Bruce Guthrie Photos: TN -- Memphis -- Elmwood Cemetery

TN -- Memphis -- Elmwood Cemetery -- Notes:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Partially Reviewed: Rough draft. I've gone through these pictures once, removing the worst ones, some duplication, etc. I usually take sequences of 4 or 5 pictures at a time and there are lots of near duplicates. I'll be doing a final review later which allows me compare the pictures that survived the first cut and make final determinations of what pictures to keep.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific people (or other things) in the pictures which I haven't labeled, please identify them for us. Or fill in any other descriptions you can. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture).

Slide Show: Want to see the pictures as a slide show? [Slideshow]

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by Bruce Guthrie who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the Creative Commons definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. If asked for permission in advance, I'll usually waive the non-commercial clause unless it's for people trying to sell the photos. A free copy of any printed publication using the photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from official signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[1] ELM_130301_001.JPG 0640x0480	[2] ELM_130301_009.JPG 0640x0480	[3] ELM_130301_013.JPG 0640x0480
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Limiting Text: You can turn off all of this text by clicking this link: [Thumbnails Only]
Signage: You'll see a lot of signs in this group. Eventually, I'll type the text of the signs into the subject description and get rid of the signs themselves. This is pretty slow and tedious work though.
Description of Subject Matter: Elmwood Cemetery --

Fifty Memphis gentlemen committed $500 each to purchase land and establish a new cemetery 2.5 miles from town in 1852. Originally consisting of 40 acres, it was expanded after the Civil War to 80 acres. In the 1870s the original corporation was dissolved and Elmwood became one of the oldest nonprofits in Tennessee. Since then, Elmwood Cemetery has become the final resting place to over 75,000 inhabitants including mayors, governors, madams, blues singers, suffragists, martyrs, generals, civil rights leaders, holy men and women, outlaws and millionaires.

Elmwood was established as part of the Rural Cemetery Movement which swept the nation in the early to mid 1800s. It is a classic example of a garden cemetery with its park-like setting, sweeping vistas, shady knolls, large stands of ancient trees, and magnificent monuments.

The Cottage, which serves as the Visitor Center and office, was built in 1866, and a parlor, brick vault and front porch were added in 1902. The Cottage is the only known example of Victorian Carpenter Gothic architecture in Memphis.

In 1998, an east wing for business offices was added by the Crawford Howard Family Foundation. The Cottage has come to symbolize Elmwood to its families and visitors.

The bell located on top of the brick vault has been located at the north entrance to the cemetery since the early 1870s. It has tolled at every processional since it was donated by the State Female College.

The Morgan Bridge that connects East Dudley Street to the grounds was designed by City of Memphis Engineer and Elmwood resident J. A. Omberg. A span bridge design was used to ensure the clearance of the under-passing trains and to give visitors a breath-taking panoramic view when they enter the grounds. The Cottage, Grounds, and Morgan Bridge have all been entered on the National Register of Historic Places.

During the Victorian Era, the popular view of death became romanticized; death was now represented by sy ...More...
Wikipedia Description: Elmwood Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Historic Elmwood Cemetery is the oldest active cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. It was established in 1852 as one of the first rural garden cemeteries in the South.

Origins:

Elmwood Cemetery was established as part of the Rural Cemetery Movement of the early to mid 1800s. A classic example of a garden cemetery, it is notable for its park-like setting, sweeping vistas, shady knolls, large stands of ancient trees, and magnificent monuments.

On 28 August 1852, fifty prominent Memphis citizens each contributed $500 for stock certificates in order to purchase 40 acres (160,000 m2) of land for the cemetery; they envisioned that this land would be a park for the living as well as the dead, where family outings, picnics, and social gatherings could occur. It was meant to be a place where beautiful gardens were tended and individual monuments celebrated both life and death. The name for the place was chosen in a drawing: several proposed names were put into a hat and Elmwood was drawn out, with the stockholders stating they were "well pleased" with the selection. Ironically, they had to hurriedly order some elms trees from New York to place among the native oaks of Memphis, since there were no elms in the area. After the American Civil War, the property was expanded to 80 acres (320,000 m2) for another $40,000. In the 1870s, the original corporation controlling the cemetery was dissolved and it became one of the oldest nonprofits in Tennessee. .

