Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Little Georgie

One of the first monuments to make a strong impression on me when I first began exploring the Albany Rural Cemetery some twenty years ago was Georgie.

A small white marble stone, it's not hard to spot it along the main road curving up the South Ridge from the main entrance. The monument depicts a well-dress boy with schoolbooks in one hand. The other hand rests on morning glories, a symbol of a brief life. There is also a butterfly by his hand, but the monument has eroded and it's not so easy to see now. The back of the monument is very eroded and is carved with the boy's date of death and family name.

There are many lovely children's monuments throughout the cemetery, but this one is among the most memorable. For a time, I would see a tiny pot of flowers - marigolds or pansies, usually - planted at its base, but I haven't seen those in a long time.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

The Rural Cemetery

I have so many photos of the Albany Rural Cemetery that they are nearly taking over my laptop and, if I posted even half of them, they'd certainly take over my two existing blogs, Albany NY Photo Daily and Albany History. So, the obvious thing to do is to create another blog just for them.

Located just north of the City of Albany in Menands, the Rural Cemetery covers nearly 500 acres and it includes the graves of a President, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, over fifty of Albany's mayors, artists, solders, and scores of other historic and cultural figures. Given how much I love local history, it's no surprise that I'm very fond of this place. It's also wonderfully scenic with rolling meadows and curving paths cut by deep ravines (with hidden waterfalls, too).

The above photo shows one of the main drives along the section called the South Ridge.

I should mention now that I'm also working on a book about the Cemetery and I'll update its progress towards completion (and, hopefully, publication) here, too.

In the meantime, please take a look at some of my previous posts about the Cemetery:

The Angel At The Sepulchre
Elsie's Grave
Wacheka Albanya
A Little Iron Angel
Eroded Grace
From My Personal Archive
Looking Inside
Broken Fences
Detailed Door Knob
Eternal Sleep
President Arthur's Grave
Happy Halloween
Sinister Grafitti
Contrasting Monuments
Stained Glass Angel
The Lathrop Angel
Fallen Tree