William Wetmore Story (February 12, 1819 – October 7, 1895), the son of Joseph Story—Supreme Court Justice from 1811—1845, was a multi-talented Renaissance man. Story was an editor, poet, art critic, and an incredible sculptor. Though trained as a lawyer at the Harvard Law School, he abandoned the legal profession to follow the arts.
His body of art work includes among others, a sculpture of his father, Joseph Story, fittingly at the Harvard Law School and a statue of another famous jurist and judicial colleague of his father’s, Chief Justice John Marshall. But the sculpture that has become replicated and imitated in cemeteries in Europe and America is the monument that he carved for his wife’s grave in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, Italy.
An article written in the Sept. 1896, issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine stated:
“The loss of the wife of his youth whom he survived but a year, was a bitter blow; and with her passed his interest in affairs. It was only when his children suggested that he should make a monument to her memory that he consented to resume work; the design he chose was the “Angel of Grief”, and it is wrought to exquisite finish…When this was done he left the studio never to return.”
The statue marking Emelyn and William Wetmore Story’s grave depicts an angel collapsed and distraught in grief. The statue is dramatic and evokes the solemn loss of a loved one. The statue is known, aptly as the Angel of Grief perhaps because of its ability to capture devastating grief from departure due to death.
The statue’s imitators can be found in many cemeteries including the ones below:
Perhaps one of the most elegant examples can be found in the Metarie Cemetery at New Orleans in the Chapman H. Hyams mausoleum. In the picture above, the blue light from the stained glass showers the statue in a calming hue.
The example above is in the Mount Hope Cemetery at San Diego, California, and marks the grave of Marjorie Marie Pierce.
Marking the grave of the Hill Family in the Glenwood Cemetery at Houston, Texas, is a replica of nearly exacting quality.
Irene Bagby’s marker in the Serbian Cemetery at Colma, California.
Jennifer Roosevelt Pool’s monument in the Cypress Lawn Cemetery at Colma, California. Pool was the cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt.
Two examples in the Green-wood Cemetery at Brooklyn, New York, have a slightly deviated design. In this version for the O’Donohue Family has the angel holding a wreath. The laurel wreath dates back to Roman times when soldiers wore them as triumphal signs of glory. The laurel was also believed to wash away the soldier’s guilt from injuring or killing any of his opponents. In funerary art the laurel wreath is often seen as a symbol of victory over death.
This example is also found in the Green-Wood Cemetery at Brooklyn. It marks the grave of Michael and Shamsi Kaydouh.
This example is found in the St. Luke Cemetery at Chicago. It is a small version and does not mark a grave but is used as a piece of artwork for the cemetery. On the front of the monument is the poem:
The bud was spread, To show the rose
Our Savior smiled, The bud was closed.
Anon.
The example below is from the Presbyterian Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia. It is tucked under a tree.
This example below was found at the Kraft-Graceland Memorial Park t New Albany, Indiana.
This last example is from the Stanford campus in California.
Gravely Speaking 
Thanks for this post! I’ve only ever seen the Rome example. Is Boerner-Olszewski white bronze? I like how some artists have adapted Story’s version to different graves like the Kaydouh example. If I’m reading the photos correctly, O’Donohue and Kaydouh extend their right arms (with wreath) instead of Story’s type’s left. Would it have seemed inauspicious to proffer the wreath with the left hand?
The full title of the angel (from Wiki);
full title bestowed by the creator was The Angel of Grief Weeping Over the Dismantled Altar of Life.
I’ve seen many of these angels, including the original. There are quite a few great replicas….but then some (a few shown here) are downright ugly. I also never liked the variations shown here from Green-Wood and the Bronx (they are also NOT marble and don’t have the same feel at all),
But Green-Wood has another angel (not shown here) that is closer to the Roman original. The best ones I’ve seen are the one in Cypress Lawn in Colma (the Serbian one in Colma is smaller somewhat amateurish), and the lovely one in New Orleans (you have pictured).
I wish they would stop making the miniature Kitschy ones that pop up now and then.
This is a partial List of Replicas and copies;
1 DiCesare Angel, Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Rochester NY
2 Cassard Angel, Green-Wood Cemetery Brooklyn NY
3 Pool Angel, Cypress Lawn Cemetery, Colma CA
4 Simpson Angel, Cemetery, Chico, CA
5 Chapel of the Chimes, Hayward, CA
6 Lathrop Angel, Stanford CA
7 Davila Angel, Holy Cross Cemetery, Waco TX
8 Pastore Angel, Calvary Cemetery, Denison TX
9 Youree Angel, 1904 Scottsvile Cemetery, Scottsvile, TX
10 Gloria Cheng Angel, Glenwood Cemetery, Houston TX
11 Hill Angel, Glenwood Cemetery, Houston TX
12 Blakeney Angel, Grove Hill Cemetery, Dallas, TX
13 Melcher Angel, Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery, Houston TX
14 Gutierrez Angel, forest park Cemetery , Houston, Texas
15 Teasdale Angel, Friendship Cemetery, Columbus, Mississippi
16 Presb Cemetery Lynchburg VA
17 Bandon Hill Cemetery Wallington London
18 Steen Angel, Oakland Cemetery, Little Rock Arkansas
19 GERTRUDE MARY Dutton Angel DIED 1926, Stockport Cemetery, England
20 Hyams Angel, Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans
21 Hooper (1912), Hingham Cemetery, Hingham, Mass
22 Cemitério De Agramonte Porto Portugal (with baby) no wings, might have been broken off?
23 Charles Bettendorf Hausse Angel, Notre-Dame Cemetery, Luxembourg
24 McMillan Angel. OddFellows Cemetery m Aberdeen MI
25 Stockport Cemetery, Manchester, UK
26 Penarth Cemetery, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, UK (near Cardiff)
27 Remillard Angel, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery, Montreal
28 Cementario General, San Jose, Costa Rica
29 Hyland Carney Angel, Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis MI
30 Trorlicht ANgel, Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis MI
31 Weeping Angel, Kerepesi Cemetery, Budapest
32 Victor Mature Angel, St Michael Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky
33 Remke Angel, Highland Cemetery, Fort Mitchell, Kentucky
34 Angel of Grief, All Saints Cemetery, Jesmond (Newcastle) UK
35 Frederick William Angel, Sunderland Cemetery, Grangetown, UK
36 Irene Bagby’s marker in the Serbian Cemetery at Colma
37 HALLIWELL ANGEL, Preston New Cemetery UK
38 FALCIONE ANGEL, Riverside Cemetery Norristown, Montgomery County, PENNSYLVANIA
39 Hayen Angel, Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore MD
40. Cementerio Santa Ifigenia, (Santiago de Cuba) for Heberto Soler Perez (1910-1925) Cuba
41. Cologne, South cemetery, Germany
Weird Variation; Eissler Monument, Prairie Lea Cemetery, Brenham, Texas. This
variation has strange hair.
This is an impressive list of look-a-likes!
Love the angels
Thank you!