{"id":550,"date":"2019-08-26T21:57:04","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T21:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/ltyson\/?page_id=550"},"modified":"2023-04-04T21:58:11","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T21:58:11","slug":"cemetery-preservation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/ltyson\/cemetery-preservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Cemetery Preservation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have been volunteering with St. Luke’s Historic Church and Museum<\/a> since summer 2017. During Cemetery Preservation Workshops, as volunteers, we are able to learn proper preservation and conservation techniques for maintaining gravestones. We even occasionally are able to have experts like Ta Mara Conde<\/a> come to Smithfield to teach about conservation beyond just cleaning the surfaces. It is important to not clean the gravestones too often or with too harsh of chemicals as every cleaning wears the stone down. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Volunteering at St. Luke’s is a way for me to connect to U.S. and Virginia history, while learning about historic preservation and conservation. I am able to revisit the stones I have previously cleaned each time I return to Smithfield. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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This is an example of one of the gravestones I’ve cleaned, the resting place of Mary D. Stakes. Notice how you can barely read the inscription before the cleaning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I first get the lichen wet and use popsicle sticks to clean out the grooves and inscription. I then will brush the gravestone with mild non-ionic detergents, making sure to rinse the stone completely clean afterwards. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Once the stone is cleaned and rinsed, the inscription is more legible. The goal is not to completely restore the gravestone, but to clean it in the least damaging way possible, while respecting the stone and the person who lies beneath. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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TaMara Conde of Historic Gravestone Services<\/a> restoring a gravestone at St. Luke’s Historic Church and Museum<\/a> in Smithfield, Virginia. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been volunteering with St. Luke’s Historic Church and Museum since summer 2017. During Cemetery Preservation Workshops, as volunteers, we are able to learn proper preservation and conservation techniques for maintaining gravestones. We even occasionally are able to have experts like Ta Mara Conde come to Smithfield to teach about conservation beyond just cleaning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10426,"featured_media":607,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/ltyson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/ltyson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/ltyson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/ltyson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/ltyson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/ltyson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1046,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/ltyson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/550\/revisions\/1046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/ltyson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/ltyson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}