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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.

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What's New at Arcadia

Historic Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast By Glenn A. Knoblock

Arcadia Publishing has releases a new title in the Images of America series, the historic account of the cemeteries along the New Hampshire Seacoast. This collection is a must for anyone interested in local history, genealogy, or colonial-era art. Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Historic Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast and browse other cemetery books!

Green-Wood Cemetery By Alexandra Mosca

Arcadia Publishing announces the release of the historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery.

Announcements

Quoting Death in Early Modern England: The Poetics of Epitaphs Beyond the Tomb By Scott L. Newstok

An innovative study of the Renaissance practice of making epitaphic gestures within other English genres. A poetics of quotation uncovers the ways in which writers including Shakespeare, Marlowe, Holinshed, Sidney, Jonson, Donne, and Elizabeth I have recited these texts within new contexts. Visit Palgrave Macmillan and purchase your copy today!

Living by the Dead By Ellen Ashdown with illustrations by Mary Liz Moody.

A memoir about living beside a cemetery--and about the members of my family who came to rest at Roselawn Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida. Please visit Kitsune Books for more information.

Graveyards of Chicago: The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski.

Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!

Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers

For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.

Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman

Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture is now available. Please visit Studio Indiana for more information.

West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark

Features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.

RD Glossary

W

WAKE
The Irish practice of watching over the body by candlelight the night before the funeral and the often wild feasting which follows. This may have developed simply because mistakes sometimes happened  The purpose of the wake, therefore, was to ensure that the deceased was truly dead.
WILL
A legal document also known as a Last Will and Testament, used by a person to regulate the rights of others over his or her assets after death. It also used to specify the person's last wishes for funeral and disposition of his or her remains. Also used to describe the action of body donation, when a person makes the decision to will his or her body to science. 
WINGED EFFIGY
a representation of a person flanked by a pair of wings usually associated with figures of a deceased person depicted in stone (as in the carved likenesses in the tympanum on a Colonial-era Puritan gravestone in the Northestern states)

RD Glossary by Run Digital

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Burial Terminology: A Guide for Researchers

Burial Terminology: A Guide for Researchers
By Roderick Sprague


Sprague (anthropology, U. of Idaho, Moscow) sets out a classificatory system and nomenclature relating to the disposal of the dead in Eurasia and North America. He also includes several areas...


Does This Mean You'll See Me Naked?: A Funeral Director Reflects on 30 Years of Serving the Living and the Deceased

Does This Mean You'll See Me Naked?: A Funeral Director Reflects on 30 Years of Serving the Living and the Deceased
By Robert D. Webster


A funeral director reflects on 30 years of serving the living and deceased while providing us with a behind-the-scenes story told with both empathy and humor. He attempts to assuage...


I Told You I Was Sick: A Grave Book of Curious Epitaphs

I Told You I Was Sick: A Grave Book of Curious Epitaphs
By Nigel Rees


From the eponymous epitaph of a hypochondriac to the inexplicable Greek phrase that adorns Jim Morrison's grave, author Nigel Rees catalogues curious tombstone inscriptions from cemeteries around the world. Ranging...