A Grave History

03/04/2025

Belated Black History Month Posts --- Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (better known as Ida B. Wells) was a journalist, writer, and civil rights activist (d. 1931). Miss Wells was born a slave 1862 in Mississippi. Freed along with her parents by the Emancipation Proclamation, from a young age she paid close attention to the mistreatment of Black people in her surrounds. She became a teacher whilst writing as a journalist for a local Black newspaper. It is impossible to write about all she did and accomplished during her life in a short post. Of her best-known accomplishments were her investigative journalism, her fight for women's suffrage, and her involvement as one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) alongside other renowned civil rights activists such as W.E.B. DuBois. She was also in attendance for Miss Bessie Coleman's interment at Lincoln Cemetery.
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There is much, much more that can be written about these three individuals, Bessie Coleman, Bobby Hebb, and Ida B. Wells. For now, though, I hope these very brief vignettes offer a peek into their amazing stories. So much we take today as simply "normal" or "always been that way" is owed to our Black brothers and sisters. All of whom are worthy of remembrance.
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03/04/2025

Belated Black History Month Posts --- Robert Alvin Von Hebb, better known as Bobby Hebb (d. 2010) was a soul singer, composer, and musician. He is best known for his hit (first recording, 1966), "Sunny", which he wrote in the wake of the deaths of his parents and murder of his brother. Finding solace in song, Bobby used his music to process his grief and as a way to move through life. A life-long Nashvillian, Bobby didn't stop performing and writing music up to his death in 2010 from lung cancer. He is honored with a monument at Spring Hill Cemetery, Nashville, in the shape of a treble clef with the sheet music of "Sunny" behind it.
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03/04/2025

Belated Black History Month Posts --- Miss Bessie Coleman, aviatrix (d. 1926). She was a very accomplished aviator during a time when few women were flying, let alone Black women. She was the first Black woman (and first Native American!) to earn a pilot's license. She took part in airshows, which were infamous for the danger the pilots put themselves in. During the preparation for a show in Florida April 1926, her newly acquired, old plane stalled out and was sent spiraling down. Miss Coleman was thrown from her seat at 3000' above the ground. After this fatal fall, a funeral was held in Flora and her body was returned to Chicago and buried at Lincoln Cemetery.
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09/09/2024

***NEW POST!***
In memory of the 164th anniversary of the sinking of the Lady Elgin (September 7-8, 1860), read about a small cemetery whose occupants' names were lost to the lake on that tragic evening.

Read it on agravehistory.com now!

Picture: "Wreck of the Lady Elgin" painting by Gary Sheahan; located at the Winnetka Historical Socie
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06/03/2024

Good news, everyone! A Grave History is officially A Grave History, LLC! So what does this mean for AGH? Nothing quite yet... but there are future plans in mind!

05/27/2024

https://agravehistory.com/grave-histories/f/memorial-day-remembrances

In honor of Memorial Day, A Grave History is featuring ten brief Grave Histories on ten veterans who died in the service of their country during the Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II.

10/24/2022

Good morning from the (old) graveyard! Starting out my week dismantling a fountain at the Cardinal's Residence. Built in 1885 for Archbishop Freehan, this house sits on what was the northeast corner of the old Catholic Cemetery. The cemetery, situated across the street from the old City Cemetery (Lincoln Park), was bordered by North Avenue on the north, Schiller Street to the south, Astor Street to the east, and Dearborn Street to the west. It was quite a sizable cemetery--though not as massive as its neighbor which spanned from Fullerton Avenue (then called Asylum Avenue) in the north to North Avenue in the south. The City Cemetery ceased operations in 1866-67. The Catholic Cemetery continued a short while longer, but by then Calvary Cemetery on the northern edge of the city (the Chicago/Evanston border used to be South Boulevard) had become the new Catholic burial ground--consecrated in 1859 and accepting its first interment in 1860. Following the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, those buried here were removed to other locations; many of whom were reinterred at Calvary in 1872-75. The Diocese sold off most of the old cemetery land for a good profit, whilst retaining this corner. The current archbishop, Cardinal Cupich, decided in 2014 to live at Holy Name Cathedral instead of the residence, which had served many of his predecessors, in order that he be more accessible for his congregants and less hidden away in the Gold Coast. A handful of retired priests live here today.
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05/10/2022

Fun fact for anyone who has been to or may visit a Jewish cemetery; which you totally should. Not 100% of the time, but close to it, you'll see two letters with what look like an apostrophe(s) at the top of the marker. The letters--right to left--are פ (peh) and נ (nun) followed by ' (geresh). The ' indicates that the word has been abbreviated. If the words were written out in full it would be פה נקבר (pō niqbar), which is the equivalent of "here lies". In the photograph this accompanies the letters are on either side of the portrait; both have a ' in this example.
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There are many more interesting aspects of Jewish gravestones (מצבות - matsevôth), and Jewish cemeteries, for that matter. Figured it made the most sense to start at the top and work our way down.
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