10/21/2026
Friendly reminder: today, Wednesday, October 21st, for this great virtual program, "What Cemeteries Can Teach Us About Public Health," at 7:00 PM. Please register for this event: https://bit.ly/CPLOCT21
Cemeteries are full of stories, but those stories are not always found in names and dates alone. Explore how gravestones, cemetery landscapes, and even the absence of markers can reveal important pieces of public health history. Learn the basics of “reading” a gravestone, including common symbols, inscriptions, materials, and other clues that can help us better understand the person being memorialized and the time in which they lived. Then look more closely at the ways cemeteries preserve evidence of disease, epidemics, institutions, poverty, and changing approaches to death and burial.
Led by Ashlynn Rickord Werner, a cemetery historian, speaker, and the founder of A Grave Affair, an educational and consulting practice focused on cemetery tourism, storytelling, and community engagement. She previously served as Director of Cemeteries for the City of Providence, RI, where she oversaw active and historic cemeteries and developed public programs centered on history, preservation, and community connection. Ashlynn has also worked with the Public Health Museum in Massachusetts and is the author of Images of America: Tewksbury State Hospital.
