Gardens of Stone --- A Cemetery Blog by Alexandra Kathryn Mosca

Passed this sepulchral photograph on a visit to St, Michael cemetery, in Queens. Such a beautiful face.  Enameling, was a popular memorialization practice in which images of a deceased were transferred and affixed onto ceramic or porcelain and then attached to a gravestone.  A walk through older sections of cemeteries will likely yield a number of enameled portraits, some formally posed and others more candid. Many of the men are depicted wearing suits while the women often sported hats (as above).

  Sometimes some of the most interesting finds are right in your own backyard. Such was the case when I recently went exploring in Roslyn Cemetery, one of my local cemeteries. It's been a while since I visited, and I saw some new monuments and revisited some older ones.  While the cemetery is small in size, it is filled with history. So much so, that it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the final resting place of William Cullen Bryant, Christopher Morley,  Bessie Abott and Thomas Watson Story, and Frances Hodgson Burnett, and her son Lionel.  The grounds are diverse with --often unique -- memorials to those of many cultures, including Russian, Iranian, and Asian Indians.  Thomas Waldo Story followed in the footsteps of his father William Wetmore Story, finding success as a sculptor. He was married to opera singer,  Bessie Abbott. Poet William Cullen Bryant is buried beneath an obelisk with his wife, Fanny. 

  Lionel Burnett was the son of writer Frances Hodgson Burnett. He served as the model for the title character in her most famous children's book Little, Lord Fauntleroy, published in 1885. He is buried in Roslyn Cemetery, on Long Island, close to the grave of his mother. There's more about the cemetery in My Cemetery Travels.