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Chapter 3: Cemeteries,
Embalming and Jazz -- Oh My!
“CEMETERY, n.
An isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies,
poets write at a target and stone-cutters spell for a wager”
• Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary.
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Tomb It May Concern: Save Our Cemeteries Tour Guide Training Manual
Early History and Background Information
During the colonial period, burials in New Orleans took place along the river bank and in the St. Louis Church.
Prominent inhabitants were entombed within the parish church and interments took place occasionally in
the small area of ground immediately adjacent to the church. Those “not of the faith” (Catholic) and the
indigent were buried in other cemeteries that were not given much mention in the writings of the early days,
prior to 1797. There is indication that indigent burial grounds were next to the 1736, 1743, and 1785 Charity
Hospital buildings. Many notes were made about the graves being shallow, the grounds not fenced, and general
neglect.
The river bank burials probably gave rise to the stories of coffins floating away during the floods, and of holes
being drilled in the bottom of the casket and of stones and weights being placed on top to keep it down. This
is similar to the problems caused by Mississippi River flooding in the Midwest in 1993 and 2008, and the
hurricane flooding in the Carolinas in 1999, as well as by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 in the coastal
cemeteries in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The first cemeteries in New Orleans were located “back of town” out of fear of disease. The St. Peter Street
Cemetery (circa 1725 – 1788) was operated by the Roman Catholic church and burials were below ground.
During this period of time, the Spanish replaced the French as the ruling power in New Orleans. The year 1788
was marked by fire, flood, and a fever epidemic, filling the St. Peter Street Cemetery. The population of the city
had expanded closer to the cemetery and physicians warned of more epidemics, thus necessitating the creation
of a new cemetery. St. Peter Street Cemetery was closed and deconsecrated, and by 1800 the site was divided
into building lots and sold by the city council. Bricks from the wall of the old cemetery were used in re-building
the St. Louis Cathedral. There was also some controversy as to whether the land from this cemetery belonged
to the city or the Roman Catholic Church.
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 was established in the late 1700’s (1789 according to the Archdiocese and 1796
according to Ann Masson), St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 in 1823. The first Jewish cemetery, Gates of Mercy, was
founded in 1828. Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 was established in 1833, and St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 in 1854.
The Girod Street or Protestant Cemetery existed from 1822 until 1957. It was operated by Christ Church
(Episcopal) and located “back of town” in Faubourg St. Mary, at Girod and South Liberty streets. This is now
the site of the Superdome, Post Office, and New Orleans Center. In the 1800s, as the population and size of the
city increased, so did the number of cemeteries throughout the city.
Of the approximately forty-some cemeteries in New Orleans today, seven are operated by the city and the others
are owned and operated by churches, organizations, or private, for-profit corporations. Stewart Enterprises
Inc. based in New Orleans/Metairie, is one of the largest private cemetery corporations in the United States.
Thirty-one of New Orleans cemeteries are considered historical, and four, including St. Louis Cemetery No. 1,
Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, Odd Fellows Rest, and Metairie Cemetery, are on the National Register of Historic
Places.
Chapter 3: Cemeteries, Embalming and Jazz -- Oh My!
13
For most visitors to New Orleans, our cemeteries are unique, primarily due to their above ground nature. This
curiosity leads to the two most frequently asked questions:
Why are people buried above ground?
There are several contributing factors to explain the above-ground burials:
Cultural Influence
Above ground burials were customary in the mother countries of France and Spain, based on a Mediterranean
tradition. As New Orleans prospered, under both French and Spanish rule, those customs and influences
prevailed. Others followed the French and Spanish burial practices in New Orleans. Above-ground tombs and
mausoleums exist in other cemeteries in the United States and other countries around the world but they are just
not as plentiful or pervasive as in the New Orleans cemeteries. (See Pere LaChaise, Chapter 4.)
Geographical Influence
Much of the city of New Orleans lies below sea level with a high water table. Early burials did take place in
ground, and accounts and stories circulated in the early days regarding coffins springing loose from the earth
due to flooding. As the city developed and new cemeteries were established, above ground burial became a
solution to the flooding threat, as well as the difficulties of digging in the Mississippi mud underlying the city.
Psychological Influence
Shifting views on death also influenced cemetery development, in New Orleans and the rest of the country.
Before the 1800’s, death was feared and its causes unknown. Most burials were mass graves, with only the
most important members of society receiving any kind of markers or monument. By the 1800s, attitudes had
changed. Ancestors were honored. Cemeteries were laid out like parks with trees, plants, statuary, and the like.
