Tomb With A View: A Cemetery Podcast
157 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 months ago - ★★★★★ - 21 ratingsA podcast about the history, preservation, and culture of American cemeteries hosted by Liz Clappin
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Episode 16: Peaceful Character: Transcendentalism, Naturalistic Landscape Design, and Author's Ridge at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
October 11, 2023 01:00 - 51 minutes - 35.3 MBOn one hill, in one cemetery, in a small town in Massachusetts are buried several American literary giants. The cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, in Concord, MA is in many ways a manifestation of the ideology that they popularized and launched a movement to conserve land. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 137: The Last Dormitory: The Perpetual School Spirit of Cemeteries on Campus
September 11, 2023 18:00 - 49 minutes - 34.1 MBDid your college or university have a cemetery on campus? A surprising amount of schools do. They exist of a number of reasons (well just one actually, but there's plenty of different stories). Celebrate back to school in the best way possible...cemeteries! Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 18: The Zinc Link: Metal Headstones, Blowtorches, and How the Monumental White Bronze Company Revolutionized Cemetery Sales
August 27, 2023 19:00 - 45 minutes - 31.2 MBZinkies, or white bronze headstones are a perennial favorite of all taphophiles. Today we explore their origin, manufacturing, preservation, and discussed how the company that made them revolutionized sales techniques. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 14: Eternal Architecture: The Significance of Revival Style Architecture in Cemeteries
June 18, 2023 02:00 - 42 minutes - 29.6 MBThe rural cemetery movement coincided with an intellectual fascination with past cultures. These elements of society combined to create a century of architectural distinction in American cemeteries. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 13: I Saw the Sign: Fraternal, Allegorical, Occupational, and Spiritual Cemetery Symbolism
June 04, 2023 23:00 - 42 minutes - 29.3 MBCemetery Symbolism is often the hook that lures people into the cemetery world. What is it? What does it mean? Symbols and how they are interpreted is a complicated and much debated topic in art history. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 136: Atomic Afterlife: From Marie Curie to the Atomic Man, the Lead-Lined Resting Places of the Radioactive
May 25, 2023 23:00 - 51 minutes - 35.2 MBRadiation can both help and harm, from the atomic bomb to life saving cancer treatment the way that radioactive elements and isotopes impact the human body was little understood until the mid-20th century. The answers came from cemeteries, where scientists looked to corpses that had died of exposure to radiation to study the phenomenon, and better understand how to harness it's power in the future. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 12: Fight for the Right to Bury: The San Francisco Cemetery Wars, Urban Renewal, and the Creation of Colma
April 24, 2023 00:00 - 48 minutes - 33.5 MBBetween 1895 and 1945 San Francisco not only outlawed burial within city limits, but within the entire county. Following that, a fast-growing western port town hungry for land rallied for the removal of the thirteen major cemeteries. Meanwhile, to the south a quiet farming community, less than two square miles was slowly transforming into something extraordinary, America's first true necropolis with more than 1.5 million burials. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 10: All Souls: St. Mary's City, Calvary, and the Numbers Game of Catholic Cemeteries
April 24, 2023 00:00 - 39 minutes - 27.4 MBThe United States largest cemetery is a Catholic cemetery. One of it's most intact mortuary archaeological sites is a Catholic cemetery. Yet despite this, little has been written about Catholic cemeteries themselves, how they are founded, how the y should be run, or how they are designed. Catholic cemeteries are all about one thing... and they do it well. Volume. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 135: The Imperishable Stars: Howard Carter, the 100th Anniversary of the Discovery of Kind Tut's Tomb, and Egyptomania
February 23, 2023 03:00 - 43 minutes - 30 MBThe discovery of KV62, or the tomb of King Tut was one of the most significant archaeological finds in history. 100 years ago, Howard Carter, the son of an illustrator and self-taught Egyptologist under the patronage of Lord Carnovan, first glimpsed the undiscovered tomb. In the wake of his discovery, a new wave of Egyptomania would sweep the world, and no where was this more evident than in cemeteries. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 9: Top Ten Preservation Challenges
