The tall rounded-top white marble gravestone of the Adams Family at the Greenwood Cemetery at New Orleans, Louisiana, displays one of the most common motifs found in American cemeteries—clasping hands. 

The clasping hands can represent several different things including representing the brotherhood of the union symbolizing the brethren of workers clasped in the making of something together, sharing their labor bonded by common work.  The motif can also signify a farewell handshake to life on Earth and the welcome to Heaven, leaving behind what they have known on Earth for the sublime pleasures of Heaven.

However, on this gravestone it most likely represents holy matrimony, symbolizing the union between a man and a woman. The clues are in the hands themselves, the hand of a woman and a man—on the left side of the motif is clearly the hand of the female, her sleeve is decorative with a small lace cuff. The hand on the right side is the male’s, with a shirt’s stiff cuff prominently displaying a button, with a slight ruffle in the sleeve.