Individuals and families sought to commemorate the memories of those that had died.
Lafayette
Cemetery No. 1
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Tomb It May Concern: Save Our Cemeteries Tour Guide Training Manual
How do they get so many people in a single tomb?
The multiple use of a burial site is an excellent use of land
space, and perhaps the ultimate in family togetherness.
The cemetery sexton prepares the tomb for an interment. A
family tomb usually consists of two vaults and a caveau,
(French for cave or pit) below the vaults. A deed is presented
by a family member to complete an order for a tomb opening.
Usually the funeral director assists with this step.
The cemetery sexton opens the tomb by removing the closure
tablet, chiseling out the brick and mortar, and cleaning out
the vault. This may include removing and discarding any
casket or coffin remains, placing any human remains in a bag,
tagging it, and putting it into the caveau, or lower section of
the tomb. In some of the earlier tombs, a shelf stops short
of the back and remains were pushed to the back where they
would fall into the caveau. The tomb opening may be draped
or covered for the service.
The casket is placed in the tomb. Once the services are
completed, the cemetery staff reseals the vault opening and
replaces the closure tablet. Traditionally, the vault cannot be
used for another burial until a year and a day have passed.
Wall vaults are accessed in the same manner. For coping
tombs, the cemetery operators keep track of which section of
the tomb was used last and place the new burial accordingly.
Copings are to be dug to “not less than three feet in depth”
and covered with dirt after burial. Wooden coffins are
recommended or required for coping burials because wood
decomposes at a similar rate as flesh and organs.
From top:
Top: A tomb with its tablet removed in preparation for the
removal of the bricks to allow for access to the vault for the
burial. The bricks are usually set aside for re-use to seal up
the vault.
Middle: A vault in a wall vault prepared for an interment
with a curtain draped across the opening.
Bottom: A tomb, following a burial, with the bricks once
again sealing the opening. The tablet awaits re-installation,
leaning against the side of the tomb.
Chapter 3: Cemeteries, Embalming and Jazz -- Oh My!
15
Cemeteries
The word “cemetery” is derived from the
Greek koimeterion and Latin coemeterium,
both referring to a sleeping chamber. Romans
believed that the monument over the burial
was more important than the surrounding
lands, but early Christian Europe used the
term cemetery to denote areas for burial
associated with the atrium of a church.
Eventually, burial spaces were moved outside
of the church.
Cemeteries often served more than one
function. Open land in the center of a town
was used as meeting and gathering spaces,
for common activities such as Sunday
fairs and markets, regardless of whether it
was also a cemetery. In 1457, the Scottish Odd Fellows Cemetery
Parliament ordered weekly archery practices
to take place in the churchyard. Eventually, church councils began to frown upon such activities, particularly
those involving dancing, theatrical troops, and musicians.
Burials during the colonial and early Federal periods were usually close to the settlement or city, often within
the protective ramparts or walls. Rural burials in this time period took place on the grounds of the associated
homestead, farm, or plantation. Significant people were buried in the churchyard or in crypts located under the
floor of a chapel or church.
Gradually, public sentiment no longer tolerated casual treatment of the dead. People wanted individual
monuments, both for significant personages as well as their own family members, and an appropriate place for
such monuments. This trend eventually led to the rural cemetery movement of which Metairie Cemetery is a
prime example.
A memorial park refers
to a cemetery where
the markers are flush
with the ground. These
arrangements
surged
in popularity in the
1920s, and by 1937,
there were about 600
memorial parks in the
United States, and that
number has continued
to grow.
Providence
Memorial Park on Airline
Highway is an example.
A cemetery arising out of this movement is characterized by a gardenlike setting, complete with trees, shrubs, flowers, benches, and the
like. The tombs were to be located in picturesque settings, with
nature remaining an overarching principle of design. Roads often
meandered through the grounds.
Mount Auburn Cemetery, outside Cambridge, Massachusetts, is
usually considered the first American garden cemetery. Mount
Auburn arose out of a combination of a prohibition on interurban
burials, poor graveyard conditions in Boston, and a desire to escape the
congested conditions of the urban core. In 1831, Mount Auburn was
established on 72 acres through a joint venture with the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society. They believed that a combination garden and
cemetery would prove uplifting to societal virtue, as agriculture was
considered a worthy and moral activity. Thus, the founders of Mount
Auburn would create “a garden of graves.” The cemetery became
enormously popular, as both a site for burial as well as recreation.
