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NOLA Dead Space

Exploring New Orleans's Cities of the Dead

Resources

It’s easy to find more information on cemeteries, history, preservation and the tombs at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Follow these links.

Lesson Plans

Historic preservation provides the context for education and learning.
Eugene Cizek, “Why Historic Preservation?” 1997 ( Louisiana Buildings 1720 – 1940: The Historic American Buildings Survey. Poesch, Jessie and Barbara SoRelle Bacot, editors. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997.)
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Sites for Lesson Planning Ideas

Adding the study of local cemeteries to the school curriculum can provide students with new insights on many topics such as history, immigration, settlement patterns, social issues, architecture and design.

History Matters: Designed for high school and college teachers of U.S. History courses.

Do History: A site that shows you how to piece together the past from the fragments that have survived.

At the English Heritage site, click on “Education” for new ideas for Kids programming.

Simple and advanced queries to Internet search engines will return hundreds of sites on cemeteries. Tighter searches such as “tomb restoration” or “historic cemetery” or the specific name of the cemetery will be more useful.

Links

See Archive Sources for local repositories of historical information, Cemeteries for more links and Conservators for conservation information.

Below are additional interesting links used by the Dead Space teams.

Free People of Color of New Orleans Research Site

Louisiana Register of Historic Places

Mardi Gras Guide

[Researchers] need to be able to critically evaluate a Web page for authenticity, applicability, authorship, bias, and usability. The ability to critically evaluate information is an important skill in this information age.
Kathy Schrock, Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators, 2003
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Historical Research

When looking for historical information on the Internet, researchers look for:

  • Primary source material
  • Clear documentation of sources
  • Balanced interpretation of historical facts, or a clearly articulated stance that separates fact from hypotheses and from the researcher’s conclusions
  • A sense of the field; Evidence that the material presented was developed by those well versed in the field
  • Research tools, key word searches, on-line archives, links to related research sites

Researchers evaluate the worthiness of web-delivered information by certain criteria:

  • Who has done the research?
  • How has it been funded, How resourced? (Gives a clue as to how in-depth the work is, and/or how balanced is the interpretation)
  • Links to primary material
  • Inclusion of full citations, credits, and copyright information
Primary source material and serious scholarly research on any topic imaginable can now be found on the Internet.

A Selection of Sites for Historical Research

American Memory: http://memory.loc.gov/

History Matters: Designed for high school and college teachers of U.S. History courses. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/

Do History: A site that shows you how to piece together the past from the fragments that have survived. http://dohistory.org/

Council of State Historical Records Coordinators

Making of America (Cornell): http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/

Historical Societies: Most state and large city historical societies have Internet sites with collection information and links to primary source material. The Historic New Orleans Collection and The Historic Society of Pennsylvania are examples.

Show me your cemeteries, and I will tell you what kind of people you have.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
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Cemetery Sites

Historic Cemeteries

  • Mt. Auburn, Boston, MA: http://www.tclf.org/mtauburn/site/main_frame.htm
  • Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY: http://www.green-wood.com/
  • Laurel Hill, Philadelphia, PA: http://www.nps.gov/chal/sp/p01new1.htm
  • Congressional Cemetery: http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/
  • Gettysburg Cemetery: http://www.nps.gov/getc/
  • Images from Puerto Rico: Planned sites for continued research

Interesting Cemetery Sites


  • Political Graveyard: http://politicalgraveyard.com/index.html
  • Tombstone Traveler’s Guide: http://www.tombstonetravel.com
  • California Historic Cemetery Alliance: http://www.califhistcemeteries.org/
  • Save Our Cemeteries, Inc., New Orleans: http://www.saveourcemeteries.org/
  • Historic Cemeteries in Texas: http://www.thc.state.tx.us/cemeteries/cemdefault.html
  • Partners for Sacred Places: http://www.sacredplaces.org/
  • Connecticut Gravestone Network: http://www.ctgravestones.com/
  • Saving Graves: http://www.savinggraves.com/
  • Saving Graves, NY: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state1/
  • Association for Gravestone Studies: http://www.gravestonestudies.org/
  • Cemetery Laws in Louisiana: http://www.lcb.state.la.us/rules_word.html
  • State Laws: http://www.funeralplan.com/funeralplan/consumer/statelaw.html
Join in to help preserve New Orleans’ historic cemeteries threatened by such forces as neglect, vandalism, theft, and the effects of time. Community support is vital. Save Our Cemeteries is always looking for volunteers.

Volunteer with Save Our Cemeteries