The Symbol, The Self, and the Passing of Time: A Transatlantic Analysis of Social and Temporal Variation in 18th to 20th Century Gravestone Symbols

Abstract

This thesis examines gravestones from the 18th to 20th century in Cambridgeshire, England, Perthshire, Scotland, and Ontario, Canada in order to explore the potential relationships between the symbol present on the stone and the identity of the deceased for whom the monument was selected. Using three databases totalling 5,911 monuments across 106 burial locations, this study is the largest of its kind and as such allowed for the robust analysis of the potential relationships between identity, time, and symbols that are frequently explored in mortuary literature but on smaller, more localized scales. Three main questions were addressed: 1) is there a symbolic category that is more associated with a specific identity marker; 2) what is the large-scale change seen in symbolic categories over time; and 3) is there a difference in the two aforementioned questions between broad geographic locations. This research demonstrates that the selection of a symbol for a monument - primarily floral or religious symbols - cannot confidently be attributed to any singular aspect of identity, those being: sex, age, religious affiliation, social class, or immigration status. Further, the sex of the monument purchaser or presence of a religious or non-religious epitaph cannot act as a predictor for the symbol chosen for a gravestone. While certain facets of identity - namely age and social class - can play a role in the patterning of symbol choice, selection is more variable and idiosyncratic than can be predicted by a single facet of a decedent’s (or purchasers’) identity. Change was observed on a comparable timescale between 1856 and 1925 for all three locales, indicating that there is indeed a change in floral and religious symbolic trends from the mid 19th to early 20th century, furthering the evolution seen in mortality symbols from the 18th to 19th centuries, with floral symbols overtaking the prevalence of religious symbols in all locations.