Tomb With A View: A Cemetery Podcast

August 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...

Lizzie 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

Often 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

On 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 produ...

America 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

When 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

Ulysses 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

On 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

Is 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

The 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

April 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 Pod...

German 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

Seventy 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 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

America 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram The New York Marble Cemetery The New York City Marble Cemetery

The 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com

Childhood mortality has declined since the 19th century, but how has the was we memorialize children changed over time? Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

Everyone 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Instagram Facebook

Everyone who has visited a cemetery has seen a Masonic grave... but why is so little actually known and written about them? Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

Harriette 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

About 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

Burford 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

So 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: tombwithaview@gmail.com Instagram Facebook

On 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: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram

The story of the Pilgrims is the quintessential American story... so we have always treasured and protected their final resting place...right? Email: tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.com Facebook Instagram