Assignments:
Final Project

**DUE by December 9, 2004** During the second half of this course, students will undertake original research on some aspect of gravestone studies. The topic will be of your own choosing, in consultation with the instructor, and can reflect and build on an interest from your other coursework or personal experience. The dozens of papers in the eighteen volumes of Markers: The Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies on reserve in the Rockefeller Library are a good starting point for ideas. In addition, some other suggested topics include: comparing a RI cemetery with a cemetery from some other place a demographic explication of a burying ground a correlation of gravestone design and the design of contemporary artifacts a comparison of Yankee gravestones to those of another ethnic group single stones marking the graves of two or more people how women were memorialized on 19th century gravestones how references to women on gravestones changes over the course of the 18th century figurative sculpture in cemeteries Providence’s earliest gravestones the hierarchy of spouses’ graves in sequential marriages pet cemeteries a study of the gravestones of one family a stylistic analysis of the gravestones of one burying ground a group of epitaphs and how they reflect a time or place or people occupations found mentioned on gravestones which gravestones mention causes of death armorial designs on gravestones the eighteenth-century gravestones at Newport’s Touro synagogue Irish immigrant gravestones comparing the gravestones of the northern and southern colonies a demographic study of portrait stones: who got them and when? typography of early printing versus stone lettering changing attitudes towards children formal architecture in graveyard the graves of Civil War veterans analyzing the occurrence of a certain symbol in a graveyard analysis of makers through written documents what happens when graves are moved The idea is for you to go out into the field and make your own observations and draw your own conclusions about these artifacts. Please set your topic and describe your research proposal in a written paragraph to be handed in on November 2. Your final papers should be the equivalent of the 15pp research papers you are preparing for other classes, (graduate students 20pp) though the length may vary with the amount of illustration you include or the amount of text you quote. This project is assigned in lieu of a final examination. The completed paper is due no later than December 9.