Part I: Gravestones and Epitaphs. “Grinning Skulls,Smiling Cherubs,Bitter Words”

We have said that gravestone studies is our own corner of research in American attitudes toward death. We begin with a discussion of burying grounds not only because it is our own, but because we have chosen gravestone s t d i e s to represent the historical backdrop against which our contributors view important twentieth century attitudes toward death in America. “Grinning Skulls, Smiling Cherubs, Bitter Words” discusses burial grounds and gravestone motifs in New England from the late seventeenth century through the early nineteenth century, and connects shifts in gravestone imagery to changes in social, intellectual and religious life in New England. “Ideologies in Stone: Meanings i n Victorian American Gravestones,” by Kenneth Ames, expands the geographical area nationwide, and covers the chronological period between 1850 and 1920. Like “Grinning Skulls,”“Ideologies in Stone” is concerned to connect the confines of the burying ground with the social values of the culture that produces it.