Shifting monument production chains and the implications for gravestone design on Prince Edward Island, 1820–2005

Abstract

This paper examines changing gravestone design in Prince Edward Island (PEI) (1820–2005) and relates these changes to changing modes of production in the monument industry. Information from field surveys, newspaper advertisements and business correspondence reveals how supply-side factors helped shape the morphogenesis of the island's cemetery landscapes. Among these, different sources of raw materials and manufacturing innovations over time resulted in the use of harder, more durable types of stone. With these changes, gravestone production and design moved increasingly away from local monument works towards off-island producers in Vermont, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Since the early 20^th century, PEI's gravestone suppliers vertically integrated along Fordist mass-production lines and increased choices available to local monument sellers and their consumers.

Keywords:

• cemetery
• gravestone design
• supply chain
• Fordism
• Prince Edward Island

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the three anonymous referees for their constructive feedback on the manuscript and Alyson Greiner for sound editorial guidance. In addition, we thank Christina Tardif for drafting the maps and Ben Phillips for the artwork.

Notes

1. These analyses comprise a portion of a broader literature that examines the gradual institutionalization of death (Mitford 1963; Jackson 1977; Sloane 1991). Over the past century and a half, palliative care has become the domain of hospitals rather than homes, coffins are now called caskets, undertakers have been transformed into funeral directors while sextons have become superintendents. These institutional changes have played a key role in shaping choices with respect to commemoration of the dead and thus cemetery landscapes. The trend toward the standardization of cemetery landscapes was much advanced by the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents which, upon its establishment in 1887, codified a set of guidelines for orderliness in their spatial patterns. One article in their charter discouraged the practice of enclosing plots with fences while another sought to narrow the range of accepted monument materials and designs (Sloane 1991). These landscape conventions favoured a monument industry geared toward specialization and mass production. Set within such contexts, cemeteries are both sacred places and landscapes that have become increasingly embedded in a constellation of industries that have altered and, some would argue, distanced society's relationship with death.

2. Francaviglia (1971, p. 504), noted the trend toward standardization in tombstone design. “Although most markers are commercially made ‘catalogue’ items available throughout the United States, some areas lag in acceptance, and some stones remain in style longer in some places than in others.” Jeane (1972, p. 147) sympathetically comments, “The cultural significance of a style of tombstone, house or any other cultural feature lies in differential acceptance. A new style or type may diffuse vigorously in a culture area, or it may be resisted, depending on the eagerness of the culture group to accept innovations.”

3. The edict against slate monuments in famous cemeteries like Mount Auburn, Massachusetts also favoured the use of marble (Sloane 1991).

4. In 1863 Halifax stonecutter J.H. Murphy employed this same image, as did the Truro Monument Works in 1864 (Trask 1978, 86; 91).

5. Victorian ideals and architecture began in England throughout the 1870s and spread quickly to North America due to new technologies that were capable of sending information relatively rapidly across the Atlantic Ocean (Kalman 1994). Victorian-style buildings in North America initially emerged in New England, but quickly spread across the continent due to the rise of illustrated architectural periodicals, which also cropped up at this time. Accordingly, the construction of large ornate houses began in eastern Canada by the late 1800s with a later thematic spillover to the cemetery.

6. The Enterprise, a freight/passenger carrier of 98 tonnes, connected Georgetown, Murray Harbour, Murray River, Beach Pt. on PEI with Pictou, Nova Scotia. It operated between 1907 and 1917 (Island Register 2005).

7. Even though the granite monuments of this era are extremely durable, consumers are usually required to pay a fee that covers the maintenance of the headstone and the common property surrounding it.