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Tomb It May Concern: Save Our Cemeteries Tour Guide Training Manual
These “rural” cemeteries began to be established throughout the country, but predominately in the Northeast
and Midwest. They also popularized the term “cemetery,” replacing the more gruesome connotations of
graveyard. These sites flourished as Americans sought to memorialize the dead, uphold the virtue of the rural
life, and emphasize the honor of the dead.
These rural cemeteries eventually yielded to memorial parks, which sought to eliminate traces of death, while
offering a secure, low maintenance burial property. Associated industries, such as the funeral home, were
located within the same grounds. Family monuments were eradicated.
New Orleans is unusual in that its cemeteries remain firmly entwined with the day-to-day activities of the
urban populace. Cemeteries are squeezed in among homes, restaurants, grocery stores, and other businesses,
with little to no deleterious effect.
St. Louis
Cemetery No. 1
Chapter 3: Cemeteries, Embalming and Jazz -- Oh My!
What’s in a Name?
The source for the name of several of our cemeteries.
St. Louis
Named for the cathedral in New Orleans, which was named after Louis IX, the King of
France in the mid-thirteenth century who led several Crusades. He was canonized in 1297.
Patron saint of French monarchs, distillers, construction workers, hairdressers, soldiers,
stone masons, and parents of large families.
St. Roch
Named for St. Roch, a French nobleman who cared for those sickened by the plague. He
caught the plague himself, and was nursed back to health by a loyal dog. He is the patron
saint of bachelors, dogs, epidemics, invalids, relief from disease, and surgeons.
St. Vincent de Paul
Named for St. Vincent de Paul, a French priest from the early seventeenth century. In his
tenure, he started organizations to help the poor, nurse the sick, provide employment. He
was also the chaplain at the court of King Henry IV of France. Patron saint of charitable
societies, charitable workers, hospitals, horses, and prisoners.
Lafayette
Named for the independent city of Lafayette that lay just upriver of New Orleans in the
nineteenth century, and not to be confused with the present day city of Lafayette in the heart
of Cajun country. Named for the Marquis de Lafayette, the French nobleman who was
active in the American Revolution on the side of the patriots.
Odd Fellows
Founded by the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows who founded the cemetery in 1847.
The IOOF derived their name from the seventeenth century belief that people that banded
together for the purpose of helping others and working towards the betterment of mankind
were “Odd Fellows”. From: www.ioof.org
Metairie
Derived from the area the cemetery is located in. The word “metairie” comes from a French
term from a tenant farmer who paid the landlord with a share of the produce – the main form
of economic activity in the area well into the nineteenth century.
Holt
Named for Dr. Joseph Holt, a city board of health official and expert in yellow fever.
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Tomb It May Concern: Save Our Cemeteries Tour Guide Training Manual
Embalming, Burial, and Cremation
Following death, the body can be embalmed for a viewing, buried, or cremated. A human body will undergo
postmortem putrefaction, consisting of five distinct stages. This process is natural deterioration, triggered by
chemicals and bacteria in the body. Signs of deterioration will begin to appear approximately two to three days
after death, accompanied by a putrid odor. Before 1865, lime was put into the tombs to control the odors of
decomposition, and the cemeteries were filled with fragrant plants, such as jasmine, sweet olive, and gardenia.
Embalming
Modern arterial embalming is the process that disinfects a body, drains body fluids, and reduces odors during
decomposition. It does not necessarily increase or decrease decomposition time. This process traces its roots
to a physician during the Civil War who developed means for bodies to be shipped back home for burial. Until
that time, people had to be buried where they died as soon as possible. Historically, significant personages may
have received elaborate preservation techniques, but this practice only occurred in very rare cases.
Before embalming became common, undertakers would occasionally employ what was called a “corpse cooler”
that surrounded the body with ice and cool air, which temporarily delayed putrefaction. Ice was also packed
around the form. Workers were supposed to drain the water and replenish the ice, but the device was difficult
to maintain and operate. If the ice was not replenished often enough, the body would often spoil. Rodgers and
Hammerstein made mention of this technique in “Pore Jud is Daid” from Oklahoma:
He looks like he’s asleep.
It’s a shame that he won’t keep,
But it’s summer and we’re runnin’ out of ice
By the 1880s, changes in embalming techniques allowed for the average undertaker to perform it successfully,
and embalming replaced ice cooling as the preferred preservation technique.
Modern embalming was started by “Dr.” Thomas H. Holmes, who received a commission from the United
States Army Medical Corps, but spent most of his time embalming. He charged $100 for the process and
focused primarily on the bodies of officers, whose families could presumably afford the service. Holmes
kept his process a secret, but current thought suggests it included various combinations of zinc chloride and
arsenic.
