Feb 15, 2018
If you could travel to any location on the globe, where
would you go?
As a funeral director, this question might lead you to sigh
as you try to remember the last time you took a vacation or how long you may
have to wait before you take another. The lifestyle of a funeral director does
not allow for spontaneous trips to distant locales. But just because you can’t
travel often doesn’t mean you can’t discover new and exotic places every day. The
Internet offers a portal into every hidden corner of the planet and no website
has done a better job mapping them out than
AtlasObscura.com.
“Let curiosity be your compass” the website instructs and
one could literally get lost for hours following these directions. You can
explore fascinating wonders, unusual monuments or peculiar relics from the
comfort of your computer chair. For instance, we were thrilled to discover a
‘huge and bizarre’
sculpture park only an hour from ASD, but a tad horrified to
learn that
Duffy’s Cut, a mass grave of Irish immigrants who were killed by mysterious circumstances, was only a
short 15 miles away from our town. A quick look at the
definitive map of the world’s extraordinary sights will show you what mysteries are hiding in your
back yard.
Our love for Atlas Obscura began when we discovered a
treasure trove of stories that would inspire and fascinate funeral
professionals. You can feast your eyes on some amazing passion projects that
were created out of grief or learn about how archeology sheds new light on
early funeral practices. From ancient tomb discoveries, to unique headstones,
to cemeteries that look like they are on a different planet, we are certain
more than one of the stories below will catch your attention. If you’ve ever
wondered how the country of Iceland handles death or what happens when you bury
someone with chestnut tree seeds in their pocket, this list is for you.
Strap in your seatbelt as we take you on a journey across the
globe and through time to explore some of the most interesting death-related
sites in the world on Atlas Obscura.
Distinct and Noteworthy Grave Sites
You could build an entire vacation around visiting impressive
gravesites and in fact, many have. Just search ‘famous graves’ on Amazon and
you’ll be amazed at the sheer number of guidebooks in existence. Finding time
to visit sites that are not local to your area requires a lot of time and
planning. Fortunately, Atlas Obscura has published a voluminous archive of
notable final resting places to make it possible for you to visit faraway
distinct graves from anywhere (or locate easily when you’re traveling). Below
are a few that caught our eye.
1. The Bean Tombstone Puzzle
“In
rural Rushes Cemetery in Wellesley, Canada, one headstone stands out from the
rest. Rather than the usual RIP, the Bean grave marker is etched with a
crossword code. A message below the code urges, “Reader meet us in heaven.”
It
took over 100 years to decode this enigmatic epitaph for two buried brides. The epitaph drew curious
visitors attempting to break the code to the little town of Wellesley over the
following century. So many people came to make rubbings of the headstone that
by the 1980s it was entirely illegible and had to be replaced with a replica.”
2. The Armada Tree
“A gnarled old tree looms over the tombstones in a small
church graveyard. Its trunk bent at an odd angle, it seems to crouch over the ground,
its knotted branches outstretched in all directions. According to local legend,
this Spanish Sweet Chestnut tree sprouted from seeds stored within a dead
sailor’s pocket. Supposedly, the 16th-century Spanish sailor buried beneath it
had been carrying chestnuts with him while on his maritime journey, likely to
ward off scurvy.”
3. Clover Adams’ Memorial: From a Husband Who Would No Longer Speak Her Name
“In 1886, the year following Clover’s death, Henry toured
Japan with artist John LaFarge. Upon his return, Henry commissioned
Irish-American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to memorialize her by
casting a bronze statue. Upon his return he instructed Saint-Gaudens to use
Buddhist philosophy’s take on death and grief as inspiration, a philosophy he
had encountered in Japan. The Adams Memorial was erected in Section E of
Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC in 1891. The finished sculpture is not of
Clover herself. It instead depicts an anonymous figure representing the range
of Henry’s emotions surrounding her death, as well as the abstract nature of
life and death.”
4. Grave of Sinbad The Dog
#/media/File:Sinbad_on_Campbell.jpg)
“Sinbad, a mixed breed dog that served for seven years
aboard the Campbell, a Coast Guard ship that defended American convoys during World War II, is one
of the most beloved American mascots. After his death, a granite monument was
erected in his honor at the base of the flagpole at Barnegat Light Station, a
decommissioned lighthouse now serving as a Coast Guard emergency operations
center in Barnegat Light, New Jersey.”