February 17, 2023 05:00 - 51 minutes - 35.6 MBWhat are the biggest challenges that historic cemeteries face when it comes to the issue of preservation? No answers this week, just putting a name on the things that stand in the way of successful preservation. [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 8: Waiting and Watching For You: Consumption, Animism, and the New England Vampire Panic
February 17, 2023 05:00 - 55 minutes - 37.8 MBFor roughly a century in isolated corners of New England the remains of those who died of consumption were exhumed and their remains used as a folk remedy for their relatives, who the population believed were being slowly drained of life by their dead relations. Were these individuals really vampires? Today I examine these fascinating cases and examine the history of this bizarre tradition. [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 7: Queerly Departed: The Unique Death Culture, the AIDS Quilt, and the Ongoing Struggle within the LGBTQ+ Community for Dignity in Death
February 17, 2023 05:00 - 53 minutes - 36.9 MBDeath culture historically has been family and tradition-centric, for this reason the LGBTQ+ community often has felt alienated by traditional mourning rituals, and as a result has formed their own diverse traditions, which are often protests of the injustices they faced in life. The fascinating and unique death culture that has emerged is a diverse and vibrant as the LGBTQ+ community itself. [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 6: A Comfortable Building: Ashely Shares and the Restoration of the Women's Comfort Station at Oakland Cemetery
January 23, 2023 04:00 - 39 minutes - 26.9 MBThe painstaking restoration of the women's comfort station at Oakland cemetery illustrates many of the challenges... and rewards of the field of preservation. Presented by Ashley Shares, Director of Preservation, at the 2019 Georgia Municipal Cemeteries Conference, this presentation addresses both the fundraising, planning, and execution of a major cemetery preservation project. Facebook Instagram Historic Oakland Foundation
Episode 5: The Responsibilities of the Steward: An Interview with Sam Beetler II, Director if City Cemeteries, Savannah, GA
January 23, 2023 03:00 - 39 minutes - 27.3 MBFor the past ten years Samuel Beetler II has overseen the preservation of the monuments in Savannah's five municipal cemeteries. Recently promoted to director of cemeteries he shares his thoughts on the importance of conservation, balancing burial versus tourism, and many other vital topics to cemeteries today. Facebook Instagram City of Savannah Cemeteries: Instagram
Episode 4: History of American Cemeteries, Part III: Hubert Eaton and Forest Lawn Memorial Park
January 23, 2023 03:00 - 50 minutes - 34.8 MBIn 1917 the design and marketing of American cemeteries would again change, as one man, a former chemist and miner, Hubert Eaton had a vision of a cemetery that was about life, not death. Eaton's unique marketing of the "memorial park" would eliminate gravestones, paint a glowing new-age Christian picture of death as a glorious resurrection, and most importantly monetize burial in ways never before imagined. Facebook Instagram
Episode 134: Charles Addams, the Addams Family, and the Burial Ground of the Presbyterian Church in the Westfields of Elizabeth, That Started It All
January 20, 2023 02:00 - 55 minutes - 37.9 MBon August 6, 1938 Charles Addams published the first cartoon featuring an unusual, macabre family that would become colloquially known by his name. Though they only represent a small part of his prolific career as cartoonist, they have become an enduring part of American culture to this day. The origins of the Addams family lies in the small colonial town of Westfield, NJ, where Addams spent his youth... wandering where else, but a cemetery. Facebook Instagram
Episode 3a: History of American Cemeteries, Part II: Mount Auburn and the Rural Cemetery Movement, Part I
January 02, 2023 20:00 - 53 minutes - 36.9 MBHow did the 19th century change the way that people lived in America, exploring the social, political, industrial, philosophical, and religious changes that swept America in the first half of the 19th century and how they forged a new, completely unique, American model for cemeteries (including the use of the word cemetery!). [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 3b: History of American Cemeteries, Part II: Mount Auburn and the Rural Cemetery Movement, Part II
January 02, 2023 20:00 - 44 minutes - 30.9 MBWhat was it about Mount Auburn that so captured the American imagination, and started the trend of cemetery tourism and spawned dozens of replica rural cemeteries across America? What were some of the criticisms? [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 2: History of American Cemeteries, Part I: The Puritan Tradition and Grove Street Burial Ground
