African American Cemeteries impacted by Spillway Recognized as Historic

Two African American cemeteries which were heavily damaged by construction of the Bonnet Carre spillway near New Orleans in the 1920's are now being recognized as Historic under the NRHP guidelines.  The Times-Picayune ran an article on it's website today about the cemeteries.  It appears the surface markers were destroyed during the course of construction and the graves may have been disturbed as well.  I haven't seen the report from 1991 on which the nomination was based.  You can read the article here.

It's good to see the Corp going back and recognizing historic properties destroyed in the course of Corp projects.  It'd be even better to see them recognized before they're bulldozed!  In all fairness to the Corp - the damage was done nearly 100 years ago during some of the worst flooding in the Mississippi River Valley so there were pressing concerns for flood control and no laws or best practice guidelines in place to protect historic properties. Sphere: Related Content

NCPTT Releases New Cemetery Preservation Guide

The National Center for Preservation Training and Technology has released a new cemetery preservation guide.  The guide focuses on the preservation of the entire cemetery and not just the markers.  For example, poorly placed paths can push pedestrian traffic onto fragile areas of the cemetery.  Looks like a good read for anyone interested in cemetery preservation.

Here’s the link:  Mourning Glory:  Preserving Historic Cemeteries

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Markers now available online (for free!)

The Association for Gravestone Studies has made the past issues of Markers available online through a partnership with the University of Massachusetts–Amherst Special Collections Library. Best of all the issues are free to download. This is an excellent resource for cemetery scholars and anyone with an interest in grave markers and cemeteries.

The collection can be accessed here. Sphere: Related Content