Youth Education

Frequently Asked Questions

Cemetery: 100 Things To Do

Over 100 things to do in a cemetery

We walk by historic sites everyday, but few of us stop and truly look and learn from these places. How can anyone appreciate something they know little about? Tours of old homes and festivals in historic business districts are appealing to many people. These special events allow the public to experience how people of the past worked, played and celebrated.

Historic cemeteries attract fewer visitors because of perceptions of being scary and dangerous places. Often the setting for horror movies and tales of community ghosts still roaming the grounds, people hold narrow views as to uses for these historic landscapes. To overcome modern fears, people of all ages need to have educational and interesting experiences to learn why historic cemeteries are important to understanding our past. If the stories are left untold and people are not encouraged to visit, our historic cemeteries will be seen by the public as land better developed for the living.

One thought should be at the forefront in planning educational experiences for a cemetery. Cemeteries are landscapes that hold the remains of those that have gone before; a place that allows the living to remember when they once walked the earth. You should never hold an event or create a product or presentation that ignores the dignity of this site. This will be accomplished by offering well-planned educational experiences and materials that take into account the irreplaceable landscape and relative's feelings.

TOURS

Living history tour such as "Tales of the Crypt," where individuals select, research, write and present vignettes about the life of an individual buried on the grounds. The AHPP has created a how-to manual on producing your own living history event. The manual covers planning, supplies, tour ideas, creating scripts for guides and actors, funding, publicity and evaluation, and offers various ideas on how to use this tour to enhance appreciation of cemeteries.
Costumed tours, on a regular, requested or special basis.
School group field trips: To assist in planning experiences for children, request a copy of our curriculum, "Grave Knowledge."
Scavenger Hunt: There are numerous ways that this activity can be used as a self-guided tour or part of an educational activity for school groups. Print clues in the paper and invite the public to visit on their own to roam and find the answers. Create a list of items that will be seen along your tour path, and ask students to find them as you provide other bits of information or allow them time to view on their own or work as teams. Have a scavenger hunt where all answers are found in the cemetery and another hunt that will require both the cemetery and visits to local libraries to locate answers.
Tour of Angels, obelisks and other monumental sculptures found on the site. The AHPP has some information on large-scale figurative pieces located in the state.
History of Cemetery
View restoration efforts
Bus tour of many area cemeteries during the day with a picnic on the grounds.
Bus/trolley tour of a few area cemeteries at night with dinner at a historic house or in a building on the grounds of the cemetery. Charge a fee to cover the bus and dinner, and add a bit for your fund.
For large cemeteries, offer a section tour series
Flower tour of daffodil, irises, azaleas, etc.
Tree and shrub tour
Bird watching tour
Owl prowl tour or other nocturnal animal tours
Urban wildlife tour or rural animals tour
Star gazing tour
Horticultural club-sponsored tour: Meet in the morning once every month or every other month and see what is in bloom before you go to work.
Hiking tour: Provide a map of city or regional sites for a self-guided tour. The map can highlight cemeteries or include other historic properties found along the path.
Flashlight walking tours
Epitaph tour
Symbolism on stones tour
Look at the different ethnic traditions found in the burial ground
Look at different shapes of the markers and monuments
An everything but the gravestones tour: Look at other features associated with graves such as footstones, fountains, cradles, cast iron fencing, decorations, etc. More than one tour could be developed using this idea.
Tours led by experts, such as geologists to discuss stones, historians to discuss history, biologists to describe plant life, or pastors to examine epitaphs; these are only a few of the people that could broaden public understanding of the cemetery and possibly connect to potential audience members.
Women of the community tour
Outstanding leaders, community rascals, particular professions (business, health, homemakers, etc.)
Tour of children's markers
Spotlight tour, changing monthly or weekly, that focuses on four or more individuals that led colorful, inspirational, or lives that should not be emulated
Offer regular tours and focus on people that were born or died during the month of the presentation.
Tour buildings found on the property or associated with the property such as Chapels, mausoleums or columbaria.
Ghost tour
Examples of the work of a carver or monument company found in the cemetery
Advertise as a good place to take a walk
Changes in language tour
Stained glass tour

