The wealth and status of a family was communicated through the large family plots featured in nineteenth century rural cemeteries. Families purchased ornate landscaping with flowers, shrubs, trees, and ornamental fencing, along with a large central monument and the smaller ones for individual family members. This 1854 advertisement in a guidebook for Boston’s Mount Auburn Cemetery represents the growing commercialism of the funeral industry.
Nathaniel Dearborn, Dearborn’s Guide through Mount Auburn, 1854, 56-7. Courtesy of Archive.org
Image featured in Discovering Quacks, Utopias, and Cemeteries: Modern Lessons from Historical Themes by Cynthia Resor