the first history of death in America that explores the longest cemetery in the world: the Overland Trail that connected the West Coast with America the other side of the Mississippi River. Hamburg explains how the massive number of hastily dug graves along the trail dissolved the mourning rituals practiced in the rest of the country, to be magnified by the cheapness of life in Gold Rush-era California. When San Francisco decided to erase its cemeteries in the 20th century -- despite the graves of its founding fathers -- no trace of respect for the dead remained. This is a grim but fascinating book.
Living in America, we are often confronted by our past. But those in San Francisco literally come face-to-face with it. At the turn of the twentieth century, a 1901 decree ordered the exhumation and relocation of over 150,000 graves in the city - the only major metropolitan city in America to order a complete eviction of its dead. American Exhumation uncovers this fascinating and forgotten section of American history.
The epic San Francisco cemetery battle is waged over a century, replete with fiery polemics, political intrigue, nasty legal wrangling, and contested elections. Public cemeteries are dispatched quickly but - as…
Allison C. Meier leads tours of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. I heard her speak online during her book tour about burial history and was hooked. She is so deeply knowledgable about the subject, from the earliest human burials in Israel and Kenya to the Covid burials on New York's Hart Island. She has the gift of bringing death to life. This book contextualizes the history of burial in the US, from Native American practices to the latest trends in green burial, cremation, and new ideas for the afterlife. This fascinating book, full of information that would make for lively conversation, is highly recommended.
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
Grave takes a ground-level view of how burial sites have transformed over time and how they continue to change. As a cemetery tour guide, Allison C. Meier has spent more time walking among tombstones than most. Even for her, the grave has largely been invisible, an out of the way and unobtrusive marker of death. However, graves turn out to be not always so subtle, reverent, or permanent.
While the indigent and unidentified have frequently been interred in mass graves, a fate brought…
Perfect for budding cemetery armchair travelers and serious taphophiles, this hauntingly beautiful guide to the world's most interesting and unusual cemeteries has been revised and updated to include 23 additional locations. Every year, millions of tourists flock to cemeteries around the globe to uncover hidden stories of their residents and admire the incredible architecture, stunning landscapes, and even wildlife in these open-air museums. Whether you are a true taphophile (cemetery enthusiast) who seeks out obscure locations or a tourist who likes to incorporate not-to-be-missed cemeteries like Paris's Pere Lachaise and Arlington National Cemetery into your itinerary, 222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die is both a useful trip-planning tool and a browser's delight.