In 1867, August Wilhelm von Hofman discovered formaldehyde, which now serves as the chemical base for
embalming. By 1888, the chemical became cheap enough to be regularly used.
Initially, bodies were only swabbed with the various embalming fluids, since the technology for full arterial
embalming had not yet been developed. Embalmers also provided their services in the private residence of
the deceased, bringing along his own cooling board with drainage into the nearest sink. Today, embalming is
conducted exclusively in a private setting at the funeral home.
N.B. Embalment refers to removing the internal organs, treating the body cavity with different chemicals,
and allowing the body to dehydrate, and is often heard in connection with the mummies of ancient Egypt.
Embalming refers to replacing a body’s fluids with chemicals.
Burial
Burial, derived from the Anglo - Saxon word birgan, meaning to conceal, traditionally means interment
underground. However, the definition has expanded to mean any kind of interment, including within the above
ground tombs of New Orleans.
The tradition of burial can be traced back 200,000 years to the Neanderthals and was used by the ancient
Romans, Greeks, and Chinese. The Judeo-Christian tradition is particularly strong, with the Jewish faith
considering burial the only suitable means of disposing of a body. Until the rise of mid-eighteenth century
Chapter 3: Cemeteries, Embalming and Jazz -- Oh My!
19
health concerns, burial was the chief means Europeans, and those cultures heavily influenced by Europeans, used for
corpse removal.
Early Christian burials adopted the tradition of orienting the body with the head towards the west and the feet towards
the east, presuming that the Lord’s Second Coming would be from the east. Most bodies are interred horizontally, with
the noted exception of Richard Hull, buried beneath a tower on Leith Hill, England, astride his horse, with the pair
upside down. He reasoned that this situation only made sense, as on Judgment Day, the world would be inverted.
Burials have taken place with one, two, or several bodies to a grave. Ancient Palestinian burials have several examples
of two bodies buried in an embracing pose. England had a tradition of burying small children with unrelated adult
women, so their cries would not torment their parents. Mass graves usually occur as the result of an epidemic or disaster,
but have also been used for pauper’s burials or enemy soldiers. Today, almost all burials take place in cemeteries. In
the past, burials have taken place in crypts under church floors, on private estates in family plots, crossroads, and
battlefields.
Cremation
Cremation is a process of reducing a corpse to ashes through the application of heat that evaporates the water, burns
off the soft tissue, and reduces the bones to ash and fragments. Cremation has been a means of body disposal since the
funeral pyre, still common in some areas of the world.
Modern crematorium usually employ natural gas heat to reach an initial temperature of 1,100°F to 1,300°F, with the
temperature rising to around 1,700°F during the process. The body can usually be reduced within ½ hour, with one hour
for cooling. The entire process may take longer, depending on the size of the body, the container the body is placed in,
and other factors. The resulting “ash” is mostly bone fragments which can range in color from gray to white to even
green or pink if foreign substances were present in the cremation process. The average adult yields between three to
nine pounds of cremains. Cremains can be buried. In fact, for New Orleans historic tombs, burial of cremains is often
an easier process than interment of a large modern casket in a small historic vault.
Ancient Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans all cremated their dead. The Greeks employed it as a means to liberate
the souls of the dead, as well as to prevent enemies from disturbing corpses and to mitigate outbreaks of the plague.
Northern Europeans retained the cremation method, including the Viking approach of placing the body on a longboat
that was set ablaze and then set adrift; however, the spread of Christianity replaced traditional beliefs, supplanting
cremation with burial.
Cremation was slow to take hold in the United States. While intentional cremations did occur, the first cremation company
was not formed until 1881 in Queens, NY. Cremation and memorial services are relatively new to predominately
Roman Catholic New Orleans. The state did not have a crematorium until the 1970’s, nor was it accepted by the
Roman Catholic church until Vatican II. Under the current Roman Catholic Code of Canon Law, burial is preferred,
but cremation is acceptable, unless conducted for reasons contrary to the faith. The first crematorium in New Orleans
was built at Hope Mausoleum by Victor Huber. Prior to that time, a body was shipped to Birmingham if a person chose
cremation. Today there are several crematories in the city, such as at Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery and St. John - Hope
Mausoleum.
