The High Cost of Living: Death and Social Identity of Missouri’s Historic Columbia Cemetery

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The gravestones of Missouri’s historic Columbia Cemetery demonstrate the evolving social identity of the population of Columbia, MO. These stone artifacts display information that reflects the mortuary values of the residents of this city, spanning more than a century. This study resulted in a database of local historic mortuary monuments documenting their demographic, morphological, materialistic, and stylistic characteristics. These traits were examined and evaluated in order to track the gravestone choice trends for the early inhabitants of Columbia, MO, specifically the first century after the founding of the city. With the passage of time the grave markers in Columbia, MO have reflected changing preferences from tall, statuesque limestone and marble monuments to more moderate granite headstones. The epitaph has gone out of style while the use of a uniting family headstone has soared in popularity. Overall this Midwestern town has had a decline in the use of elaborate monument use when memorializing the dead. These results point to shifting views on death within this community.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25325