Arcadia’s “Images of America” books follow a pretty standard
format – they focus on local or regional historical topics and are paperback pictorial
history books, so they are primarily images. Richmond Cemeteries has a
plethora of interesting photographs and a thought-provoking narrative to pull it all together. Don't expect just pictures of cemeteries, but also pictures of lives remembered, vintage images to help us reconnect with our past. (All of the photos in this article are from the book.)
Richmond Cemeteries is truly wonderful, I was really taken by it. Never having visited Richmond, I was quite curious about the city and its famous cemetery, Hollywood. Before I set before you the transcription of my dialog with the authors, let me give you a synopsis of the book based on the Arcadia press release:
Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy and once one of the most prosperous cities in the United States, is home to a range of cemeteries that tell the story of American trends in honoring the dead. The book boasts 200 vintage images, many of which have never been published, and showcases memories of days gone by.
African slaves were interred in Shockoe Bottom’s so-called “burial ground for negroes,” U.S. presidents James Monroe and John Tyler were buried in Hollywood Cemetery, and Civil War soldiers were commemorated throughout the metropolis. During and shortly after the Civil War, Richmond worked to accommodate thousands of new graves. Today, Richmonders work to preserve and celebrate the past while making way for the future.
Highlights of “Richmond Cemeteries” include details of urban legends of Richmond, historical figures buried in Richmond cemeteries, and stories related to Edgar Allan Poe, who was a Richmond resident.
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| Ruins after the burning of Richmond, 1865 |
Interview with authors Christine Stoddard and Misty Thomas
CT: Cemetery Traveler
A: Authors
CT: Cemeteries focus people’s attention on certain eras,
events, or people. Your book has a wealth of information for everyone. I’m
especially intrigued by the various entries on American Civil War dead. Readers
sometimes only grasp the magnitude of that war when told that there were so
many dead bodies (620,000), but few realize there was no planned effort to deal
with that or to treat them with dignity. Can you comment on that?
A: The war was so bloody
that people back then had no idea how many graves to dig. They dug graves and
then they had to dig some more. They just kept digging and digging, often
quickly and not very deep. They had to get bodies out of the fields and into
the ground. But there were just so many men dying that graves of any kind—let
alone proper graves—couldn't be dug fast enough. It must have been horrifying
to live then. |
| As the capital of the Confederacy, Richmond was at the heart of the Civil War |
CT: Richmond having been the capital of the Confederate States of America, I was intrigued by the wartime photos of the city in your book. Also, the related wartime history in Richmond’s Shockoe Hill Cemetery, such as the Union Army soldiers buried there. Can you comment for our readers on why Union soldiers would be buried south of the Mason-Dixon Line and Confederate soldiers buried in the north? This is something people generally don’t think about.
A: It was a matter of
convenience more often than not. As previously mentioned, they just couldn't
dig graves fast enough. After the war, some groups, like the Daughters of the
Confederacy, raised funds to get their men reinterred on their land, but often
bodies were buried close to where the soldiers had died.
CT: In your introduction, you talk about the African American Burial Ground that was paved over by Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to build a parking lot. A similar situation occurred in Philadelphia in 1956, where Temple University wanted the nearby land occupied by Monument Cemetery for a parking lot. They convinced the city to condemn it. Since I do a lot of research into abandoned cemeteries, I find it wonderful that you would mention that travesty right there in your introduction. Why did you do that?
A: We mentioned this
travesty in the introduction because it remains a controversial topic in
Richmond. It's very timely because, last year, Mayor Dwight Jones reintroduced
the idea that Richmond should build a baseball stadium in historic Shockoe
Bottom. Now that I live in Northern Virginia outside of Washington, D.C., I'm
still hearing about Shockoe Bottom because it has become international news.
Earlier this month, Actress Lupita N'yong'o of the film Twelve Years a Slave
went to social media to voice her opinions about preserving Richmond's
slave trade history. This isn't just a Richmond or Virginia matter. It isn't
even just an American matter. It's a global matter. It's about social justice
and how racial discrimination persists even in death.
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| Jefferson Davis and family, post-war (1884 or 1885) |
CT: Your stories about famous people related to the stones and monuments in Richmond cemeteries are wonderful. I never saw the document reproduced on page 38, “An Address to the People of the Free States,” by Jefferson Davis. Being a northerner schooled with northern history books, this sort of document makes you realize how biased history books are. What is your take on that?
A: Definitely! I grew up in
Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. and home to Arlington National
Cemetery. It is a strange place in the sense that it is culturally both
Northern and Southern. But it's also very multicultural. Arlington attracts
people from across the country and the world for its federal government and
think tank jobs. My history classes varied from year to year, depending on
where my teacher that year was from. Certainly history is biased. Most of what
we're taught as Americans (Northern, Southern, Midwestern, West Coast, what
have you) was written by older, white, Protestant men. There's nothing wrong
with belonging to that demographic, but that's not the only kind of person who
should be telling the stories.
