These reproduction Cape Cod tombstones are on display inside the American History Museum building, one of several special exhibition galleries and buildings at the Heritage Museums and Gardens on Cape Cod. The building is a replica of a Revolutionary War era fort originally in New Windsor, New York. The original was known as "The Temple" and it was where General George Washington awarded the first three Purple Heart military decorations.
These tombstones include copies of the epitaphs from the following Cape Cod "residents": Mercy B. Baxter, the dog "Little Pilot", George Thacher Lowell, Thomas Nickerson, Elizabeth Howes Fossett, Apphia C. Dyer, Anna Russell, Joseph Parker, and John J. Gaspe. The exhibition was called "The Art of the Departed" and it included gravestone rubbings and photographs.
Previously I had blogged here about a real gravestone on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/02/gravestones-as-art-tombstone-tuesday.html
A sampling of some of the stones:
Emily Here lies my body
The Mouldering to clay
eighth daughter of Flown to the Realms
Reuben Howes Of day.
and wife of Where all can dwell
Thomas W. Fossett In peace and love
Died Sep. 19, 1885 In the beautiful city
Aged 72 Yrs, 3 Mos. The fair courts above.
She was, words fail I conversed with the spirits
to tell what: Of the dead for forty years
Think what a As well as with the living
woman should be;
She was that.
Cobb's Hill Cemetery, Barnstable
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In memory of my dog
Little Pilot
Born July 15, 1904
Died July 2, 1917
For twelve years a loved companion
And friend gentle, faithful and brave
Then don't you worry old comrade
And don't you fear to die.
For out in that fairer country
I will find you by and by.
And I'll stand by you old fellow,
And our love will surely win
For never a heaven shall harbor me,
Where they won't let Pilot in.
Osterville Cemetery
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Here lies the body of
JOHN J. GASPIE
Born in Pico, Azores
August 8, 1884
Died in Provincetown
July 3, 1961
For many years the Shellfish
Warden of this town, a true
conservationist, a raconteur
and wit, beloved by all
who knew him.
Death, you old bugger, you
can't be proud of me. I'm
just a handful of dust.
Gifford Cemetery, Provincetown
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This display was photographed at the Heritage Museum and Gardens, Sandwich, Massachusetts
http://heritagemuseumsandgardens.org/
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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
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