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Tomb It May Concern: Save Our Cemeteries Tour Guide Training Manual
Jazz Funerals
A New Orleans tradition associated with death is the jazz funeral. The jazz funeral consists of a distinct
pattern with accompanying music. While the wake features traditional gospels, such as “Amazing Grace,”
the processional walk consists of slow, mournful dirges, such as “Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” to comfort
the family and serve as an elegy for the dead. The dirges continue until the casket reaches the cemetery,
and mourners follow it to the tomb for the interment service. After the service, the focus shifts to brighter,
celebratory songs, such as “When the Saints Go Marching In,” signaling the release of the soul to heaven. The
mourners turn to celebrating the life of the deceased by second-lining to the music of the accompanying brass
band, carrying decorated umbrellas and waving white handkerchiefs.
While a jazz funeral may be relatively easy to define, determining its origins is much more difficult. There are
currently two prevailing theories. One theory postulates the jazz funeral arose out of African traditions carried
to the New World by slaves. Secret societies, such as those found in the Dahomeans of Benin and the Yoruba
of Nigeria, were responsible for the proper burials of their tribesmen, using resources provided by the tribes. In
the United States, social and pleasure clubs and other fraternal organizations became responsible for burial and
carrying on these traditions. Commemorating events through music was also part of the African tradition.
Another theory suggests that the jazz funeral arose from a military tradition, combined with the traditions of
fraternal societies. Early fraternal societies often had music accompanying their various public activities, such
as feast days. These societies were also responsible for the burials of their members, with all due pomp and
circumstance. Meanwhile, by the mid-nineteenth century, military bands featuring brass instruments had begun
to replace waning town bands, and developments in brass instruments and instrumentation allowed bands to
flourish. These two trends combined to create the funeral with brass band accompaniment.
Not that the funerals with music were always popular. During yellow fever epidemics, the Daily Picayune
noted in 1853:
Then, as the sound of the mournful dirge, as they slowly and sadly bear their companion
away, or the gay and lightsome air as they return from his grave, may have a fatal effect
on the nerves of the sick whose homes are passed in every square, if not in every house,
we respectfully suggest to our military companies, our gallant firemen, charitable and
other associations, to dispense with their bands of music at funerals – at least while the
epidemic lasts.
Despite objections on the part of the press, jazz funerals or funerals with music have continued to be a part of
the New Orleans tradition. As the musician Sidney Bechet observed, “Music here is as much a part of death as
it is of life.”
Chapter 3: Cemeteries, Embalming and Jazz -- Oh My!
21
All Saints Day
Blessing of the tombs at St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 on All Saints’ Day, 2003.
Image courtesy of L. Hannah
All Saints’ Day is celebrated in New Orleans on November 1. Tombs are often cleaned and freshened in the
days leading up to the holiday, but maintenance also takes place on the day itself. Families go to the cemeteries
for annual family visitation. In the past, food was brought, tombs white-washed, fresh flowers placed, wreaths
and immortelles hung, and a day of visiting took place – both with the dead and friends and family. The
cemeteries were crowded in the 1800’s with such activities. As the Daily Picayune observed in 1841:
…the time honored holy and wholesome custom of bedecking the graves of the dead
with evergreens, ornaments and flowers were observed in the Catholic Cemetery. Lamps
that told of undying friendship burned around many a tomb; ornamentation of spotless
whitness [sic], emblematic of the soul’s purity, bedecked many a grave; and myriads of
fresh-plucked flowers sent up their odor to Heaven, which commingled as it went with the
fervent prayers of friendship. The whole scene presented a picture in which the heart’s
holiest feelings were portrayed – a painting in which the coloring of affecting, piety and
reverence for things holy were perfectly blended.
Cemetery furniture, stone and cast iron benches, was created just for this occasion. Today, the celebration is not
quite so elaborate; however, flowers are placed on the tombs, sometimes coming in floral delivery trucks, and
families do come and maintain their tombs.
One SOC guide, Tom Loesch, visited several cemeteries on All Saints’ Day in 2001 and wrote the following
observations:
Travels on All Saints’ Day
New Orleans, being in most ways still a Catholic and Latin city, observes many customs not found elsewhere.
Memorial Day is virtually unobserved here. Instead, the week of Halloween families go to the Cities of the Dead
(as Mark Twain called our cemeteries of miniature streets and above-ground tombs) to spruce up the family
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Tomb It May Concern: Save Our Cemeteries Tour Guide Training Manual
tomb. Cleaning and maybe whitewashing are done in preparation
for All Saints’ Day on November 1. Families used to spend that
day at the cemetery, bringing picnic lunches, literally having a
family reunion of the living and the dead. Patio furniture evolved
from the wrought iron cemetery furniture families installed around
their tombs to make this visit more comfortable.
