Green-Wood Then and Now
Green-Wood’s expansive rolling hills, glacial ponds, and thousands of trees were the perfect setting for pioneering photographers in the nineteenth century. Over the last twenty years, Green-Wood has collected hundreds of these photographs which provide an invaluable tool in piecing together the cemetery’s Victorian heritage. Join Green-Wood’s Historian Jeff Richman to compare and contrast the locations where the historic photographs were taken over a hundred years ago.
Dead Distillers Trolley Tour
Green-Wood is teaming up with our friends at Kings County Distillery to delve into the storied past of distilling in Brooklyn. The afternoon kicks off with a trolley tour of the cemetery’s “permanent residents” with whiskey connections, including the one and only casualty of the Brooklyn Whiskey Wars of the late 1860s and early 1870s. Afterward, the trolley will head to Kings County Distillery in the Brooklyn Navy Yard where visitors will see first-hand how whiskey is made and enjoy a tasting of four delectable varieties.
Twilight Tour
There are few places more atmospheric than a cemetery at dusk - and Green-Wood is top notch when it comes to beauty and atmosphere. As the sun sets on 478 spectacular acres, you'll weave through stunning landscapes and visit the graves of fascinating figures in New York and American history. This not-to-be-missed walking tour ends with a visit to the Catacombs, which are normally closed to the public.
Twilight Tour Part Two
Have you been on Green-Wood's popular Twilight Tour and want to explore more? Or have you just always been curious to experience the Cemetery after the gates close to the public? Here's your big chance! As the sun fades over the horizon, go beyond Battle Hill and the Catacombs to discover the other side of Green-Wood. Stroll alongside our two biggest glacial ponds. See the monuments to Indian Princess Do Hum Me and Charles Calverley's bas-relief portrait of four year-old George Cuyler ("Precious Georgie"). Learn about Emma Cunningham's sensational trial for the murder of Harvey Burdell in 1857 and the 1854 sinking of the S.S. Arctic, among other fascinating tales.
Film Screening: Exit Music
Green-Wood Cemetery 500 25th Street, BrooklynBorn with cystic fibrosis, 28-year-old Ethan Rice has been preparing to die his entire life. His father Ed, a Vietnam veteran with PTSD, immersed him in a world of imagination and documented it on camera, a hobby that provided relief from the fear of his son's prognosis and his own painful past. Equal parts comedy and darkness, Exit Music is the last year, last breath, and final creative act of Ethan as he awaits the inevitable. Interweaving home movies with Ethan's original music and animation, his story is an unflinching meditation on mortality and invites the viewer to experience Ethan's transition from reality to memory. In a culture that often looks away from death, this film demystifies the dying process, a universal cornerstone of the human experience.
