"Through biographic sketches of more than 600 interesting permanent residents of Mount Hope Cemetery, this book becomes a fascinating history of Rochester, New York, America's first boomtown in the early 1800s, the flour-milling capital of the world, the third largest clothing manufacturing center in the U.S, and a horticultural phenomenon. Kodak became the world's photography leader. This was the city of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. A Rochesterian founded Western Union Telegraph Company; another Rochesterian started Xerox. Bausch and Lomb created one of the great optical companies. Exxon Mobil was started here as Vacuum Oil Company. A University of Rochester professor founded the science of anthropology. Buffalo Bill Cody created his Wild West Show in Rochester. The voting machine was invented here, as was the machine gun, the internal combustion motorcar, and the fish hatchery. A persistent Hartwell Carver instituted the transcontinental railroad. Frank Gannett launched his publishing empire here. This book brings it all to live, from the tavern owner who operated the best oyster bar in town, to the man who persuaded Czar Alexander to sell Alaska to the U.S."--Back cover

A pictorial field guide to the world-famous Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York. Mini-biographies of 500 interesting people buried in the cemetery. Detailed quadrant maps and 178 photographs of funerary sculpture and architecture. Fully illustrated dictionary of Victorian symbols. Complete index.

Growing urban populations prompted major changes in graveyard location, design, and use During the Industrial Revolution people flocked to American cities. Overcrowding in these areas led to packed urban graveyards that were not only unsightly, but were also a source of public health fears. The solution was a revolutionary new type of American burial ground located in the countryside just beyond the city. This rural cemetery movement, which featured beautifully landscaped grounds and sculptural monuments, is documented by James R. Cothran and Erica Danylchak in Grave Landscapes: The Nineteenth-Century Rural Cemetery Movement. The movement began in Boston, where a group of reformers that included members of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society were grappling with the city's mounting burial crisis. Inspired by the naturalistic garden style and melancholy-infused commemorative landscapes that had emerged in Europe, the group established a burial ground outside of Boston on an expansive tract of undulating, wooded land and added meandering roadways, picturesque ponds, ornamental trees and shrubs, and consoling memorials. They named it Mount Auburn and officially dedicated it as a rural cemetery. This groundbreaking endeavor set a powerful precedent that prompted the creation of similarly landscaped rural cemeteries outside of growing cities first in the Northeast, then in the Midwest and South, and later in the West. These burial landscapes became a cultural phenomenon attracting not only mourners seeking solace, but also urbanites seeking relief from the frenetic confines of the city. Rural cemeteries predated America's public parks, and their popularity as picturesque retreats helped propel America's public parks movement. This beautifully illustrated volume features more than 150 historic photographs, stereographs, postcards, engravings, maps, and contemporary images that illuminate the inspiration for rural cemeteries, their physical evolution, and the nature of the landscapes they inspired. Extended profiles of twenty-four rural cemeteries reveal the cursive design features of this distinctive landscape type prior to the American Civil War and its evolution afterward. Grave Landscapes details rural cemetery design characteristics to facilitate their identification and preservation and places rural cemeteries into the broader context of American landscape design to encourage appreciation of their broader influence on the design of public spaces.

This volume invites readers to get up close and personal with one of the most respected and beloved writers of the last four decades. Carolyn J. Sharp has transcribed numerous table conversations between Walter Brueggemann and his colleagues and former students, in addition to several of his addresses and sermons from both academic and congregational settings. The result is the essential Brueggemann: readers will learn about his views on scholarship, faith, and the church; get insights into his "contagious charisma," grace, and charity; and appreciate the candid reflections on the fears, uncertainties, and difficulties he faced over the course of his career. Anyone interested in Brueggemann's work and thoughts will be gifted with thought-provoking, inspirational reading from within these pages.

Cheryl Wells provides an edited and fully annotated collection of Wafer's diary entries during the war, his letters home, and the memoirs he wrote after returning to Canada. Wafer's writings are a fascinating and deeply personal account of the actions, duties, feelings, and perceptions of a noncombatant who experienced the thick of battle and its grave consequences.