Of course, this custom is not as widely practiced as it once was,
but there are thousands who keep the tradition alive. We started
out about 11 AM to visit St Louis #1, which is the city’s oldest
cemetery, having been founded in 1789. Our purpose there was
to visit the tomb of Bernard Marigny. Our neighborhood -- the
Faubourg (suburb) Marigny -- once was his plantation. We know
one of his descendants, but they no longer visit the tomb regularly.
We went and took flowers from our garden, including some of
those gloriously fragrant butterfly gingers. We visited among the
families and cemetery volunteers.
On we went to St Louis # 2, three squares (square blocks) founded
in 1823. Usually it does not have security, but the Archdiocese
provides it on this day, so it is busy. (# 2 is next to the projects.)
We had been invited to the unveiling of a restored tomb, which Tombs in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 on All
is being limewashed a blazing yellowish green, one of many Saints Day, 2003.
Image courtesy of L. Hannah
traditional New Orleans tomb colors. Also unveiled was a plaque
in memory of legendary singer Ernie K Doe, was the Emperor of
the World, writer of “Mother-in Law”, proprietor of the world-famous lounge of the same name, and coiner of
the phrase “I’m cocky but I’m good!” Ernie passed this summer and was tombless. A young woman, about 20,
heard of this and donated a tomb she had inherited. There was a repast of cheese & wine & beer, and his widow
Antoinette served a killer gumbo she had made with shrimp, sausage, chicken and crab. Just as the plaque was
about to be unveiled, a huge gust of wind rushed up and lifted the tarp nearly off the tomb, then subsided. A
cheer erupted! Ernie was with us! Actually, a local artist has made a life-size mannequin of Ernie which already
is traveling the city’s special events, including a parade next year -- he will be grand marshall from the grave!
After touring the cemetery and visiting the graves of many famous and historical people, we took off to our
final stop.
St. Roch Cemetery was founded in 1869 by an immigrant German priest whose entire flock was spared the great
yellow jack epidemic of that year after they prayed to St. Roch (patron saint of plague victims and cripples).
He started by building a small gothic chapel with his own hands, then a Campo Santo (cemetery) around it.
This was the burying ground of the German and Italian working families. The chapel is filled with ex votos,
offerings in the shape of hands, feet, livers, hearts, braces and wooden legs, and so on. These were left over the
past century by people who were cured. The Campo Santo was filled with flowers, mostly chrysanthemums,
which are strictly cemetery flowers down here -- never bring them as a hostess gift! A common sight is colored
photos of the deceased enclosed under glass and imbedded in the front of the tomb. There is a two-story iron
crucifix in the courtyard, and a pair of wingless stone angels tower at the gates. Their wings were lost in the
Great Hurricane of 1915, but nonetheless they stand sentinel next to the medieval brick lodges.
We arrived home about 4 o’clock, our day with the dead complete.
Chapter 3: Cemeteries, Embalming and Jazz -- Oh My!
23
Selected Sources for Chapter 3: Cemeteries, Embalming, and Jazz -- Oh My!
“Big Charity,” Louisiana Cultural Vistas, Fall 2007, pp. 10-19
Daily Picayune, 1841, quoted in Save Our Cemeteries News, Fall 1984.
Iserson, Kenneth. Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies? Galen Press, 2001
“Synopsis of Documentation, 18th Century New Orleans Cemeteries.” by Ann Masson, June 20,
2005, in course pack 2006, Save Our Cemeteries, Tour Guide Training.
“Music at Funerals”, Daily Picayune, 21 August 1853, p. 2. quoted in Stewart, Funerals, 2004.
New Orleans Architecture, Vol. 3: The Cemeteries. Ed. Mary Louise Christovich. Gretna, LA:
Pelican Publishing Company, 1974.
Sloan, David Charles. The Last Great Necessity. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1995.
Stewart, Jack. Funerals with Music in New Orleans. New Orleans, LA: Save Our Cemeteries,
Inc., 2004.
www.municode.com.
www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/history/jazzfunerals.html
www.nutiras.org. New Orleans Public Library, City Archives, from the Acts and Deliberations of
the Cabildo, Cemeteries, Catholic and Protestant, Health Rules, Sanitation, Public Health.
Henry, Billy, Tharp-Sontheimer, Bultman Funeral Homes, Save Our Cemeteries training presentation,
October 10, 1998.
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Tomb It May Concern: Save Our Cemeteries Tour Guide Training Manual