This Preservation Brief focuses on a single aspect of historic cemetery preservation—providing guidance for preserving and protecting grave markers. Besides describing grave marker materials and the risk factors that contribute to their decay, the Brief provides guidance for assessing their conditions and discusses maintenance programs and various preservation treatments. Also identified are a number of excellent references that address materials used in all grave markers, including several other Preservation Briefs (listed in Additional Reading). This Brief highlights particular issues that should be considered with historic grave markers. Related products: Code of Federal Regulations, Title 38, Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief, Pt. 18-End, Revised as of July 1, 2016 is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/869-084-00146-4 The Last Salute: Civil and Military Funerals, 1921-1969 (2014 Reprint) is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-029-00575-1 Preservation Briefs collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/science-technology/construction-architecture/renovation-historic-preservation/preservation-b Other products produced by the United States Department of Interior, National Park Service (NPS) can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/222

In The Cemeteries of New Orleans, Peter B. Dedek reveals the origins and evolution of the Crescent City’s world-famous necropolises, exploring both their distinctive architecture and their cultural impact. Spanning centuries, this fascinating body of research takes readers from muddy fields of crude burial markers to extravagantly designed cities of the dead, illuminating a vital and vulnerable piece of New Orleans’s identity. Where many histories of New Orleans cemeteries have revolved around the famous people buried within them, Dedek focuses on the marble cutters, burial society members, journalists, and tourists who shaped these graveyards into internationally recognizable emblems of the city. In addition to these cultural actors, Dedek’s exploration of cemetery architecture reveals the impact of ancient and medieval grave traditions and styles, the city’s geography, and the arrival of trained European tomb designers, such as the French architect J. N. B. de Pouilly in 1833 and Italian artist and architect Pietro Gualdi in 1851. As Dedek shows, the nineteenth century was a particularly critical era in the city’s cemetery design. Notably, the cemeteries embodied traditional French and Spanish precedents, until the first garden cemetery—the Metairie Cemetery—was built on the site of an old racetrack in 1872. Like the older walled cemeteries, this iconic venue served as a lavish expression of fraternal and ethnic unity, a backdrop to exuberant social celebrations, and a destination for sightseeing excursions. During this time, cultural and religious practices, such as the celebration of All Saints’ Day and the practice of Voodoo rituals, flourished within the spatial bounds of these resting places. Over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, however, episodes of neglect and destruction gave rise to groups that aimed to preserve the historic cemeteries of New Orleans—an endeavor, which, according to Dedek, is still wanting for resources and political will. Containing ample primary source material, abundant illustrations, appendices on both tomb styles and the history of each of the city’s eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cemeteries, The Cemeteries of New Orleans offers a comprehensive and intriguing resource on these fascinating historic sites.

Funerals is a collection of short stories. It is the second in a series of three.