markers

markersColonial and Early American GravestonesPhotographs and Text by Francis klaess

Hempstead, Long Island, New York© 2016 Francis klaess

Foreward

By author Writer

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restiumquae consequiam quatur? Qui consernatum ligent quia velecae voloressecto omnist est aut ut as

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Charleston, south Carolina.

Colonial america: The artisan and Graphic Design

america in the eighteenth century was a land of immense opportunity for the ambitious. It mattered

little if you arrived in these Dutch or British colonies with wealth or not. The lucky few that arrived with

money had a head start, but those without had to rely more on their wits, strength, and a can-do attitude.

These are the people that left their literal marks in what was soon to become what is known as the United

states. Consider a skilled laborer, hard pressed to find work in the old country, scratching together enough

money to make the dangerous trip over the ocean to the colonies. He would arrive with the clothes on his

back and maybe a few tools to work in his trade. a mason with a hammer and chisel may not find work

in his field, but if asked if he could carve a design on a gravestone, the natural answer had to be a firm

yes. a healthy mixture of entrepreneurship, ambition, and maybe a bit of desperation could certainly fuel

this mason to try his hand at a new, but related endeavor. amongst the burial grounds of the american

colonies, a visual vocabulary of standardized images was already in existence. Images, icons, and

typographic treatments that could be readily copied, improved upon, and modified to suit the needs of

the family as well as the community. In an environment where almost every endeavor was for survival, the

decorative and graphic arts were mostly afterthoughts. These gravestones are a testament to those artisans.

mattituck, New York.

stone and steel: a method of Delivery

every creative endeavor needs two things: the tools to create a mark and a medium to accept the

mark. The question is how long do you want your mark to last? Ink on paper, the most common of the

creative media has a limited lifespan, lasting anywhere from a few months to a few centuries. Paint on

a prepared surface also has a limited lifespan, depending on the environment it is kept in. The method

of hammering a steel chisel into stone is probably the most secure in keeping an artwork safe, secure,

and alive for millenniums. The ancient assyrians were not the first to carve words and images into

stone, but they started a tradition that lasts to this day. How do you recognize an important event,

solidify a law, or memorialize the deceased? The answer is the same now as was then: set it in stone. The

artisan that creates this work needs to be adept in the visual conventions of that era, but also possesses

the strength needed to pound a hammer against a chisel into stone. No easy task since the manual

pounding also needed to be disciplined enough to leave beautiful designs and elegant typography. The

colonial gravestones were created in rock, sandstone or slate, media that could withstand the elements.

Not like the later marble whose surface weathers away leaving marks often unrecognizable. Lines are

drawn, stone is cut. Light varies making the viewing experience change subtly at different hours of the

day and at different times of the year. What remains constant is the mark. The mark that is always there

to remind us that we too are just passing through.

Hempstead, New York. Next page, manhattan, New York.

Wings of Desire

Human beings have always wished they could fly, to surmount their everyday surroundings and

communicate with the infinite. To fly meant that you could survey the world from afar and somehow

obtain a broader wisdom than what was currently possessed. ancient Greek mythology has the

story of Icarus and Deadulus, a father and son that took their home made wings and flew in the sky.

Prudence lead the father to stay away from the sun’s heat, while poor Icarus, full of adventure, flew too

close, had his wings melt, and fell to his demise. a cautionary tale that perhaps led to the realization

that man was not meant to fly. That of course excluded those non-human beings, the angels. Winged

humans have appeared as far back as ancient mesopotamia, but it was not until the early christians

embraced this spiritual entity that it became commonplace. so common that a rare jump was made to

continue these “cherubs” beyond the Catholic church and into the protestant religions. early america

was overwhelmingly protestant with multiple religions coexisting together—and sharing the same

symbolism. an early Puritan trend favored the more stoic death’s head, but as america found itself

in the early stages of the Great awakening, it embraced a friendlier, more humanistic winged cherub

as a guide from our temporal existence to a more spiritual afterlife. The cherub was complacent,

sometimes smiling, and with its wings had the ability to fly. The ability to help the deceased spirit fly

as well, and thus obtain the broader, universal wisdom we constantly seek, but often alludes us.

sagaponack, New York. Next two pages, mattituck, New York.

The British and the Dutch

stereotypes exist for a reason. Often the character and qualities of a group of people take on a similar and

obvious identity, and for better or worse, retain those traits as its own. a stereotype can be useful in helping

to identify how and why certain groups did certain things in certain ways, especially in cultural areas

like the visual arts. The Dutch settled in the new world, called their home New amsterdam, and thrived.

Based on centuries of being the underdog, fighting the Catholic church, and embracing capitalism as a new

secular religion, the Dutch brought to the new world a free enterprise system of self-reliance and can-do

spirit. The British took over almost overnight in a bloodless coup. residents woke up, did business as usual,

life went on, but were ruled by a different country. The more reserved British had the same protestant point-

of-view and perhaps brought more order to this “anything-goes” part of the colonies. as different as the two

people were, the similarities may be more than originally thought. Gravestones, one of the few examples of

public-oriented art brought together the motifs and icons that were embraced by both cultures. The death’s

head, harsh and conservative, a throwback to the colonies harder lifestyle gave way to a more optimistic

cherub. The New York area will find graveyards exclusively Dutch or British as well as co-mingled filled

with variations of the winged cherub, happy, sad or indifferently carrying out the work of assisting the

deceased to heaven. What were differences in life now are similarities in death. The icons embraced by both

cultures betray their ultimate belief that we all are equal when we arrive at our final destination.

