Lasting Impression Preservationists discourage tombstone rubbings, but they can be done carefully
If you're interested in tombstone art, here's the right way to do gravestone rubbings.
By SUSAN SCOTT NEAL
Date published: 10/24/2005
'Tis the month of October, when even the most sensible souls shy away from the shadowy mysteries of cemeteries at night, with their rustling leaves and scurrying mice, bats and spiders and sunken graves.
We leave the burial grounds to those who belong there.
The dead, of course.
But daylight comes, dispersing shadows and restoring shapes. Tree limbs become branches again, not skeletal arms, tombstones stand up as simple blocks of marble or granite, not ghostly forms against the night.
Mortals enter, bringing flowers, cutting grass, taming weeds, digging graves. Genealogists and historians with pens and paper search for names and dates and links to the past.
And the tombstone-rubbers, few though they are, come armed with cheap paper and waxy crayons to coax delicate images into print, to take home Uncle Chester's epitaph or a stranger's unusual grave symbol.
They represent our fascination with places of the dead. And they unnerve cemetery preservationists more than any ghoul in the nighttime.
"We really wish they wouldn't do it," said Joanna Wilson, an archaeologist with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
The practice is not routinely banned in graveyards, and caretakers in several area cemeteries said there have been no problems resulting from tombstone rubbing.
"To tell you the truth, I'm rarely aware of anyone doing it," said Barbara Crookshanks, president of the Ladies Memorial Association of Fredericksburg, which oversees the city's Confederate Cemetery.
A Brownie troop recently did some rubbings in the cemetery as part of a history badge project, she said.
"They got some beautiful images and had a wonderful time."
Wilson understands the appeal, because she herself loves tombstone art and old cemeteries for both professional and personal reasons.
But she says the downside of rubbing is the potential for harm.
"Old stones can be very fragile, and if a stone is cracked or flaking, rubbing can actually accelerate the deterioration," she said. "And too much pressure on a stone can cause it to tilt or fall."
Anita Dodd, chairman of the Stafford County Cemetery Committee, agrees with Wilson.
"It's better if you just take a picture," she said.
Date published: 10/24/2005
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