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Carleton history professor Bruce Elliott said he has been interested in the study of gravestones since he was young.
“They’re like little pieces of folk art treasure,” he said. “They are a reflection of their time.”
He will speak about this passion in a lecture Oct. 23, as a part of Carleton’s annual Shannon Lecture series.
Elliot said that his speech, entitled Memorializing the Civil War dead: Modernity and corruption under the Grant administration” will outline the ways the burial of the soldiers who died during the Civil War “offers us an insight into the American response to modernity.”
This year’s theme for the series, gravestones and cemeteries, was chosen by Elliott in order to coincide with his current studies — a passion of his for years now.
“Cemeteries tend to be microcosms of the larger society of which they are a part,” Elliott said.
According to Carleton’s history department, “the series explores the idea that how a society treats its dead offers insight into fundamental cultural values, tensions and priorities, and wider processes of social, cultural and economic change.”
For Elliott, it was a trip out East, to Cape Breton, that really inspired his interest in cemeteries, he said.
He noticed that the gravestones were unique, unlike the standardized gravestones that he saw in Ottawa, where “metropolitan taste was penetrating into all corners of society,” he said. “I saw a lot of standardized gravestones.” Elliott’s lecture will focus on the way in which the Civil War was “a hot house for forcing the issue [of the need for a new burial marking system] because they were faced with the problem of marking the graves for over 300,000 soldiers,” he said.
To Elliott, and the series’ other lecturers, cemeteries are not just for mourning.
“Gravestones are a reflection of their times,” Elliott said.
Over the past decade, Carleton has hosted a fall lecture series in which professors and academics from all over the world come to Carleton to speak about a particular subject of study.
Guest lecturers include professors from the University of British Columbia and the University of Liverpool. Other topics range from indigenous memorialization to roadside memorials.
The series was made possible by the Shannon Donation —an anonymous gift granted to Carleton’s history department.
Elliott’s lecture will be held in room 303, Paterson Hall, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Other lectures from the series will occur Nov. 6, 13, 20 and Dec. 4.