Hosted by Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons and The Green-Wood Cemetery What can medieval manuscripts teach us today about living and dying well? Join Columbia Univ. physician L.S. Dugdale as she explores these texts and speaks from her new book The Lost Art of Dying. For more than 500 years, the 'ars ... Read more

Death is the great equalizer, right? Why then have funerary and burial practices been racially segregated in the United States for centuries? Why does death care continue to be one of the most segregated sectors of the American economy? This discussion uses these questions as a starting point to trace the evolution of African American ... Read more

Love and death have inspired artists, writers, and philosophers for millennia. But where do they perfectly intertwine? At a cemetery! This time around, you’ll hear more tales of the lovesick and heartbroken, including tawdry details of dramatic–and doomed–affairs. Learn all about the tortured marriage of William and Regina Steinway, the murder of Harvey Burdell, Augustus ... Read more

Everyone loves a little gossip, right? And no one could dish it like George Templeton Strong. Once a well-connected lawyer and a trustee of both Trinity Church and Columbia College (but also a man who reflected the racial, ethnic, and religious prejudices of his time), he is now perhaps best known for the extensive private ... Read more

This event has been postponed. There are plans to reschedule it at a later date. Join our email list for the latest event and other news from Green-Wood. This special edition of the popular Death Cafe is inspired by artist Heidi Lau. She will begin the evening discussing her art practice and the importance of ... Read more

Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of the most prolific and talented designers of the Gilded Age. You’ve probably heard his name associated with Tiffany lamps or Tiffany stained glass, but few people know that this remarkable and multi-talented artist was also in the gravestone business. In fact, his studio designed hundreds of cemetery monuments—sixty of ... Read more

In its heyday, Coney Island’s amusement parks drew massive crowds excited to take a spin on flashy modern rides. This is due in no small part to the genius of William F. Mangels, whose business designed and manufactured some of the most iconic rides of the era, including “The Whip,” carousels with galloping horses, and ... Read more

Ferdinand Ward was the greatest swindler of the Gilded Age, whose villainy bankrupted Ulysses S. Grant and stunned the world of finance. His fascinating story has been extensively researched by his great-grandson, award-winning historian Geoffrey C. Ward, author of A Disposition to be Rich. Drawing upon thousands of never before seen family documents, Geoffrey traces ... Read more

Opening its gates in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1831, Mount Auburn was America’s first rural cemetery, providing the model for cemeteries across the country—including Green-Wood! The list of luminaries buried within it is endless, including painter Winslow Homer, reformer Dorthea Dix, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and collector extraordinaire Isabella Stewart Gardner. Set among its 175 acres ... Read more

Back by popular demand! Green-Wood Historian Jeff Richman leads you on this behind-the-scenes look at the Cemetery’s extensive holdings of historical artifacts and ephemera. Acquired over the past twenty years, there are now over 10,000 items in the collection, unrivaled by any other cemetery in the United States. These items help illuminate the stories of ... Read more

“Weep not that the world changes—did it keep a stable changeless state, it were cause indeed to weep. ”― William Cullen Bryant Sadly, in the current climate, our thoughts are more fixated on death than ever, and anxieties are running high. It is highly possible that someone you know has died or that you have ... Read more

It’s your best opportunity to time travel back in time to the New York City that you were born too late to live in! Over a span of four decades, Jeff Kraus has put together an extraordinary collection of stereoviews of life in the burgeoning metropolis. In the nineteenth century, stereoviews were a popular type ... Read more

Green-Wood provides a rich habitat for mushrooms and other fungi throughout the year. In the summer the charismatic mycorrhizal mushrooms (don’t worry, we will fill you in on what that means) flourish among the old oaks and pines. But what about in the winter? Ethan Crenson and Sigrid Jakob, both longtime members of the New ... Read more

While the colorful trees and migrating birds of Green-Wood get lots of buzz, visitors might not know about the bounty of mushrooms sprouting throughout the Cemetery’s 478 verdant acres. Join Sigrid Jakob and Ethan Crenson, longtime members of the New York Mycological Society, for a socially distanced mushroom walk to discover Green-Wood’s winter fungi. Not ... Read more

In just four years, more than 750,000 soldiers and civilians lost their lives in the Civil War, leaving behind a grim landscape of death and destruction. Historian Drew Gilpin Faust weaves together a complex narrative of national grief, shared by both northerners and southerners, in her extraordinary and landmark book, This Republic of Suffering: Death ... Read more