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Archiver > MASUFFOL > 2004-05 > 1084712898


From: "Stefanie" <>
Subject: Re: [MASUFFOL] Farber Gravestone Collection
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 09:08:18 -0400
References: <149.295d1c77.2dd7b544@aol.com>


This is from the NEGHS newsletter. I thought it maybe of interest

The Farber Gravestone Collection
In last week's eNews we wrote about the David Rumsey Historical Map
Collection website (www.davidrumsey.com). We now would like to tell you
about a hidden gem on that website just waiting to be discovered by anyone
with an interest in old gravestones-The Farber Gravestone Collection, which
is owned by the American Antiquarian Society. The Farber Collection
(www.davidrumsey.com/farber/) contains over 13,500 images documenting the
sculpture of more than 9,000 gravestones. Most of the gravestones found in
the collection were made prior to the 1800s. The images from this collection
and two smaller collections, one of mainly Massachusetts gravestones
photographed by Harriette Merrifield Forbes in the 1920s and the other of
Connecticut stones documented by Dr. Ernest Caulfield, were digitized by the
American Antiquarian Society. They have been made available to the public
for free through David Rumsey's digital publishing company, Cartography
Associates.

The late Daniel Farber and his wife, Jessie Lie Farber, spent more than
twenty years photographing historic gravestones. Mrs. Farber has written an
introductory essay on the collection, "Early American Gravestones," which
may be accessed via a link on the Farber Gravestone Collection homepage.

You can access the images in the Farber Collection by first clicking on the
link titled "Farber Gravestone Collection Now Online," located beneath the
"Breaking News" heading on the left menu of the home page. You can then
click on the type of browser that you want to use, which will bring you to
the search page.

Searching the collection is quite similar to the way you search the
Historical Map Collection. Your search options here include keyword searches
and searches by data field. If you click on "Show All," the full list of
search possibilities will appear. There are sixteen search categories. They
include name, date, location (four different options), carver, ornamental
carving, and verse, as well as stone type and monument type. Once you have
run your search, double-clicking on the thumbnail will enlarge the
gravestone image. Using the tools that appear with the new window for the
enlargement, you can not only navigate and zoom the image but also print it.
Clicking on the data tab in the menu on the left side of the page and then
selecting an image will bring up the image's file data in the smaller
window.

Many individuals are represented in the gravestone collection. One such
person is Joseph Stockbridge of Hanover, Massachusetts, who died in 1768.
You can run a "name" search to find two images of his gravestone. According
to the inscription on his gravestone, Joseph Stockbridge's death was
"sudden, premature, awfull (sic) & violent, providentially occasioned by the
fall of a tree." Just in case the circumstances surrounding his death were
unclear, the carving on the gravestone shows a tree limb striking a man in
the head, presumably Mr. Stockbridge.

The collaboration between American Antiquarian Society and David Rumsey has
made a valuable research tool readily available. Regardless of where you
live or whether there is a foot of snow on the ground in the graveyard, you
have free access to more than 13,000 images of early gravestones, completely
documented and catalogued.

Visit the Farber Gravestone Collection at www.davidrumsey.com/farber/.


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