5. Twenty-Seven Headstones that Defied Expectations
C. BEDFORD CRENSHAW/PUBLIC DOMAIN
BRITT REINTS/CC BY 2.0
“To bury oneself under a headstone in the shape of a shark, say, or a palace-sized tomb carved out of a giant boulder, you’d have to be a
little extraordinary. Often the stories that accompany these tombstones are
larger than life. And death too, for that matter.”
Discoveries About Early Funeral and Death Practices
What can we learn from studying the funeral traditions of
our ancestors? There is no limit to the amount of useful information that
society can glean from digging into the roots of ancient death practices.
Archeology has shed new light on how rituals and beliefs have evolved overtime
by unearthing early tombs and burial sites. Scholars have demystified many
previously held notions about how different cultures reacted to death in the
past. While we might not be able to know with absolute certainty what a funeral
held 10,000 years ago would have looked like, scientists are focusing that
picture with new discoveries every day. Below are just a few recent ones that
got our attention.
6. Recreating King Midas’s 2,700 Year Old Feast
“In 1957, A team of archaeologists from the Penn Museum
excavated a mysterious mound in Gordion, Turkey. They found a wooden structure,
and inside, a royally-dressed body, surrounded by the remnants of a feast. The
tomb is the oldest, intact wooden structure ever discovered and held a large
collection of beautiful bronze vessels. The cauldrons and jugs contained pounds
of residues from a funeral meal. On September 23, 2000, the Penn Museum held a
replica feast.”
7. The Alchemy and Artistry of Ancient Egypt’s Funerary Portraits
.jpg)
NATIONAL MUSEAUM IN WARSAW/PUBLIC DOMAIN
“It’s been a few millennia, so flecks of paint have sloughed
off of the lifelike portrait, which was fastened to a mummified body during
Egypt’s Coptic period, nearly 2,000 years ago. These images are often described
as precursors to Western portraiture and have captivated researchers for
years. Known as Fayum paintings, for the Egyptian site where they were excavated,
they straddle both Greco-Roman and Egyptian styles.”
8. Victorian ‘Post-Mortem’ Photography Myths
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/LC-USZ62-19393
“Fake post-mortem photos, whether categorized in error or
intentionally mislabeled to sell for a profit, have in recent years become
widespread on the Internet. Though unfortunate, it’s also understandable:
there’s clearly something compelling about a lurid, not-so-distant culture engaging
with death in a way we don’t. In truth, the propped-up people in Victorian
“post-mortems” look alive for a much simpler reason: because they are. Posing
stands were used to help living models hold still for that era’s longer
exposures.”
9. Death as Entertainment at the Paris Morgue
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE/PUBLIC DOMAIN
“The Morgue may have existed so that friends and family of the
dead could identify anonymous bodies, but few visitors came with any intention
of looking for a missing person. They had a single goal: to see the dead
up-close. The more gruesome or mysterious a person’s death, the more tourists
showed up to see their body. By the end of the 20th century, the Morgue
attracted so many visitors that nearly every Paris guidebook mentioned it.”
10. Archaeologists Strike Gold at the Site of a Mysterious 5th-Century Massacre
“Barely four miles off the Swedish coast, in the indigo Baltic Sea, the rocky island of Öland was once witness to a gruesome mass murder. In 2010, archaeologists uncovered skeleton after skeleton there—bodies that had initially been left unburied. Now, a discovery of two gold rings and a coin at the site may hint at the motive behind what appears to have been a particularly bloody, personal attack.”
Cemeteries With Character
The gothic beauty and rich history found within cemeteries
hold a special wonder for many people. Historians, artists, horticulturists,
and many others find a quiet sanctuary within the gates of these sacred burial
grounds. Cemeteries often have their very own distinct personalities that are
supported by features such as stunning landscapes, unique characteristics or
historical landmarks. While some may be across the globe, others could be
hiding right in your backyard. If you’re looking for a new and interesting
cemetery to get lost in, our list below is just scratching the surface (no pun
intended!). Be sure to explore Atlas Obscura’s
Atlas for even more!
