About ten years ago, I purchased a copy of Nehemiah Cleaveland’s walking tour of Green-Wood Cemetery, written about 1860. Cleaveland was Green-Wood’s first historian; I am its second. Now, I learned a few things from his walking tour about Green-Wood. I also learned some things about writing a walking tour. Never give instructions like this: … Read more
I was cruising around the cemetery yesterday, leading a tour on our trolley, when we came across this scene. There were Domenick Lanzi, our master ironworker, and his assistant, Vincent Joseph, installing my cast iron gate. Now, it really isn’t mine, at least not anymore. I bought it about five years ago at an antiques … Read more
The Medal of Honor has been awarded only 3,446 times since it was first given in 1863. Just two weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Don Morfe. Don is a very active and dedicated volunteer with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. He spends a lot of time researching and going out to cemeteries, … Read more
Samuel Sims was described in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle as “one of the bravest and best beloved of all the brave men who went from Brooklyn to fight the battles for the preservation of the Union” and “as brave a man as ever drew a sword.” That’s Sims above, in his Civil War uniform, early … Read more
Here’s the headline on the front page of today’s New York Times: “Summer Overtakes Spring; Confusion Reigns.” The article describes the reaction by New York City’s dwellers to the record high for April 10, set yesterday, of 91 degrees in Central Park. And, over in Green-Wood Cemetery, if wasn’t just the people who were confused. … Read more
A few nights ago, I was working my way through forms that have been filled out several months ago by our Green-Wood Historic Fund Civil War Project volunteers. The volunteers go through the cemetery’s chronological books, recording the vital statistics (name, place of birth, place of death, last residence, cause of death, and age at … Read more
Aaron Brashear is a great friend of Green-Wood Cemetery. And Green-Wood pays this friendship back by providing Aaron with an endless array of photographic opportunities. Aaron is at Green-Wood in snow storms, wind storms, spring and fall, shooting photographs, then shooting some more. He recently posted the photograph above on Flickr. It is in the … Read more
On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., I visited two sculptures that relate very much to the De Witt Clinton bronze, by Henry Kirke Brown, that is at Green-Wood Cemetery. My first stop was in the Smithsonian’s History Museum, where I visited Horatio Greenough’s sculpture of George Washington. It is really quite fascinating–a bare-chested “Father … Read more
It has been a mystery we’ve been trying to solve for some time now. We knew that the grave of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, America’s first internationally-acclaimed classical composer and pianist, had been adorned, soon after his death, with a marble angel. We had photographs of it–from the 19th century, even from as late as 1930 … Read more
Whenever I visit Washington, D.C., I try to visit my favorite museums there: the National Portrait Gallery, National Building Museum, the American Art Museum, and the National Museum of American History. Sometimes I find “old friends,” items I’ve seen many times, on display; sometimes I come across things I’ve never seen before. During my visit … Read more