Are We Sacrificing Cemeteries for AI?
No matter what your opinion on artificial intelligence, you can’t deny that it’s being leveraged by more and more people for a growing variety of personal and professional...
Cemeteries
Old Cemeteries Are Presenting Some New and Complicated Problems
As a student of local history and an avid genealogist, I have a “thing” for cemeteries. I love to find them, visit them, and learn the stories of...
NY’s Green-Wood Cemetery Announces Plans to Offer NOR in 2027
Brooklyn’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery — a 478-acre landscape of rolling hills, monumental stones, and nearly two centuries of New York City history — has announced plans to add...
Viewing China’s Coffin Research Projects Through a Deathcare Lens
Last week, the fascinating results of two unrelated coffin-related research projects based in China circulated through the news cycle. There’s no doubt that these discoveries offer significant cultural...
Medieval Funeral Directors, Hellmouths, and Churchyards
Before cemeteries had gates and grave liners, the dead were protected from hell itself. This was necessary because Medieval Europeans believed that hell’s many front doors were literally...
One Unexpected Impact of Government Shutdowns
I’ll never forget the October day in 2013 when my husband and I pulled into the entrance of Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee and were blocked by...
Repositories of Bones, Part Two: The Winding Underworld of Catacombs
Narrow subterranean corridors interlace for miles, linking vestibules, chambers, and hidden entrances. Ceilings and temperatures down here are chilly, and damp dimness pervades the disorienting, psychologically confrontational environment....