That the Dead be not Forgotten

On October 8, the Bidwell House Museum will present their last talk in a 3-part series about gravestone making in western Massachusetts in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In this talk, Bob Drinkwater will share material from his book, In Memory of Susan Freedom: Searching for Gravestones of African Americans in Western Massachusetts, and offer a preview of his soon to be completed book about the men who made gravestones in western Massachusetts during the 18th and early 19th centuries. He will focus on material pertaining to Berkshire County. The talk at the Bidwell House will be followed by a walk at the Tyringham Village cemetery, weather permitting.

Bob Drinkwater is an historical archaeologist with a M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is a member of The Association for Gravestone Studies and was the 2016 recipient of AGS’s Harriette Merrifield Forbes award. For much of the past fifty years he has been studying, photographing and occasionally writing articles about eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century gravestones in western Massachusetts, and about some of the people who made them. During the past decade he has also been doing research on the gravestones and gravesites of some of the people who have been under-represented in the New England gravestone studies literature: African Americans, Native Americans, and European immigrants who settled in western Massachusetts during and following the industrial revolution.

This program will begin at the Museum with a talk of around 40 minutes in length, followed by a visit to the Tyringham Village cemetery, weather permitting. You can register for just the talk (in-person or via Zoom) or the talk and walk together. Attendance for this program is limited to 15 in-person for the talk and walk and 20 in person for the talk, so pre-registration is required.