Emmett Louis Till (1941–1955) was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted and murdered in Mississippi after being accused of flirting with Carolyn Bryant, a white store owner’s wife. His lynching became a national story when his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open-casket funeral so the world could witness the brutal violence inflicted on her son.
For a more detailed account, Wikipedia provides a good summary.
He was buried in Burr Oak Cemetery on Chicago’s South Side. When a friend and I visited the cemetery the day after a rainstorm, the grounds were waterlogged and poorly drained. We were unable to approach his grave without wading through several inches of standing water. It is unfortunate that the cemetery contends with this issue, as my friend and I visited several other cemeteries that day, none of which had significant standing water.
Last summer, I organized a group of volunteers to help document a historic cemetery in the Atlanta area. As I spoke with the volunteers and answered their questions during the event, I realized it would be beneficial to write down the steps for preparing to document a cemetery and then doing it.
Some of this may seem like common sense, but if you’ve never documented a cemetery before, I hope this post will help you prepare when you decide to do so.
The Benjamin Walker plot shows that walking around a marker reveals more information that is good to document.
What to Wear
Closed-toed shoes-Whether the cemetery is manicured or overgrown, there will be bugs that will want to bite you and holes that you might step into, and closed-toed shoes will minimize the risk and possible injury. I would also consider boots if you are going into an overgrown cemetery during the warmer months. (I’ve stepped in enough holes over the years to know sturdy shoes minimize injuries.)
Long pants-I know some people will find this suggestion ridiculous, but pants will help protect your legs from plant overgrowth and any living thing that might want to take a bite out of your leg.
Bug spray-Insects, especially mosquitoes, love me, so I always have bug spray. It will also help repel any other insects that call the cemetery home. (I am still traumatized by stepping into an ant hill and hundreds of ants were very angry I disturbed their home. I had bug spray to quickly kill them.)
Hat – While I am not a hat person, they help keep the sun off your face and prevent ticks from getting into your hair.
Sunglasses – While these are self-explanatory, some cemeteries have so few trees that it can get unbearably hot, and the bright sun can make it hard to see headstones, especially those with a reflective shine.
Sunscreen– If you’re like me, this will be especially helpful on really sunny days.
Water
What to Bring
Camera-In a perfect world, you are using a camera with GPS-enabled. If you are using your phone, most people have geotagging already activated. If you are using a digital camera, some mirrorless and many DLSRs have internal GPS. GPS is helpful especially when you upload to FindAGrave because it will geolocate where a grave is on a memorial.
Gloves-These may be useful if you need to clean a marker that has become embedded in the ground.
Flashlight-This is to help angle light to help reading a headstone easier. Some people will recommend using foil to get an impression, a grave rubbing, or something that involves touching the marker. I always recommend not touching any marker, especially the older the are. The older they are, the more fragile a marker will be. Also, sometimes even newer markers can be unstable because the headstone has become disconnected from the base. In most states, it is illegal to touch a grave marker without the permission of the cemetery and/or the family. (For the love of all things graveyard, do not use shaving cream to get a better read of a headstone.)
How to Photograph
Most cemeteries bury their residents in rows with an east- west orientation. However, due to age and space availability, this might not be the case in some cemeteries.
Many taphophiles will do what is called “mow the row,” l which essentially means walking the row and getting everything on that row.
While it is important to get a good clean shot of a marker, it is also helpful to step away from the marker and try to include a wider shot of where the headstone js. This way someone can use a combination of GPS and landmark photos to help a visitor find a grave marker.
If the marker is standing, walk all sides of the marker because it could include more names or other information that would be good to document.
This is an example of how to include the full marker, along with enough background to provide visual clues.
Mountain Creek AME Church is located in Sunter County. The main church building was constructed in 1890. The fellowship hall was added in 1990.
This building was on the property. The abandoned piano makes me wonder if it was the old Sunday school. It could have been an old school. I don’t believe it is an old church because tar paper isn’t typically used on churches.
African Cemetery No. 2 is the earliest recorded cemetery organized, owned, and managed by the Black citizens of Lexington, Kentucky. Purchased in 1869 by the Union Benevolent Society No. 2 and chartered in 1870, it served as a burial ground until 1976.
The cemetery’s notable residents include Oliver Lewis, the first Kentucky Derby winner, and Isaac Burns Murphy, a three-time Derby-winning jockey. It also contains graves of over 150 U.S. Colored Troops, including soldiers from the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Regiments.
After decades of neglect, the site was declared abandoned in 1973. Plans for development ended when surveys revealed over 5,000 burials. In 1979, Rev. Horace Henry Greene lead the restoration efforts of the cemetery and founded the non-profit to manage the cemetery. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
Keys was a noted groomer and worked for the Idlehour Stock Farm.
Harmony Grove Cemetery is just located off W. Paces Ferry Road in Atlanta’s Buckhead. Dating back to 1870, the cemetery’s earliest burial was the infant son of James H. “Whispering” Smith, a prominent landowner whose estate was near today’s Governor’s Mansion. The last known burial was in 1982.
Buckhead Heritage’s rehabilitation of Harmony Grove Cemetery earned the 2009 Preservation Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.
August Krause was a German immigrant known for his stone carving work. It is assumed he did the first two markers on this page for his wife and his son. His daughter Charlotte was the last known burial.
Greenwood Cemetery was founded in 1903 in Louisville, Kentucky. It is a historic Black cemetery that fell into disrepair after neglectful owners stopped caring for it. In recent years, the local chapter of the National Association for Black Veterans (NABVETS) has volunteered its time to assist with upkeep. It’s estimated there are at least 800 veterans buried in the cemetery.
The NABVETS are there almost every Saturday helping maintain and improve the cemetery grounds.
If you would like to follow along to see the progress on the cemetery, you can find more info on their two Facebook pages. This one seems a bit more active.
Websites store cookies to enhance functionality and personalise your experience. You can manage your preferences, but blocking some cookies may impact site performance and services.
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
Name
Description
Duration
Cookie Preferences
This cookie is used to store the user's cookie consent preferences.
