Abstract:
Cemeteries are excellent sites where undergraduate students can engage in a variety of multidisciplinary inquiry-based activities. There are a large number of established cemeteries, and the ease of which to enter and explore cemeteries makes these locations ideal for local to national scale investigations. A cemetery records information pertaining to local history through the tombstones. These historic artifacts, which have varied in size and style through time, record names, dates of birth and death, symbols, and epitaphs. Tombstones are also composed of different rock types. Students interested in physical geography may investigate the weathering rate of different tombstone rock compositions through time. Students interested in human and medical geography may be interested in establishing patterns of human survivorship and defining events that would cause a sudden loss of many lives. Local climate history may be determined from the weathering rates of the different tombstones. Additional disciplines may be connected with tombstone investigations, such as art, history, and gender and ethnic studies. Students can document the style and symbolism on tombstones by location and through time to look for trends. Students may search through town records to learn the local, historic significance of who is buried in a cemetery. Students may learn of variations as to how women are referred to on a tombstone versus men through the epitaphs, and the differences between cemeteries that were established for a specific population. Undergraduate researchers have a wide number of opportunities available to them in a cemetery for geographic and multidisciplinary investigations.
