OLOF W. PALM

NOVEMBER 8, 1863

OCTOBER 28, 1939

CLARA LOUISA PALM

MARCH 29, 1861

SEPTEMBER 21, 1931

In 1928, the Georgia Marble Company of Tate, Georgia, produced a marketing piece in the form of a book titled, Memorials: To-Day for To-Morrow written by William Henry Deacy. The book was designed to showcase their memorial designs by highlighting them in the book with lush full-color watercolor illustrations of the various memorials. Along with the illustrations the book provided explanations of the symbolism found in the memorials. The book also coupled an architectural drawing of how the memorial is to be made.

The stele, a stone or wooden slab generally taller than it is wide and designed as a funeral commemorative, dates back many centuries and is one of the oldest gravestone forms.  Many examples of steles can be found in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece.

This example of a stele below was created for Daisios, son of Euthias on the east coast of Attica in Southern Greece.  The stele dates to the middle of the 4^th Century B.C. and has two rosettes on the shaft and is topped with an acroterion motif.

The example, however, found in the Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska, marking the graves of Olof and Clara Palm varies.  Though it has notable features of a traditional stele gravestone—the marker is taller than it is wide and the acroterion motif tops the marker—it is markedly different.  Traditionally the face of the stone would be bare except for two rosettes.  In this case, the Palms commissioned the Kimball Brothers to create the morning figure of a woman holding a rose, the symbol of romantic love.  The figure was carved by noted Nebraska sculptor Fred L. Kimball.

The stele was an interesting choice for the Palms as the acroterion is a classical motif found in Roman and Greek architecture and has its origins in Egyptian art and architecture.  The acroterion is a stylized palm leaf.  Coincidence?