This Place of Silence is a photographic portrait of Ohio’s cemeteries and burial
grounds by Ohio photographers Ian Adams and Randall Lee Schieber. The text
and photo captions by Robin L. Smith provide an overview of the history of burial
grounds, from prehistoric mounds through modern “green” cemeteries—and
many fascinating details about gravestones, mausoleums, statuary, and
cemetery landscapes.
The introduction provides an overview of the historical place of burial grounds in
our society and of their value today not only as rich sources of history but also as
repositories of art, architecture, and nature. Cemeteries record the history of
their communities in their names and dates, but they also tell us how a
community wanted its history recorded: How did this community see itself? What
was important to that community? Who were the prominent people, and what did
they accomplish? Graveyards, especially older ones, are also full of quirky
names and mysteries. Who would name a child Nimrod, and where did that
name come from? Why would two families build identical side-by-side
mausoleums? Who would want a grave marker that looks like a pile of stones?
Chapters cover prehistoric mounds and early European American burial
grounds; the evolution from rural cemeteries in the nineteenth century to modern
green burials; art, architecture, and symbolism in cemeteries; cemeteries and
nature; military and institutional burial grounds; and distinctive ethnic cemeteries.
The authors highlight and showcase these often beautiful but sometimes
neglected pieces of history. Cemeteries are not dark, morbid places to be
avoided, but historic landscapes that are full of beauty, hope, and honor for
those Ohioans who came before us.