Special Events

Seminar for learning to identify and grow roses, irises and succulents
Watercolor, drawing, or sculpture workshop
Photography workshop
How to conduct a survey workshop
Grave rededication ceremony
Monument inscription workshop: how to read and decipher
Jazz concert
String quartet serenade during a summer stroll
Arbor Day celebration
5K walk/run that begins or ends at the cemetery
Bike marathon such as Boston's Tour de Graves, a 25-mile bike tour of the city whose route travels by many city cemeteries
Demonstrate proper cleaning techniques for markers, how archaeologist locate unmarked burials, how masons cut stone
Hold a workshop on how to conduct research using the marker as a starting point, flower arranging, or some other skill that is related to the cemetery
Hold an invitational contest: One cemetery invited sculptors from across the county to submit designs for monumental sculpture; pieces were selected, created and placed in the cemetery for a public exhibit
Sponsor a public contest, such as best photograph or painting of the site, best essay or best creative writing. Place winning entries in a calendar, book or other medium
Hold a conference where individuals learn about preservation, history, flowers, etc.
Hold a workshop on proper cemetery maintenance procedures
Sponsor a seminar, such as one on historic plants led by a horticulturist or improvements in medical practices since 1900 led by a medical historian
Have a booth or provide a tour as part of a community celebration
Have an anniversary celebration
Have a Memorial Day service, working with a veteran's group
Hold a contest and serve dinner on the grounds or in a cemetery structure as a prize
Hold an auction: You could sell products developed for the site as well as vintage clothing or other items from times periods represented in the cemetery
Have a tour and picnic as an auction item
Hold a Visitation Day where all cemeteries within a given area are open to the public
Hold a signing for something written about your site or about cemeteries in general
Have a flower show where you invite local florists to decorate a grave, include a photograph and biography of the deceased,and invite the public to stroll
Hold lunch time, evening or Sunday lectures on site that describe mourning costumes, burial practices, death omens or environmental effects on the site
Sponsor a family or community decoration day or clean up day

PROJECTS

Serve as a local site for a service vacation for folks from abroad. You may work with an elderhostel program for the elderly or contact churches for youth mission workers.
Erect a monument
Develop a volunteer program
Have Eagle Scouts work on badge requirements
Collect oral histories connected to your site: Record memories of family members during reunions, interview the caretaker, etc.
Organize a speaker's bureau that can present on-site tours, off-site slide shows to community groups and potential donors, or work with teachers on and off site when using the cemetery as an outdoor classroom
Set up a library in an existing structure on-site or at the local library, or have all cemeteries of a particular religion or region send materials on cemeteries to a designated facility
Develop a school partnership for educational programs
Design and erect an exhibit
Notify the state film department of your site and offer as a possible backdrop for a movie
If you have buildings such as chapels, mausoleums, etc. offer to groups for meeting, weddings and other events.
Adopt-a-plot program
Develop an arboretum by labeling old trees and placing new species around the perimeter or in the newer section of the site
Try to seek designation as an open air museum
Sponsor an archaeological dig to take place at another site. For a list of archaeological trips contact the Arkansas Archeological Survey, 2475 Hatch Ave., Fayetteville, AR 72704 or call (501) 575-3556
Have an awards ceremony and honor a cemetery
Seek out students that must complete a community service project, and have a list of activities that they may perform

MATERIALS

Erect a sign on the property
Erect a historical plaque on site
Create slide shows to help illustrate lectures
Write a newsletter to be used for members and as a promotional tool
Design a website
Create an audio tape for use on self guide driving or walking tours
Make a video of concerns and solutions, the history of the cemetery, activities of "friends group," community partnerships, etc.
Create a calendar
Make a map of interesting site features or people, city cemeteries, regional burial grounds, or sites found along a scenic byway
Design a brochure for your cemetery
Design a pamphlet for area cemeteries
Write an educational lesson plan for your cemetery
Design educational units for your cemetery
Write a letter to local educators about how to use your site, including information for college professors, as well as primary and secondary school teachers
Write a book: A burial index for genealogists, a sculpture overview for artists, a historical overview for history buffs, scary tales connected to area cemeteries for general reading, a fictional book that uses the cemetery as a setting for parts of the story, or print oral histories connected to your site. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil generated visitation to Savannah's historic cemetery
Write an editorial
Make a coloring book
Design a manual for tour guides
Write a National Register of Historic Places Nomination
Fill in and frame family tree charts for different plots on your grounds. Hang these in you library, use as part of an exhibit, or for examples during genealogical workshops
Create a scrapbook of "friends" activities
Make a quilt
Create a recipe book with traditional family dishes

PRODUCTS

Posters of one monument, many monuments, people with the monuments that mark their final resting place, etc.
Postcards with the cemetery logo or illustrations or photographs taken on site as part of a workshop, contest or other project
Memo pads
T-shirts
Jewelry: You could recreate mourning jewelry from the Victorian era or design pieces based on outstanding markers found in the burial grounds
Note cards
Tote bags
Baseball caps
Calendars
Flowers/ bouquets for special events
Limited sales of clippings and seeds from historic plants
Miniature replicas of interesting markers could be used as wall hangings, book ends or Christmas ornaments; make a limited quantity to qualify as collectibles
Print series: Invite an artist to create one or more paintings that use the cemetery as a subject
Puzzle

FOR MORE IDEAS:

Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Massachusetts offers programming on a regular basis. Call the cemetery at (617) 547-7105 and request a calendar of events.
Tomb with a View newsletter lists cemetery events from several different regions. For more information on how to order this newsletter write: Tomb With a View, P.O. Box 24810, Lyndhurst, OH 44124-0810.
Association for Gravestones Studies, 278 Main Street, Suite 207, Greenfield, MA, 01301
Or call the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program at (501) 324-9880

Remember that these ideas can be mixed, matched or altered to fit your cemetery and meet your goals.

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