570,000 people are interred across Green-Wood’s 478 acres. Essential to the cemetery’s business is keeping track of each of these burials–and places for future interments. For each interment, there are likely multiple documents from many archival sets recording relevant information. One of the sets in Green-Wood’s archives is its blueprints. Formerly housed in the cemetery’s … Read more
One of the first monuments a visitor is likely to notice upon coming through Green-Wood’s landmarked brownstone Main Gates is the Brooklyn Theatre Fire Monument. It commemorates the tragedy of the evening of December 5, 1876, when 278 souls were lost after a crowded theatre in downtown Brooklyn caught fire and collapsed. That disaster marked … Read more
I recently met at Green-Wood with Professor C. Cuvaj. I know him from several Green-Wood tours he has attended. He is a retired physics professor who is fascinated by cemetery art. A man of great curiosity, he always has questions and is ever eager to learn more. So, for instance, he is compiling a database … Read more
Theresa LaBianca started working at Green-Wood Cemetery in 1977 as an administrative assistant. She has just retired. In the almost 41 years she was at Green-Wood, Theresa did a lot of day-to-day work with Green-Wood’s records, helping it function as a cemetery. But it is clear that the best part of the work, as far … Read more
Green-Wood is a 19th-century (and 20th century and 21st century) sculpture garden. If you were alive in 1865, and wanted to see sculpture, Green-Wood was the place for you. Not the Metropolitan Museum. Not the Brooklyn Museum. Green-Wood! Over the years, we have discovered prominent 19th-century sculptors whose works adorn Green-Wood’s grounds: Henry Kirke Brown, … Read more
On November 29, 2017, just a few weeks ago, officials and the public gathered outside Police Headquarters in Manhattan to honor police officers who died in the line of duty—but had not been honored before because their deaths had occurred as the result of an accident or while they were off duty. Such deaths are … Read more
Just last week, I met Melinda Hunt, the director of the Hart Island Project, which assists families and individuals who have loved ones interred at the Potter’s Field there. She had come to Green-Wood for a meeting. A descendant of Samuel Osgood, the first postmaster general of the United States after the Constitution was ratified, … Read more
Green-Wood Cemetery and Historic Fund staff devotes much of its time and efforts to improving the visitor experience. Programming, maps, exhibitions, apps–we work at making your Green-Wood visit a great one. So, in this spirit, Stacy Locke, our manager of historical collections, and I have been working with Urban Archive, an app of New York … Read more
The year was 1828. They were in love. Charles Alfred Baudouine was 20 years old, Ann Phillips Postley 15. Five years later–in 1833-they would marry. She would die, “after a lingering illness,” in 1890. He would die in 1895. They are interred, together again, at Green-Wood, in section 14, lots 11608-11611, with many other members … Read more
Christopher Ashton Serrano (1991-2016) seemed to have found his calling. A young man, in his mid-twenties, he had discovered—and pioneered–Urban Explorer/High-Risk Photography. It was a subculture of photography, incorporating both physical and mental challenges. Climbing to the top of a building or bridge was difficult enough; doing so, knowing that you might be arrested for … Read more