11. Szatmárcseke Calvinist Cemetery in Szatmárcseke, Hungary
“Hundreds of boat-shaped headstones fill this graveyard as
part of a centuries-old custom with mysterious origins.”
12. Church Cemetery in Nottinghamshire, England
“A spooky juxtaposition of caves and graves
gives this legend-filled cemetery a particularly haunting vibe.”
13. Ämari Pilots’ Cemetery in Ämari, Estonia
“Tucked into the scrubby woods near
Estonia’s Ämari Air Base is a pilot’s graveyard where Soviet airmen are
buried beneath the fins of the very aircraft they likely died in.”
14. The Feral Cat Colonies of Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California
“Visitors come to Hollywood Forever Cemetery to see the final resting places and eclectic
graves of dead Hollywood stars, but in certain corners of the graveyard they’ll
find attractions that are very much alive.”
15. Merry Cemetery in Săpânţa, Romania
“A small town Romanian cemetery filled with darkly humorous
gravestones. Over 600 wooden crosses bear the life stories, dirty details,
and final moments of the bodies they mark. Displayed in bright, cheery pictures
and annotated with limericks are the stories of almost everyone who has died of
the town of Săpânţa.”
16. Varazdin Cemetery in Varaždin, Croatia
“Thousands of trimmed trees fill this cemetery, carving
verdant stripes and shapes into a landscape otherwise dominated by gray graves.
They look like topiary tombstones, planted to live alongside the traditional
stone memorials to the dead.”
Grief Passion Projects
There is no cure for grief – that much is certain. Nothing
can take away the pain of losing someone who was close to your heart. However,
many people have found comfort by turning to creative pursuits to help them
cope with the death of a loved one. These stories demonstrate how grief can
produce something remarkable. Loved ones are driven to do something
extraordinary in memory of another, whether to work through their loss, carry
out a loved one’s wish or show the world how special the person was to them.
Below are a few stories about grief passion projects that really captured our
notice.
17. Wendy’s Secret Garden
Wendy_Whiteleys_Garden_101.jpg)
“After Wendy Whiteley’s husband died in 1992, she realized she needed an outlet for her grief. To distract herself from the pain, she began clearing garbage and weeds from an old abandoned railway yard. She’s spent the past 25 years transforming the patch of land into something incredibly beautiful: a secret, hidden garden.”
18. The Death Mask of Gabrielle Danton
“This death mask is an artifact of one of the more dramatic
moments in the life of George-Jacques Danton, the man without whom the French
Revolution would not have happened, many scholars say. The people’s
champion of the French Revolution was so overcome by grief at his wife’s death
he exhumed her in the dead of night to make one final replica of her face.”
19. Demystifying the Winchester Mystery House
.jpg)
“Sarah Winchester inherited $20 million after her husband died in 1881, and not long afterward
moved from New Haven, Connecticut, to an eight-room farmhouse in
orchard-studded Santa Clara Valley. She got to work almost immediately. A
dedicated crew of carpenters built new rooms so quickly that no one bothered to
draw up blueprints. Many speculate that she threw herself into her
all-consuming building project to feel closer to her late husband—architecture
had long been one of William Winchester’s passions.”
20. Maine Central Model Railroad
R STEMPLE (ATLAS OBSCURA USER)
“An elderly widow still operates the
incredibly detailed model railroad she and her husband built by hand.”
Unusual Monuments
There are a lot of ways to memorialize someone. A person may
have a gravesite and several statues or monuments dedicated to them in
different parts of the world, especially if he or she was very well known or
traveled a great deal. In other cases, if no gravesite exists as in the case of
a private cremation, fans and admirers may create their own unofficial tribute
to the person’s life. Monuments are also often constructed at death sites, so
if a person died unexpectedly they might have a gravesite as well as a monument
in the place where their life ended. There are many reasons that factor into
the creation of memorials and it is fascinating to learn about these
motivations and to see the unconventional monuments that result from them. Here
are a few that piqued our interest:
21. Patsy Cline Crash Site Memorial
“Beloved country singer Patsy Cline died on March 5, 1963
when the airplane she was riding in plummeted into the Tennessee wilderness,
and the crash site is now remembered by a meditative boulder.”
