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Why do so many headstones have skulls and wings?
This was at the time a reminder to the living, God-fearing
Puritans of the mortality of the body (death heads, cross bones)
and the immortality of the soul (wings).
Smattered among
these “standard issue” headstones you will find an assortment of
later editions that include cherub faces, urns, harvest scenes and
willows – classical Greek and Roman motifs – that started to
appear after the War of Independence.
Why are the graves placed so close to each other?
The first botanical cemetery in the country, Mount Auburn, was
established in 1831 in neighboring Cambridge in order to reflect
the growing view that a burial site should facilitate the positive
reflection of a loved one’s life vs. the Puritan’s emphasis of
stark reminders of one’s mortality. This idea of a cemetery as a
public park inspired many tenders of older graveyards to “upgrade”
the appearance of their domains.
Here at the Granary
Burial Ground, like hundreds more in New England, this meant the
removal of the original lawnmowers – cows and pigs and their
generous “deposits” – and the reordering of headstones into
straight lines for easier maintenance.
Needless to say the bodies
were not “shuffled” along with the headstones. This prompted
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. to quip: “Epitaphs were never known for
truth but the old reproach of ‘Here lies’ never had such a
wholesale illustration…”
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