January 02, 2023 20:00 - 49 minutes - 34.2 MBToday we explore how the earliest settlers developed their burial grounds, adapting their practices from both their European roots, and their religious beliefs... and why neither was a great model for long-term success. [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 1: Why Cemeteries? with Liz Clappin
January 02, 2023 20:00 - 27 minutes - 19.1 MBWhy do a podcast about cemeteries? Why am I the one doing a podcast about cemeteries? In the first episode I tell the story of how I became interested in cemeteries and became a member of the cemetery community, and why I thought we all needed a podcast about them. [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 133: Scary Ghost Stories and Tales of the Glories of Christmases Long, Long Ago
December 20, 2022 16:00 - 31 minutes - 21.9 MBEveryone knows A Christmas Carol...Why were the Victorians so obsessed with telling ghost stories at Christmas? And why did the tradition never really catch on in the United States? Facebook Instagram
Episode 132: Together Forever: The Macabre Case of Carl Tanzler and the Corpse Bride of Key West
December 13, 2022 05:00 - 51 minutes - 35.2 MBWhat happens when you can't just let go... In a nice bookend to the story of the wandering case of the corpse of Eva Peron, we travel to Key West for the story of a fake doctor, stolen corpse, and a tale almost too weird to be true. [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 131: Healing Wound: Maya Lin, Design Controversy and Evolution, and the 40th Anniversary of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial
November 11, 2022 22:00 - 55 minutes - 38 MB40 years has passed since the controversial design of a young Yale architecture student was unveiled on the National Mall. The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial was as controversial as the war which necessitated it, but ultimately has lead to incredible healing and an evolution in how we design memorials.
Episode 130: Don't Cry for Me Argentina: The Doctor, the Revolution, and the Wandering Corpse of Eva Peron
October 27, 2022 03:00 - 45 minutes - 31.5 MBWhat is the value of a body once it stops living? The messy political landscape of Argentina wondered that for almost 20 years following the death of its enigmatic First Lady Eva Peron, as they preserved and hid her remains. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 129: Third Anniversary, Ask Me Anything!
September 14, 2022 04:00 - 45 minutes - 31.4 MBIt's Tomb with a View's Third Anniversary, and I openwd up the airwaves for questions! Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 128: Goodbye England's Rose: The Death and Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the Phenomenon of Global Mourning
September 01, 2022 01:00 - 59 minutes - 40.6 MBAugust 31, 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Her death in an automobile accident at just age of 36 prompted a global outpouring of grief that was unprecedented in history, with half the world's population watching on television and more than a million mourners in person. I take a look at her death, funeral, and how it fits into the overall story of not only royal funerals, but how the world views grief. Email: [email protected] Facebook...
Episode 127: Headstones and Hatchets: The Borden Murders and Autopsies in the Ladies Restroom at Oak Grove Cemetery
August 16, 2022 21:00 - 55 minutes - 38.3 MBLizzie Borden took and axe... but what happened next? Following some of the nation's most notorious murder victims to their (sort of) final resting place. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 126: One Whose Name Was Writ in Water: Epitaphs for the Dead, from the Romans to Today
August 03, 2022 04:00 - 47 minutes - 32.6 MBOften the few words of an epitaph are all that we can use to know them from their tombstone. Today I trace the origins of epitaphs, and the somewhat bumpy road that brought them to the present day. What do they say not only about the person they memorialize, but about society as a whole? Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 125: The Un-Gnomen Stones: The Mystery, Monument Builders, and Mayhem that Made and Un-Made the Georgia Guidestones
July 17, 2022 22:00 - 58 minutes - 40.2 MBOn July 6, 2022 a bomb destroyed the Georgia Guidestones. This mysterious monument erected in Elberton, GA in 1980 has been a source of fascination since their erection. Recently the topic of right-wing Satanic panic, that most likely led to their destruction, before that these stones were Elberton's number one attraction and a testament to the skill of the local granite industry, which produces 2/3 of America's gravestones. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 124: Dying to Be American: The Fate of Unknown, Undocumented Border Crossers in the United States
July 04, 2022 17:00 - 53 minutes - 36.4 MBAmerica is a country of immigrants; however, since 1994 death of those seeking to cross the southern border of the United States have skyrocketed. What happens to these individuals, stuck, in death, somewhere between the countries they left behind and America? Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 123: Destroy Every Closet Door: The Assassination of Harvey Milk and The Castro as a National LGBTQ+ Memorial Landscape