22. FDR’s Smokestack Memorial
“From 1906 until 1977, all U.S. presidents had an official
yacht. For Franklin D. Roosevelt, that seafaring vessel was the USS Potomac.
The elevator hidden in a smokestack now serves as a monument to the former
president.”
23. Kurt Cobain’s Benches
“A very peaceful, quiet spot in Viretta Park
located next to Kurt Cobain’s former house offers an unofficial memorial to the
late Nirvana frontman.”
24. Frank Zappa Memorial
“Frank Zappa never went to Lithuania and
had absolutely no connection to the country. However, the youth of Lithuania
had a connection to Zappa—he was the icon of their newfound freedoms. This
is evidenced in the Frank Zappa memorial near Vilnius’ city center.”
Death and Society
How does society handle challenges that are posed by death? This
fascinating question is addressed within many articles published by Atlas
Obscura. Since the dawn of time, man has been tasked with figuring out how to
tend to our dead and responding to difficulties that arise. Problems caused by
extreme weather, major disasters, changing attitudes and cemetery
overpopulation have put many to the test, from early civilizations to 21
st
century funeral directors. Here are a few stories that really intrigued us:
25. Funeral Practices in Iceland
“There is also the tradition of not embalming the body—a
practice that has proven to be quite inconvenient for foreign families that
face the tragedy of losing a loved one in Iceland. The maximum period before
burial is eight days, so family members have a week to make all the
arrangements pertaining to the treatment and shipping of the body and fill out
all the necessary paperwork, often from abroad.”
26. Five Fishermen Restaurant
NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES/PUBLIC DOMAIN
“There is a seafood place near Halifax Harbour Harbour
that was once home to the city’s oldest mortuary. It’s now the Five Fishermen
Restaurant, but was once Snow & Company Undertakers, who tended to the
bodies of not one, but two major tragedies of the early 20th century.”
27. Why the First Cremation in the United States Was So Controversial
“Burning the dead is an ancient practice, and in some
cultural traditions, it’s a thousands-year-old norm. Today, cremation in the
U.S. is soaring in popularity; by 2018, CANA predicts that over 50 percent of
Americans will choose to have their bodies cremated. But in late 19th-century
America, cremation was a radical, tradition-bucking idea.”
28. The Cemetery Owned By No One: Philadelphia’s Abandoned Mount Moriah
SMALLBONES/CC BY PUBLIC DOMAIN
“Philadelphia’s Mount Moriah Cemetery has been officially closed and abandoned since 2011, its 380 acres now overgrown, the over 85,000 graves consumed by an encroaching forest. Incorporated in 1855, it was once among the most elite of the Victorian cemeteries. Now you’re lucky if you can find a family member’s grave without rubbing against poison ivy. How such a significant place fell into such ruin is complicated, and years after its last burial it’s still effectively without an owner.”
There has never been a better time to have a curious mind. Questions that once remained locked in your head for years can now be answered
with a little Internet research. Places that you could only imagine before can now be seen in great detail from any computer or smart phone. This
accessibility is a something every funeral director should keep in mind. No
matter how long you’ve been working, there is always something new to learn.
Reading about new discoveries, interesting places or historical accounts will
keep your brain sharp and help you stay more informed. And when it comes to
stories that are of interest to funeral directors, no other site can rival the content published by AtlasObscura. We hope you’ll take our word and “let your curiosity be your compass.”
Which one of the stories above was your favorite? Are there any we left off our list that you would recommend? Share with us in the comments below! Be sure to follow ASD on Facebook and Twitter where we
regularly share content from Atlas Obscura!
About The Author
Jess Farren (Fowler)
Jess Farren (Fowler) is a Public Relations Specialist and Staff Writer who has been a part of the ASD team since 2003. Jess manages ASD’s company blog and has been published in several funeral trade magazines. She has written articles on a variety of subjects including communication, business planning, technology, marketing and funeral trends. You can contact Jess directly at Jess@myASD.com
