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VIRTUAL: Reading The Stones

What Cemeteries Can Teach Us About Public Health

Explore how gravestones, cemetery landscapes, and even the absence of markers can reveal important pieces of public health history.

**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email.**

Cemeteries are full of stories, but those stories are not always found in names and dates alone. Explore how gravestones, cemetery landscapes, and even the absence of markers can reveal important pieces of public health history. Learn the basics of “reading” a gravestone, including common symbols, inscriptions, materials, and other clues that can help us better understand the person being memorialized and the time in which they lived. Then look more closely at the ways cemeteries preserve evidence of disease, epidemics, institutions, poverty, and changing approaches to death and burial.

Led by Ashlynn Rickord Werner,  a cemetery historian, speaker, and the founder of A Grave Affair, an educational and consulting practice focused on cemetery tourism, storytelling, and community engagement. She previously served as Director of Cemeteries for the City of Providence, RI, where she oversaw active and historic cemeteries and developed public programs centered on history, preservation, and community connection. Ashlynn has also worked with the Public Health Museum in Massachusetts and is the author of Images of America: Tewksbury State Hospital. 

Sponsored by the Public Health Museum, presented with support from the Tewksbury Public Library.

RECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program.

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