Fall Curator Lecture Series: Manners Most Morbid: Funerary Practices and Traditions of Charleston's Past

Event Details

Downtown Charleston is speckled with historic graveyards, housing century old tombstones, markers for those placed beneath. Those still in the land of the living pass by these graves daily, glimpsing through the churchyard fences the etchings on stones balanced on ground no longer freshly disturbed. But what of the etchings on these tombstones? What do they mean and are they significant?

Those lucky enough to prepare their post-mortem affairs did so with varying degrees of style. Lowcountry funeral planning and its eventual implementation in many instances, in fact, became more of a social event ranging anywhere from the elegantly elaborate to the morosely mundane. As early as the mid-eighteenth century, an array of funerary arts and services was available, and well-to-do Charlestonians paid handsomely for grand send-offs. These cultural interactions -- and the decorations, mementos and observances they birthed -- soon became among the most visible and remarkable aspects of Carolina lore.

After each lecture, there will be allotted time for a brief Q&A. The Series runs September through November and is free and open to the public. Dates vary, but each lecture falls on a Tuesday evening at 6:00.

Lectures that are part of the Curator Lecture Series for the Fall of 2014 are free and open to the public!