Port Washington, New York.

Iconology

To understand a work of art the first task is to take an inventory of what you see before you. Basically,

look at the artwork and make a list of each and every item that is before you. Then determine what is

the most and least used of these items. What do you see as the most prevalent image in that particular,

or group of particular artworks. This objective task is performed without opinion or bias. The preferred

vocabulary of gravestone motifs among the colonial american population was limited to a handful of

items. The next task is the interpretation of this list.

• A skull and bones has an obvious meaning: “mors vincit omnia” or “death always wins” and this is

what you will look like someday. However, in ancient societies the skull was also seen as a symbol of

immortality, objects like crystal skulls represent life and the honoring of humanity in the flesh and the

embodiment of consciousness.

• A cherub has a history of millennia to back itself up. Uplifting and positive, an aspect of the faith of

Christians that life exists after death. The wings of the cherub look back to an age when one thought

that after death the soul would leave the body in the form of a bird. Consequently, the bird becomes a

symbol of the spirit, a “holy spirit”. Birds have also been thought of as mediators between the humans

and the gods whom the birds fly so near to in the heavens. an interesting hybrid is the skull with wings,

embodying the idea of death and transcendence. a parting of ways from our temporal existence towards

sleepy Hollow, New York.

a more spiritual existence. a soul can now be alive in perfection instead of living within an unclean body,

filled with desires.

• Flowers of great variety were employed as motifs: a belief in renewal, spring rebirth after natures

cyclical sleep, and of course, the natural beauty we all innately understand. ancient cultures viewed

flowers as earthly forms of the gods, and were worshipped as such. Flowers were also thought to keep

away evil spirits. From a more practical level, the fragrance of flowers kept the smell of a decomposing

body away from our noses. Perhaps the carvings of these flowers kept the deceased always fresh.

semiotic analysis to come...

Hempstead, New York.

Hempstead, New York.

mattituck, New York.

modern art and Design

By the very nature of ones time, art is modern, either by unconscious default or by conscious decision.

Preceding 1900 the quest for modernism has always been how to improve what has come before whether

through a realist point of view or an abstraction of reality, the quest has always been to move forward. In the

early twentieth century certain artists looked back in time as well as abroad to so-called primitive cultures

for inspiration. The modern art of Picasso actually was a look backward away from modernism. His great

affection was to strip away his classical training and reveal the raw style inherent in the untrained. Now step

back in time to the days when america was the colonies of other nations. The two accepted forms of public

art, store signs and gravestones, were created by artisans usually with a bare minimum of training. some were

able to become adept enough to open shops, and establish themselves. Far away from the centers of high art,

these american craftsman developed their own simplistic style that at heart may have more honesty than

the modern artists of the early twentieth century. Without art schools, life model studies, or even time for

self-criticism and reflection, these artisans created figural works that have more in common with primitive

cultures than first realized. The rounding of the face, the contour lines that connect the eyebrows and nose,

the simple shape of the eyes, all show off the economy of design that the modern artists strove for. What

came naturally to one became a historical appropriation to the other. If art is an indicator of a societies

aunthenticity, perhaps the colonial america artisan is a truer example than the twentieth century modernist.

sagaponack, New York. Next page, sleepy Hollow, New York

afterward

By author Writer

225 words. acererum qui sin nat. ectio occat erem venimusam volorruntium cum ut porent. Ulpa volo

inis iunt aliae. Ut aut aliquam, que volo comnimos et la dolupta nullore corenis pliquia exereium do-

luptaquam dolor re voluptam quia cusdant veliquo omnis es eum re sam nus eos aliam, cupisi auda cor

restiumquae consequiam quatur? Qui consernatum ligent quia velecae voloressecto omnist est aut ut as

quia autempo ssimodisto qui ommodisi ut quos veligent volupide exerfero qui dolectum que vel maxi-

mus, sin con rehenda nducima iorerumquis aut volupta tiundis doluptat quas ma que plit voluptatur,

consequodit optatur, officia se maion elia voluptatin re cus, ut lam re corest, sae. Itatisim aborae non nis

acepedi ipsam eribusci niet voluptin reris nonsequodit dolorumquis aut et optam, consed que parum

harum voluptio henda nducima iorerumquis aut volupta tiundis doluptat quas ma que plit voluptatur,

consequodit optatur, officia se maion elia voluptatin re cus, ut lam re corest, sae. Itatisim aborae non nis

acepedi ipsam eribusci niet voluptin reris nonsequodit dolorumquis aut et optam, consed que parum

consequodit optatur, officia se maion elia voluptatin re cus, ut lam re corest, sae. Itatisim aborae non nis

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harum voluptio henda nducima iorerumquis aut volupta tiundis doluptat quas ma que plit voluptatur,

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Caption for Cover 3