June 07, 2022 05:00 - 40 minutes - 27.7 MBWhen Harvey Milk was assassinated on November 27, 1978 he left an enormous hole in the LGBTQ+ community of San Francisco. His legacy, not just as the first openly gay politician in California, but as an empathetic and compassionate social activist created an inclusive community that serves as his true legacy. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 122: The Bigger the Better: The Largest Mausoleum in the Western Hemisphere, the Boy Wonder, and Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb
June 01, 2022 05:00 - 44 minutes - 30.4 MBUlysses S. Grant died essentially penniless, but 90,000 people donated more than $600,000 to memorialize him with a massive tomb in New York City. A century later a dedicated college student stepped in to save the day after decades of neglect. Celebrating Memorial Day with the comeback story of Grant's Tomb. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 121: Oh the Humanity: The Hindenburg, the Lost Era and Memorials to Air Ship Travel, and the Cathedral of the Air
May 17, 2022 02:00 - 44 minutes - 30.8 MBOn May 6, 1937 the Hindenburg crashed in Lakehurst, NJ. On the 85th anniversary I examine the strange lack of memorials to the many airship disasters of the 1920s and 1930s and the dedicated individuals and corners of the world that keep the memory alive. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 120: De-Fine Art: Italian Sculpture, Angel Symbolism, Consolation Literature, and Academic Cemetery Stigma with Beth Roark, Art Historian
May 03, 2022 02:00 - 49 minutes - 33.7 MBIs cemetery sculpture art? Who decides? and where does it fall in the spectrum of art history? Beth Roark is a professor of art history at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA and today we discuss what it is like to be a cemetery scholar. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 119: Frederick Law Olmsted 200, Part II: The Old North Burial Ground, the Failure of Brownstone, and the Olmsted Brothers
April 26, 2022 03:00 - 46 minutes - 32.1 MBThe celebration of the 200th birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted continues with a discussion of Olmsted's grave at the Old North Burial Ground in Hartford, CT and the many cemetery projects taken on by the Olmsted Brothers in the 20th century. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 118: Frederick Law Olmsted 200, Part I: Dignity, Tranquility, and the Vision for Mountain View Cemetery
April 18, 2022 05:00 - 45 minutes - 31.5 MBApril 26, 2022 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of Landscape Architecture in America. Olmsted only designed one cemetery, Mountain View in Oakland, California, early in his career. Over the next two episodes I explore how his landscape design shaped American cemeteries and elevated the landscape to a piece of art. Olmsted 200 Email: Tomb with a View Podcast Facebook Instagram
Episode 117: "Emotion is His Law": Caspar David Friedrich, the Romantics, the Nazis, and the Unexpectedly Sublime World of Cemetery Paintings
April 12, 2022 01:00 - 43 minutes - 30.1 MBGerman painted Caspar David Freidrich painted 10 oil paintings with the subject of cemeteries. Why did he chose those as his subject? How are they a reflection of the greater culture of the time? And most importantly why was Hitler such a fan? Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 116: The Cemetery Curator: Papal Medals, Postmodernism, and the "Grand Tour" with James Fishburne of the Forest Lawn Museum
March 31, 2022 04:00 - 47 minutes - 32.9 MBSeventy years ago Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA started a museum. They had been collecting art, both funerary and otherwise and their collection had grown to such an extent it needed a home. That museum is still a huge part of Forest Lawn's landscape today. I kick of Artistic April with James Fishburne, the curator of the Forest Lawn Museum and discuss the collection, art history, the " memorial impulse" and what the future of art looks like. Forest Lawn Memorial Park Museum ...
Episode 116: The Cemetery Curator: Papal Medals, Postmodernism, and the "Grand Tour" with James Fishburne of the Forest Lawn Museum
March 31, 2022 04:00 - 47 minutes - 32.9 MBSeventy years ago Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA started a museum. They had been collecting art, both funerary and otherwise and their collection had grown to such an extent it needed a home. That museum is still a huge part of Forest Lawn's landscape today. I kick of Artistic April with James Fishburne, the curator of the Forest Lawn Museum and discuss the collection, art history, the " memorial impulse" and what the future of art looks like. Forest Lawn Memorial Park Museum ...
