Monthly Archives: May 2014

Death and Mortality

Posted on May 30, 2014 by gravelyspeaking

Coffins come in many shapes and sizes, though, technically, a coffin is a six-sided container or box for burial.  A casket is generally understood to have four sides and be rectangular. The six-sided coffin tombstone found in the Nashville City … Continue reading →

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Venetian Gothic

Posted on May 25, 2014 by gravelyspeaking

With the exception of the ornamentation on the top of the Spotts Mausoleum, two nearly identical mausoleums, one in the Cave Hill Cemetery at Louisville, Kentucky, and the other in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery at Nashville, Tennessee, were designed and … Continue reading →

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Crown and Open Gates

Posted on May 18, 2014 by gravelyspeaking

JOHN W. MEYERS 1865 – 1941   The gravestone pictured above displays an incised carving of open gate, a very common symbol found in American cemeteries. In this example, the open gates, which are central to the Last Judgment, have … Continue reading →

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LUX AETERNA

Posted on May 13, 2014 by gravelyspeaking

LUX AETERNA 1819 – PHILIP HOWES SEARS – 1898 1835 – SARAH PRATT SEARS – 1911 WITH THEE IS THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE IN THY LIGHT SHALL WE SEE LIGHT When we see a winged figure in a cemetery, we … Continue reading →

Posted in Angels, Symbolism | 1 Comment

Time Takes Flight

Posted on May 4, 2014 by gravelyspeaking

Thomas Earle White 1857 – 1916 There are several expressions in the American lexicon that express how fleeting our time on this Earth is, how this temporal life is short. The grand old soap opera, Days of Our Lives, has … Continue reading →

Posted in Symbolism | 7 Comments