Showing posts with label College of Charleston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label College of Charleston. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Ghost Tours, Jails, Female Serial Killers, OH MY!
Hey bloggers! Check out my latest blog post about my latest excursion the haunted Old City Jail of Charleston, SC. Get ready to be spooked!
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Welcome Students!
I am excited to have all of you in my special First Year Experience course. This will be the third semester for "Beyond the Grave: What Old Cemeteries Tell and Teach the Living."
This course is varied in its content, studies and activities, so get ready! You will also be blogging throughout the semester so I hope you will embrace and enjoy that part of the class. And that you will keep blogging after this semester too! It's a neat way to share your views, experiences, photographs and videos.
I've been blogging since 2010 with what I call a "hobby" blog, BirdsEyeViews. I also use the site to promote and market the books I have written, two of which have been about Charleston's grand Victorian Magnolia Cemetery.
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| Simonds Sarcophagus at Charleston's Magnolia Cemetery |
This course is varied in its content, studies and activities, so get ready! You will also be blogging throughout the semester so I hope you will embrace and enjoy that part of the class. And that you will keep blogging after this semester too! It's a neat way to share your views, experiences, photographs and videos.
I've been blogging since 2010 with what I call a "hobby" blog, BirdsEyeViews. I also use the site to promote and market the books I have written, two of which have been about Charleston's grand Victorian Magnolia Cemetery.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Apple iMovie Editing Video Tutorial
I produced this video specifically for the Mac students who may use Apple's iMovie to create a final project in our "Beyond the Grave" First Year Experience course at the College of Charleston.
I am hopeful that this may benefit these students in the future as well when they may have other chances to produce amazing videos. The tutorial runs 10:50.
Ironically, I edited this iMovie tutorial in Windows Movie Maker. I don't have a Mac computer. The video was shot at South Carolina State University where I am an instructor in the emerging Communications Program.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
"Flashlight" Graveyard Tour Change of Venue a Hit
I'm one for two with Presbyterian churches this semester!
First Scots downtown was wonderful, inviting me to speak recently about my Magnolia Cemetery books, and having first class attendees, food and audio-visual equipment for my presentation.
But 2nd Presbyterian Church , also downtown on Meeting Street, earned second (last place really) place status with me after not allowing my students and I to visit on the night of Nov. 16- this after weeks of speaking with an administrator there and having her approval. I won't give the details but it left a bad, bitter taste...
Plan B, though, worked out nicely. Bethel United Methodist Church, located at the corner of Calhoun and Pitt streets next to CofC's Addlestone Libary, has a lovely small graveyard. Dating all the way back to 1797 at this location, Bethel UMC has a very rich and interesting history.
So the students and I visited there. The objectives were to see and photograph "epic" epitaphs for an upcoming assignment and also for the students to scout the old Charlestonian gravesite that each will write about in a research project due at the end of the term.
Some photos I took during our Nov. 16 visit:
First Scots downtown was wonderful, inviting me to speak recently about my Magnolia Cemetery books, and having first class attendees, food and audio-visual equipment for my presentation.
But 2nd Presbyterian Church , also downtown on Meeting Street, earned second (last place really) place status with me after not allowing my students and I to visit on the night of Nov. 16- this after weeks of speaking with an administrator there and having her approval. I won't give the details but it left a bad, bitter taste...
Plan B, though, worked out nicely. Bethel United Methodist Church, located at the corner of Calhoun and Pitt streets next to CofC's Addlestone Libary, has a lovely small graveyard. Dating all the way back to 1797 at this location, Bethel UMC has a very rich and interesting history.
So the students and I visited there. The objectives were to see and photograph "epic" epitaphs for an upcoming assignment and also for the students to scout the old Charlestonian gravesite that each will write about in a research project due at the end of the term.
Some photos I took during our Nov. 16 visit:
Monday, November 2, 2015
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Monumental Magnolia Cemetery Field Trip!
The temperatures and bug activity were fairly moderate on Sept. 21 for our highly anticipated (by me anyway!) visit to Magnolia Cemetery, as part of the "Beyond the Grave" First Year Experience course I am teaching this fall.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Church Graveyards Visit a Hit!
During class on Sept. 7 I took my "Beyond the Grave" students to two nearby churches to see their graveyards. Both churches are very old. The Episcopal Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul on Coming Street dates to 1810. St Patrick Catholic Church on St. Philip Street opened in 1838.
St. Luke's features a rich array of grave markers, monuments and memorials, including headstones and flat ledger stones seen in the forefront and mausoleums seen in the background. The ledger stones were designed to keep the spirits from escaping and haunting the living!
An ornate iron gate surrounds this family plot. Two pedestal tombs with vaulted tops are seen along the left side of this photo. Next to the pedestal tomb in the forefront is a pedestal with a draped broken column on it. The broken column symbolizes a life cut short, often men who died in their twenties or thirties.
