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Times Change and So Does Cemetery Art

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:39:46 -0500

Over time, practically everything changes. Fashions, art, and even cemetery memorials. In reviewing cemetery news achives, CMS' webmaster discovered an article that appeared in The New York Times on April 9, 1910 that outlined a cemetery's reasons for removing a memorial.

The Brooklyn cemetery removed a monument of Cupid and Psyche placed on the grave of a young woman after numerous complaints were received by the cemetery's board of trustees.

The marble statue was considered inappropriate for a cemetery even though it was the final wish of the deceased woman to have her treasured statue placed on her grave.

The trustees' contracts with the lot owners stipulated that they reserved the right to approve the grave markers and monuments.

Today, families are virtually unlimited with their choice of memorialization -- providing that it is not offensive. Biblical images and nature scenes can be etched in full color in granite and marble stone. Practically any shape can be carved. In bronze, detailed murals can be cast on the memorials.

See Hollywood's New Billboard

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:22:21 -0500

For Family. For Country. Receive a U.S. Savings Bond from Hollywood Memorial Park... is the new billboard that Hollywood has had erected on Route 22 in Union, New Jersey.

See the Boneyard

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:38:08 -0500

Here's a satellite view of The Boneyard from Google Earth http://www.worldrecordsacademy.org/biggest/img/101577-the_boneyard-tucson-1.jpg

Heard About the Boneyard?

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:34:06 -0500

It spreads across 2,600 acres -- four square miles.

It is the site of more than 4,200 retired aircraft worth $35 billion.

It is located in Tucson, Arizona on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

It sets the world record for the "largest military aircraft cemetery."

It is the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group facility also known as The Boneyard.

"The Boneyard" came into existance after World War II to house retired aircraft. The site was chosen for its high altitude and dry conditions -- which meant that the planes would deterioriate more slowly.

Among the many planes retired at the site are B-52 bombers, F-14 fighter planes.

Many of the planes stored at the site are vacuum packed with the intent that they can someday be restored or sold to other countires.

To see satellite views of the Boneyard, go to Google Earth.

African Burial Ground Visitors Center To Open

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:21:53 -0500

On Saturday, February 27, the African Burial Ground Visitors Center will open in Lower Manhattan. It is located near the site where a 200-year-old cemetery was unearthed in 1991 when crews were preparing ground for a General Services Administration Building. It was soon discovered that these were bodies of black New Yorkers interred in what a 1755 map calls the “Negros Burial Ground.”

It is documented that 419 bodies were unearthed but it is believed that there may be 10,000 to 20,000 bodies still buried there.

The federal building now sits on a portion of the burial site and the remaining area iis a burial site and memorial. The visitor center is located inside the federal building and is intended to explain the site’s significance.

The African Burial Ground Visitor Center is located in the Ted Weiss Federal Building, 290 Broadway, at Duane Street, Lower Manhattan.

The Day the Navy's Music Died

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:40:11 -0500

On February 25, 1960, a U.S. Navy plane carrying 19 members of the Navy's band collided with a Brazilian jet over Rio de Janiero killing all 19 of the musicians. All of the talented musicians, who formed the orchestra, were stationed at the U.S. Naval Weapons plant in Washington, D.C. They were to perform at a dinner that President Eisenhower was giving for the Brazilian president.

On February 25, 2010, 50 years after the tragic crash, members of the musicians' families gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to pay tribute the band members at a ceremony where the Navy band performed.

Fourteen of the crash victims are buried in two rows of graves in the order they would be playing in the orchestra -- violins, clarinets, French horms, trumpets in formation.

To read about the crash, visit http://www.navyband.navy.mil/pdfs/washpostart.pdf