The Cemeteries of New Orleans : A Cultural History / Peter B. Dedek.

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2017]

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2021

©[2017]

1 online resource (296 pages).

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In The Cemeteries of New Orleans, Peter B. Dedek reveals the origins and evolution of the Crescent City's world-famous necropolises, exploring both their distinctive architecture and their cultural impact. Spanning centuries, this fascinating body of research takes readers from muddy fields of crude burial markers to extravagantly designed cities of the dead, illuminating a vital and vulnerable piece of New Orleans's identity. Where many histories of New Orleans cemeteries have revolved around the famous people buried within them, Dedek focuses on the marble cutters, burial society members, journalists, and tourists who shaped these graveyards into internationally recognizable emblems of the city. In addition to these cultural actors, Dedek's exploration of cemetery architecture reveals the impact of ancient and medieval grave traditions and styles, the city's geography, and the arrival of trained European tomb designers, such as the French architect J. N. B. de Pouilly in 1833 and Italian artist and architect Pietro Gualdi in 1851. As Dedek shows, the nineteenth century was a particularly critical era in the city's cemetery design. Notably, the cemeteries embodied traditional French and Spanish precedents, until the first garden cemetery'the Metairie Cemetery'was built on the site of an old racetrack in 1872. Like the older walled cemeteries, this iconic venue served as a lavish expression of fraternal and ethnic unity, a backdrop to exuberant social celebrations, and a destination for sightseeing excursions. During this time, cultural and religious practices, such as the celebration of All Saints' Day and the practice of Voodoo rituals, flourished within the spatial bounds of these resting places. Over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, however, episodes of neglect and destruction gave rise to groups that aimed to preserve the historic cemeteries of New Orleans'an endeavor, which, according to Dedek, is still wanting for resources and political will. Containing ample primary source material, abundant illustrations, appendices on both tomb styles and the history of each of the city's eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cemeteries, The Cemeteries of New Orleans offers a comprehensive and intriguing resource on these fascinating historic sites.

Project MUSE books annual backfile collection 2021.

Books / Online

English

July 13, 2023

Cover; CONTENTS; PREFACE; 1 FROM MUD AND CRAWFISH TOCITIES OF THE DEAD; 2 TEMPLES OF LILLIPUTThe Mid-Nineteenth Century; 3 THE ARCHITECTURE AND ART OF DEATHThe Builders and Decorators; 4 PALACES OF THE DEADSociety Tombs and Fraternal Cemeteries; 5 SAINTS, VOODOO, AND RACISM; 6 SUBURBS OF THE DEADThe Victorian Garden Cemetery in New Orleans; 7 SLUMS OF THE DEADDecay and Cemetery Preservation; CONCLUSION; APPENDIX A Types and Styles of Tombs in New Orleans Cemeteries; APPENDIX B Brief Histories of Selected New Orleans Cemeteries; NOTES; INDEX

History.