The drapery connotes mourning and sadness.
Students pose in front of a large mausoleum behind the St. Luke/St. Paul Church.
Notice the inverted torches on both sides of the door. This is a symbol of an extinguished life. If the upside down torch is lighted, as these two are, there is the promising message of eternal life after death in Heaven. When the torch is inverted and not lit, this means the end to the family name because there are no sons to carry it on.
The Latin inscription at the top of the mausoleum reads "Qui Christo Vivit Perire Nescit" ("He who knows Christ never perishes").
I found online someone who also wrote about this mausoleum in a blog called "Cocktails in Charleston."
A short walk from St. Luke's, on St. Philip Street, is St. Patrick Catholic Church, which has a smaller graveyard than St. Luke's.
This one consists mainly of neatly arranged in rows headstones, many dating to the pre-Civil War or Antebellum times.
A tall obelisk is an example of the elaborate Victorian Era grave monument. This one is not as tall as many that can be found in Charleston. But it makes up for its modest height with a litany of words and a handsome family crest.
Obelisks, a design dating to ancient times, is a symbol of a family or person's power, strength and wealth.
To the obelisk's right is a cross mounted on a platform of boulders. The boulders may also be interpreted as symbols of strength and power. But they can also refer to the earlier gravesites in ancient times when stones and boulders were placed over buried bodies to keep the dead from rising out of their graves.
The view from the back of the graveyard at St. Patrick Catholic Church. The family plot seen in the forefront has several classic grave marker styles.
From left to right, we see a headstone that's angled at the top, a style common to the 18th and early 19th centuries. The smaller rounded headstone is characteristic of the mid-18th century and later. Another cross-on-boulder marker is next to that (see notes on this style above) and on the far right is a small pedestal tomb with vaulted top, a nod to power, wealth and stability.
Many thanks to the folks at St. Luke's and St. Patrick's churches for allowing us to visit their most interesting graveyards!
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| Graveyard at St. Luke's |
St. Luke's features a rich array of grave markers, monuments and memorials, including headstones and flat ledger stones seen in the forefront and mausoleums seen in the background. The ledger stones were designed to keep the spirits from escaping and haunting the living!
 |
| St. Luke's graveyard |
An ornate iron gate surrounds this family plot. Two pedestal tombs with vaulted tops are seen along the left side of this photo. Next to the pedestal tomb in the forefront is a pedestal with a draped broken column on it. The broken column symbolizes a life cut short, often men who died in their twenties or thirties.
The drapery connotes mourning and sadness.
 |
| Mausoleum at St. Luke's graveyard |
Students pose in front of a large mausoleum behind the St. Luke/St. Paul Church.
Notice the inverted torches on both sides of the door. This is a symbol of an extinguished life. If the upside down torch is lighted, as these two are, there is the promising message of eternal life after death in Heaven. When the torch is inverted and not lit, this means the end to the family name because there are no sons to carry it on.
The Latin inscription at the top of the mausoleum reads "Qui Christo Vivit Perire Nescit" ("He who knows Christ never perishes").
I found online someone who also wrote about this mausoleum in a blog called "Cocktails in Charleston."
 |
| The long narrow graveyard at St. Patrick Catholic Church |
A short walk from St. Luke's, on St. Philip Street, is St. Patrick Catholic Church, which has a smaller graveyard than St. Luke's.
This one consists mainly of neatly arranged in rows headstones, many dating to the pre-Civil War or Antebellum times.
 |
| A beautifully inscribed obelisk |
A tall obelisk is an example of the elaborate Victorian Era grave monument. This one is not as tall as many that can be found in Charleston. But it makes up for its modest height with a litany of words and a handsome family crest.
Obelisks, a design dating to ancient times, is a symbol of a family or person's power, strength and wealth.
To the obelisk's right is a cross mounted on a platform of boulders. The boulders may also be interpreted as symbols of strength and power. But they can also refer to the earlier gravesites in ancient times when stones and boulders were placed over buried bodies to keep the dead from rising out of their graves.
 |
| Graveyard at St. Patrick's church on St. Philip Street |
The view from the back of the graveyard at St. Patrick Catholic Church. The family plot seen in the forefront has several classic grave marker styles.
From left to right, we see a headstone that's angled at the top, a style common to the 18th and early 19th centuries. The smaller rounded headstone is characteristic of the mid-18th century and later. Another cross-on-boulder marker is next to that (see notes on this style above) and on the far right is a small pedestal tomb with vaulted top, a nod to power, wealth and stability.
Many thanks to the folks at St. Luke's and St. Patrick's churches for allowing us to visit their most interesting graveyards!
Monday, September 7, 2015
Today's "Plain Jane" Cemeteries
In sharp contrast between the interesting and unusual things seen at the old church graveyards and large "rural" cemeteries of the 19th century are today's memorial park (or memorial garden) or lawn park (or garden) cemeteries.
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