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!

"Epic Epitaphs" Presentation and Assignment

Grave marker epitaphs are another key element to the Victorian-era and other distinctive burial sites.

Carefully selected wording can leave the departed with a special, everlasting tribute, and offer the survivors lasting thoughts and remembrances they otherwise may not receive.

Here's my presentation on what I call "Epic Epitaphs."




Epitaphs are often sad, solemn and spiritual. But they can also be humorous, irreverent and even crude and disturbing.  Here's one of many listings of not-so-epic epitaphs I found online.

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."

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.

"Beyond the Grave" Course "Eulogy"

Wow, where did the school year go?

Teaching my first-time First Year Experience class at the College of Charleston has been educational and eventful for me as well as the students, I hope.

The course I designed is called "Beyond the Grave: What Old Cemeteries Tell and Teach the Living." I drew upon my experiences writing two books about Charleston's venerable Victorian necropolis Magnolia Cemetery to craft a multi-disciplinary curriculum.

The "Holy City" of Charleston with its many churches and adjacent graveyards (many within walking distance of campus) was an ideal place to study death and all it involves from numerous perspectives: history, religion, sociology, psychology, anthropology, art, art history, medicine and more.

(Above: My Spring 2016 students at Magnolia Cemeteries iconic Gibbes Mausoleum. Left: My Fall 2015 class at the Parker exedra monument, also at Magnolia Cemetery).

I am excited to again be going "Beyond the Grave" with CofC freshmen next school year.

The final question I put on my final exams is to ask the students what they learned in this class that asks"what old cemeteries tell and teach the living." Here are some of their responses (names withheld).

Student explore St. Patrick's church graveyard

"The idea of death and what we do with our dead is common knowledge, but this class made me investigate further...This class made me appreciate the centuries-old traditions and understand why they are still in use today."

"Graves and cemeteries teach the living so many things but overall it's the history of life that can be expressed through the art of graves."

"Life and death are very complex, convoluted and confusing topics to cover, but the sheer gist of it is the realization that we seemingly only have one chance at being remembered whether it be on a headstone or a heart."

Fun can be had even at cemeteries! 

"The research I was doing on 'the dead' taught me information about my family's origins and influence on the Newberry (S.C.) community. This class taught me that in Charleston it is possible to look at a grave and be able to find a plethora of historical information. Learning about the past also showed me living conditions and medical practices, which was imperative to understanding why death was treated the way it was throughout history. I also got to experience Magnolia Cemetery which was beautiful."

"I learned to blog all my explorations!"

"Gravesites show people in the present how people in the past grieved their lost loved ones. We can learn who the people were by the epitaph left behind for their legacy...Also that ghosts are probably real!"

Tour of Charleston's Old City Jail 

"We don't treat death today as we did in the past. During the Victorian Era, death was almost trendy. Families put work and energy into designing and maintaining their family members' graves. We do not see this today. Today, grave sites are not physically eye catching and family members don't maintain the deceased's grave sites. We could learn to respect the dead and become more comfortable with death and dying from the old grave sites and practices."

"Maybe the students who have taken this course can walk away with this lesson:  Death doesn't have to be avoided. Instead, cherish the remembrance of your loved one by carrying on the 'old' tradition. Visit your loved ones after they pass and use it as a sacred time to bring the living together."

More on my course "Beyond the Grave: What Old Cemeteries Tell and Teach the Living" can be found on the class blog
charlestonbeyondthegrave.blogspot.com/.

Kool Kreations With Kizoa!

Kizoa is a really neat, fun, and easy-to-use slideshow program. It is free- just go to the website and do the steps to set up your account.

Kizoa has a vast library of special effects, animations and music that can turn a so-so slideshow into something fun and engaging. Check out this Kizoa slideshow I did not long ago about Charleston's beautiful and historic Magnolia Cemetery, about which (plug alert!) I have written two books.

Magnolia Birds - Kizoa Online Movie Maker


The College of Charleston's First Year Experience is really top notch. Its purpose is to better acclimate freshmen to life in college with all of its many challenges and opportunities. 

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. 

"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:

Talk Takeaways: Dr. George Dickinson Goes "Beyond the Grave" with FYE Students

"My family didn't all die in a plane crash," quipped esteemed College of Charleston sociology professor Dr. George Dickinson as he opened his talk to my "Beyond the Grave" First Year Experience course students on Nov. 2 in our Robert Scott Small classroom.

No, it wasn't a personal tragedy that launched the Texas native decades ago on his career academic expertise: death, dying and bereavement, which is part of the name of the book he co-authored in 1993 that has since been updated and expanded a pretty amazing 14 times!

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.

Week 3 Prezi Presentation: Funeral and Cemetery Evolution

In this Week 3 Prezi on Sept. 14 we will explore the evolution of funerary and cemetery customs in the world and America.

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.

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!

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.