3/7: Preserving & Interpreting Historic Cemeteries as Public Memorials & Educational Resources

    The preservation of cemeteries has many factors to it that separate it from the preservation of other historic sites. These sites preserve more than a structure or a property, but also the people who now rest there. This makes the preservation effort around them more emotionally charged than most preservation efforts. The evolving history of these sites continue to cause discussion in public history.

    The reason for the preservation of cemeteries has changed slightly overtime. Cemeteries are meant to bury the dead and allow their descendants to honor them. Once there is no more room for the dead and their descendants no longer visit the sites, the incentive to preserve the site plummets. As seen with site like the Daughters of Zion Cemetery in Charlottesville, VA, the cemetery fell into neglect after the original caretakers passed away over the years with the society dissolving in 1933. Efforts to preserve the cemetery occurred as the city seized the land through imminent domain in the 1970s, and the land received a national designation in 2009. It would only be in 2015 when the local community took a renewed interest into the cemetery. This interest came from descendants who reconnected with their ancestors who were laid to rest on the site. These descendants had a slight change in the reason for preserving the site. In addition to preserving the graves of their direct ancestors, they also sought to care for the many dead as a whole. By remembering all of the dead buried there, these preservation efforts reinforce the legacy of the Black community that lived there throughout the eras of slavery, Jim Crow, and beyond. A similar story has begun to unfold in Richmond, VA as renewed interest has taken place in Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground.  It was not new interest alone that caused these sites to see new preservation efforts, but changes in the field of public history as well.

    With the introduction of new technology alongside the new on-the-ground preservation efforts, the preservation of cemeteries has taken a new form that was not possible before. One example of change is the increased digitization of documents. Through this increased digitization, more people are able to look into these documents and trace their ancestry to these burial sites. It was through finding one document about her ancestor Kitty Cary that led Lenore McQueen to Shockoe Hill. In addition to the changes in digital preservation, the implementation of new technologies like GPR allows these preservation efforts to more clearly define the extent of where the dead lay buried. As the development of cities continued, the documents that defined the boundaries of these cemeteries were lost. As a result, these grounds were destroyed as roads, buildings, and other developments took their place. The last change in public history come from the involvement of people who aren’t just academics. These grassroots efforts give the preservation efforts legitimacy as the descendants show the city the local importance of preserving these sites. Places like Greenwood Cemetery conduct history harvests in order to better remember and interpret the site. In addition to the historical knowledge gained, it encourages the local community to come learn about and remember the cemetery where many former community members are buried. While I have mentioned the importance of the local community in these efforts, none of these efforts would have existed without the help of public historians who have the knowledge needed to find, document, and preserve the knowledge from the community and the site itself.

    There are challenges in preserving these sites however. Sites like Greenwood and the Daughters of Zion were lucky enough to have most of the original cemetery site left undeveloped or somewhat preserved. For Shockoe Hill however, the efforts to preserve the site as it does not truly exist anymore. The area has been built over with railroads, roads, and buildings. The area is still a location modern developers wish to build over with new infrastructure. While Lenore McQueen has succeeded in getting attention to the site and a historic marker added to it, she still had to fight against these new developments. These fights are difficult as you have to encourage the city to deny economic development for a site that does not have anything aside from a historic marker. Lenore knows this can be difficult, which is why she continues to reach out to the community and spread the word about the site. By doing so, the preservation of the site evolves from the project of a historian into a monument for the local community.