Blogs

 I thought the snow storm we had a few weeks ago was pretty severe. With all that wet snow, many wonderful trees lost limbs. Discussing that storm with our Superintendent of the Grounds, Art Presson, a few days after it struck, we marveled at the fact that all of the falling limbs then had somehow not damaged any monuments.

Richard Upjohn was a pioneering American architect. In the 1840's, he designed Trinity Church, which stands at Broadway and Wall Street, . He was the first president of the American Institute of Architects.

Friday morning I entered the cemetery at the Fort Hamilton Parkway entrance, and walked across Green-Wood to our offices. It was drizzling, good cemetery weather, and it was a treat to wander the quiet grounds. As I got near the Catacombs, I reached the grave of Edward Anthony. Now, I know he is a rather obscure individual--few people ever have heard his name.

I've been wandering Green-Wood Cemetery for almost 25 years. Yet, I have never seen this monument before. It really is unusual--I've never seen anything like it in any cemetery. Thanks to Frank Morelli, supervisor of our Restoration and Preservation Program, who found this gravestone depicting a baby carriage. Quite a find!

Well, I guess Nature giveth and Nature taketh away.

We do have a great collection of trees at Green-Wood Cemetery--an expert from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens recently described our trees as the best collection of mature trees in New York City. We have about 7,000 trees--some just getting started, some more than a century old.

This is another entry in the Green-Wood-connections-are-everywhere file.

I just got back from California. Sue Ramsey, one of our Civil War Project volunteers, lives out in Santa Barbara, and invited me to come out and give presentations to the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society and the local Civil War roundtable. I did a slide show on our Civil War Project, one on Green-Wood, and a talk about our Civil War Project. Great thanks to Sue for setting this up.

My son just e-mailed this link to me.

Well, that was quite a snow storm last week. The snow was deep across the cemetery. And it was spectacular! This was no ordinary storm. It blew snow across, piling up in its wake. Days later, you could tell which way the wind had blown--an icy snow covered one side of many monuments and tombs, creating accents and shadows.

With Lincoln's Birthday rapidly approaching, and with a new purchase I've made, I thought it would be appropriate to return to the story of the funeral procession for the martyred President Abraham Lincoln through New York City.

Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre inWashington D.C. on the evening of Good Friday, April 14, 1865. He died the next morning.