Episode 115: Always Faithful: The Founding of the K-9 Corps, the National War Dog Memorial, and Remembering the Pups who Guard America's Freedom
March 18, 2022 04:00 - 42 minutes - 29.6 MBThe K-9 Corps was founded 80 years ago on March 13, 1942. Since them more than 30,000 dogs have served in the US military, many who never came home. How are these dogs trained, what is their relationship to their handlers, and most importantly how are they remembered when the loose their lives in the line of duty? Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 114: A Place of Interment for Gentlemen: The Marble Cemeteries of New York and In Vogue Burial Places
March 14, 2022 02:00 - 44 minutes - 30.9 MBAmerica has produced some incredible and innovative things in terms of burial traditions... but what about the unsuccessful ideas. Today I explore the brief lifespan of "marble cemeteries" . Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram The New York Marble Cemetery The New York City Marble Cemetery
Episode 113: Cemetery John: Jafsie, A Tale of Two Cemeteries, and the Lindbergh Kidnapping
March 05, 2022 06:00 - 1 hour - 41.3 MBThe Lindbergh kidnapping is one of the most notorious true crime stories in American history. How did two cemeteries come to be at the center of the story and why was the supposed perpetrator known as "Cemetery John"? Facebook Instagram Email: [email protected]
Episode 112: Babyland: Child Mortality, Orphanages, Babies-on-the-Halfshell, and Expressions of Joy and Grief
February 11, 2022 05:00 - 58 minutes - 40.4 MBChildhood mortality has declined since the 19th century, but how has the was we memorialize children changed over time? Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 111: Cast Away: Cast Iron Grave Covers, Caskets, Mausolea, and Posthumous Hot Metal
February 04, 2022 05:00 - 46 minutes - 31.7 MBEveryone has seen cast iron ornamental fences around family lots in cemeteries, but the history of cast iron and cemeteries doesn't end there. Looking at how cast iron became a hot commodity in American cemeteries in the 19th century. Email: [email protected] Instagram Facebook
Episode 110: The Eternal Frat House: Lodges, Symbols, and the Many Inconsistencies of Masonic Cemeteries
January 17, 2022 00:00 - 47 minutes - 32.8 MBEveryone who has visited a cemetery has seen a Masonic grave... but why is so little actually known and written about them? Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 109: The Cemetery Renaissance Woman: Harriette Merrifield Forbes and the Origins of Gravestone Studies
January 07, 2022 05:00 - 48 minutes - 33.4 MBHarriette Merrifield Forbes was and extraordinary woman for her time, well educated, a phenomenal researcher, and a talented photographer... and without intending to, started the field of gravestone studies. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 108: A Curious Cemetery Tale: The Millionaire, the Mausoleum, and the Old-Fashioned Gentleman's Mysterious Photograph
December 31, 2021 19:00 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBAbout a month ago I got a letter in the mail... today I'm sharing the weird and wonderful tale that unfolded from that letter, with surprising cemetery connections. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 107: Holly Bears the Crown: Thomas W. Burford and the Development of Ilex Cornuta Bufordii at Atlanta's Westview Cemetery
December 24, 2021 05:00 - 35 minutes - 24.7 MBBurford holly is one of the most popular ornamental shrubs in gardens across the United States, and its origins are in Atlanta's Westview Cemetery. In a story that involves Queen Victoria, eccentric gardeners, and English ballads I will explore how this Christmas symbol connects to cemeteries. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram
Episode 106: Cult of Mourning: Widow's Weeds, the Magnificent Seven, and the Victorian Obsession with Death
December 17, 2021 01:00 - 50 minutes - 34.9 MBSo many of our mourning traditions come from the Victorian era... the traditions all very much tied to the death of Queen Victoria's husband Albert and how she mourning him. Email: [email protected] Instagram Facebook
Episode 105: Initial Defeat, Ultimate Victory: The USS Arizona Memorial and the 80th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor
December 03, 2021 04:00 - 53 minutes - 37 MBOn December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor Hawaii was bombed and torpedoed by Imperial Japanese troops. The military and civilian deaths that day lead to a massive recovery effort, temporary cemeteries, and one of the most visited memorials in American. Email: [email protected] Facebook Instagram