[Genealib] "Realms of History: The Cemeteries of Staten Island"

[Joy Rich]

The Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences just published a book about Staten Island
cemeteries past and present. It's called "Realms of History: The Cemeteries of Staten
Island." The author is the Institute's Curator of History, Patricia M. Salmon.

The book focuses on local cemetery culture from a historical perspective, and it builds on
the earlier work of three Staten Island historians - William T. Davis, Charles W. Leng,
and Royden W. Vosburgh.

It covers a variety of cemetery-related subjects, including the burial grounds of Native
Americans, slaves, African-Americans, and immigrants and homestead, religious, and
non-religious graveyards.

More than seventy-five burial grounds were researched. Emphasis is on their development
and history and the abandonment of some of them. Tombstones as folk art, cemeteries as
nature preserves, and graveyard desecration are also discussed.

The late Staten Island Borough Historian Richard Dickenson, Marjorie Decker Johnson, and
Hugh Powell were just three of the eleven consultants who worked on the book.

"Realms of History: The Cemeteries of Staten Island" is over 300 pages long and includes
about 200 images. It can be purchased for $25.00 (plus $2.00 tax). E-mail
giftshop at statenislandmuseum.org or call (718) 727-1135.

The Institute's website is at http://www.statenislandmuseum.org/ , and information about
the book is at http://www.statenislandmuseum.org/publications.html .

Joy Rich
Brooklyn, NY