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| Confederate Army Gen. J.E.B. Stuarts's temporary grave |
A: Yes, that was one of the
objectives: To show how cemeteries are rich in all kinds of historical clues.
They may be the setting of ghost stories and a place you visit for Memorial Day
or the anniversary of a loved one's death, but they are also a treasure trove
for historians and history enthusiasts.
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| Poe's grave in Baltimore |
A: I doubt that will happen.
I actually made a documentary about Poe's life in Richmond and his claim as a
Virginian. It's called The Persistence of Poe (www.poerichmond.com). When I screened it at a bookstore in New York in 2013,
your very question became of the focus of the Q&A session. The fact remains
that Poe died in Baltimore and the Poe Society there is a passionate group.
Since Poe doesn't have any descendants clamoring for him to be reinterred, I
suspect he will stay right where he is. Reinterment is an expensive process
and, even as a Virginian, I believe that money is better spent operating the
Poe Museum and its many programs.
CT: I have friend who is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization and his current project is documenting (with GPS positioning and database entry) the locations of Jewish Confederate Civil War Veterans buried in Philadelphia. I believe he has so far documented about 200, which were not previously in the database. I will loan him your book and point out the photo of the “Hebrew Confederate Soldiers Cemetery” (p. 119). How did you find out this is the only Jewish military cemetery located outside Israel?
A: In all honesty, we went
with what Beth Ahabah, the synagogue that maintains the cemetery, said. The Confederate
section is reportedly the only Jewish military cemetery in the United States.
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| Walkers at family plot (around 1903) |
A: I like the Walker
photographs because they show that cemeteries are places that can and should be
enjoyed, not feared and avoided. My mother is from Central America where they
celebrate el Día de los muertos, or Day of the Dead. This two-day holiday
coincides with All Souls' and All Saints' Days in early November. I mention it
because I love the spirit of el Día de los muertos. It asks us to be happy, not
sad, when thinking of death and to uphold it as a natural part of life. It asks
us to remember and respect our ancestors. It even asks us to dance and picnic
in cemeteries. That's an attitude I wish more Americans had. I think maybe the
Walker family did.
CT: Was Hollywood
your initial focus for the book? You could obviously write an entire book on
just that cemetery, but you gave it equal time with the other Richmond
cemeteries. Comment?
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| U.S. President James Monroe's cast iron tomb in Hollywood Cemetery |
A: One of the reasons I decided to pitch and pursue the project was because I had noticed so many books and articles about Hollywood and, to a lesser extent, Shockoe Hill and St. John's Church graveyard, with comparatively little attention paid to Richmond's other cemeteries. I wanted to put Hollywood in geographic and cultural context. It may be the city's most popular cemetery, but I wanted readers to know that it is not the only notable burial ground. Other cemeteries, especially ones established for or by Richmond's African-American community, have too often been neglected from public memory and basic care. Perhaps by raising awareness of these other cemeteries, the public will feel compelled to better maintain their graves and grounds.
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| Memorial Day, the tradition of remembering our American armed forces dead, began at Hollywood Cemetery |
CT: Do you have any advice for people who want to visit these wonderful Richmond cemeteries? A starting point, perhaps?
A: Richmond offers a wealth of historic sites for anyone
interested in American history. My recommendation is to choose your focus. I
suspect that most of our tourists are Civil War buffs, in which case Hollywood,
Oakwood, the national cemeteries, etc. are musts. But if you're an Edgar Allan
Poe fan, then Shockoe Hill and St. John's can't be missed. If you're into
African-American history, then you have to see Evergreen, Barton Heights,
Woodlawn, and the slave burial grounds. Know that there are battlefields,
museums and archives, such as the Valentine History Center and the Library of
Virginia, that may appeal to your senses, too.
During my time as a VCU student, I often explored Richmond's
historic sites with my then-boyfriend, now-fiancé, on the weekends. I moved to
Alexandria, Virginia for a year and came back to Richmond for a year to work on
this book and a couple of other media projects, only to discover that there was
still so much I hadn't seen. Now that I live in Falls Church, Virginia, I'm
still learning of new places. Here's an example: Despite having written about
it, I saw Arthur Ashe's grave for the first time today.
CT: I thank you for introducing me (and hopefully many other readers) to the cemeteries of Richmond besides Hollywood Cemetery! That is the one everyone talks about. A couple I know used to live near there and have taunted me with stories of its grandeur, and how they enjoyed strolling its grounds. I have another friend who has done restoration work there. Unfortunately I’ve never been to Hollywood Cemetery or Richmond itself. Your book has whetted my appetite! Thank you!
A: Thank
you, too! We're very proud of the book and the forthcoming documentary and
appreciate your support.
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Christine Stoddard, the co-author of Images of America:
Richmond Cemeteries, is also the director of the new documentary, Richmond's
Dead and Buried (www.rvadeadburied.com), which premieres Nov. 8 at the James
River Filmmakers Forum in Richmond. Please check this Facebook event page for more information on the documentary screening.
Additional screening dates will be listed on RVADeadBuried.com as the events are
scheduled.