The first burial occurred on 15 July 1853, when Mrs. R.B. Berry was laid to rest. Since then, more than 75,000 people have been buried at Elmwood Cemetery, with space still remaining for about 15,000 more. The cemetery's gardens include the Carlisle S. Page Arboretum. Beneath the cemetery's ancient elms, oaks, and magnolias lie some of the city's most honored and revered dead; flowering dogwoods and crepe myrtles are interspersed with Memphis h ...More...
Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. ELM_130301_145.JPG: User comment (suggested): Graceland From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Graceland is a large white-columned mansion and 13.8-acre (5.6 ha) estate that was home to Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. It is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the vast Whitehaven community about 9 miles (14.5 km) from Downtown and less than four miles (6 km) north of the Mississippi border.[5] It currently serves as a museum. It was opened to the public on June 7, 1982. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991 and declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006. Graceland has become one of the most-visited private homes in America with over 600,000 visitors a year, behind the White House[6] and Biltmore Estate (900,000 visitors per year).[citation needed] Elvis Presley died at the estate on August 16, 1977. Presley, his parents Gladys and Vernon Presley, and his grandmother, are buried there in what is called the Meditation Garden. A memorial gravestone for Presley's twin brother, Jesse Garon, is also at the site. History Graceland Farms was originally owned by S.C. Toof, founder of S.C. Toof & Co., a commercial printing firm in Memphis, who was previously the pressroom foreman of the Memphis newspaper, the Memphis Daily Appeal. The grounds were named after Toof's daughter, Grace, who inherited the farm. Soon after, the portion of the land designated as Graceland today was given to her nephews and niece. It was Grace Toof's niece, Ruth Moore, who, in 1939 together with her husband Dr. Thomas Moore, built the present mansion in the Colonial Revival style.[7]
2. ELM_130301_157.JPG: User comment (suggested): Robert Reed Church From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robert Reed Church (June 18, 1839 – August 29, 1912) was an African-American entrepreneur and landowner who lived most of his adult life in Memphis, Tennessee. His father Captain Charles B. Church was a white steamship owner. His mother was Emmeline, a mixed-race slave owned by his father. According to family accounts, Emmeline was the daughter of a white planter from Lynchburg, Virginia and a "Malay" Malagasy princess.[1] By 1878-79 Church had acquired considerable wealth and was able to move his family to safety during the yellow fever epidemics that swept through Memphis. As the city was depopulated by epidemic, the land was devalued. Church saw a great opportunity in Memphis real estate and increased his property holdings throughout the city. His properties would grow to include undeveloped land, commercial buildings, some residential housing, and bars in the red-light district. It is estimated that he was able to collect approximately $6,000 a month in rent from his properties. Multiple sources refer to Church as the first black millionaire, although it is now generally accepted that his wealth reached only about $700,000.[2] He is most famous as the father of Mary Church Terrell.[3]
3. ELM_130301_207.JPG: User comment (suggested): Jimmie Lunceford From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James Melvin "Jimmie" Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era.
4. ELM_130301_234.JPG: User comment (suggested): Alfred Jefferson Vaughan, Jr. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Alfred Jefferson Vaughan, Jr. (May 10, 1830 – October 1, 1899) was an American civil engineer, planter, soldier, and writer. He served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War, in which he was wounded twice, and fought mainly in the Western Theater of the conflict. After the war Vaughan resumed farming, was active in Confederate veteran affairs, and was a published author. He also was part of the early formation of the Grange Movement in the United States.
5. ELM_130301_258.JPG: User comment (suggested): This section of the cemetery is dedicated for the interment of those persons who, for the benefit of mankind, gave their remains to the University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences. 1982
6. ELM_130301_320.JPG: User comment (suggested): Mattie Stephenson came from Illinois to Memphis as a nurse during the Memphis Yellow Fever epidemic of 1873. The "Heroine of Memphis" died shortly after she began ministering to the sick and dying.
Bigger photos? To save space on the server, photos larger than 640x480 are not loaded for previous years. If you need the bigger sizes of selected photos, email me and I can email them back to you or I can re-load this page temporarily with the bigger versions restored.
Directly Related Pages: Other pages here that have content directly related to this one:
- 1997_TN_Elmwood: TN -- Memphis -- Elmwood Cemetery (23 photos from 1997)
- 2007_TN_Elmwood: TN -- Memphis -- Elmwood Cemetery (80 photos from 2007)
- 2013_02_28K_Elmwood: TN -- Memphis -- Elmwood Cemetery (121 photos from 02/28/2013)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Cemeteries]
2013 photos: So far, my camera is mostly the Fuji X-S1 but, depending on the event, I'm also using a Nikon D7000 and Nikon D600. Trips this year have been limited to a Civil War Trust conference in Memphis.
Photo Contact: Email Bruce Guthrie.