Rural Cemetery MovementWednesday, May 8

Mumford, April 26, 2024 – Opening on Wednesday, May 8, a new multi-media exhibit in Genesee Country Village & Museum’s John L. Wehle Gallery will explore the concept of the American rural cemetery. Rather than gloomy or frightening space, exhibit posits the institution of the rural cemetery as a social center with a living ecosystem – a place for scenic respite. The exhibit will remain on view for the 2024 and 2025 seasons in the John L. Wehle Gallery, and was made possible with support from Forest Lawn Cemetery Group, White Haven Memorial Park, Canandaigua Lakeview Cemetery, and Anonymous. Access to exhibits in the John L. Wehle Gallery is included in general Museum admission. Learn more about the exhibit and purchase daily admission tickets: https://www.gcv.org/becoming-gendered-garment-as-gender-artifact/

The Rural Cemetery Movement in 19th-Century America

This new exhibit will explore how 19th-century Americans managed public health concerns, developed a new appreciation for green space and wildlife, and ensured their memorialization in a newly established public space: the rural cemetery. With the American population growing dramatically in the early 19th century, urban graveyards were quickly becoming overcrowded and unhygienic spaces, trapped between city structures with no place to expand. Waves of cholera threatened the living, underscoring an immediate need for an alternative to city burials. City expansion and an emerging appreciation for green spaces reshaped land use for burial grounds and transformed surrounding terrains. As the desire to be interred in these scenic landscapes grew, grave markers, tombstones, and monuments emerged as a high art form – a product of means, social connections, and endeavors to be memorialized. Rural cemeteries quickly became social centers for the living, and were emulated across America, inspiring urban planning and city design. Rural cemeteries are not macabre or gloomy places to be visited only when necessary. American rural cemeteries are open-air museums, acting as reliquaries of genealogical information, evocative iconography, landscape and horticultural design, and sanctuaries for wildlife.    

"We hope that when guests visit this new exhibit, they will leave having reconsidered their relationship with their local cemetery, feel inspired to get involved, or even just pay a visit to a regional cemetery they may have not explored before.” says Curator Brandon W. Brooks.  

Everybody’s Going to be There! presents a wide variety of fine wildlife art, maps, memorial art, natural animal and geological specimens, mourning jewelry and stationery, and cemetery tourism ephemera of the 19th century.

Objects on display in the exhibit have been lent by a number of regional museums, historical societies, and individuals, including Anonymous, Big Springs Museum, Ryan Braun, Tammy Canfield, The Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery, Ontario County Historical Society, Rochester Museum & Science Center, Bill & Mykel Whitney, and Ruthann Williams.

Curator-Hosted Programs and Guest Speakers

Curatorial programs and guest speakers throughout the 2024 season will further enrich the exhibit. Upcoming talks include a curator-hosted debut of the new exhibit, at an Antiques Preview Party (Friday, May 10, 7 p.m.), Meet the “Gravestone Guy” talk with Dave Bloom (Saturday, May 18, 11:30 a.m.), Rochester Genealogical Society – Find a Grave Talk with Eric Vaugh (Saturday, May 25, 11:30 a.m.), Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery Talk with Dennis Carr (Saturday, June 29, 2 p.m.), and Forrest- Lawn Cemetery Talk with Amizetta Haj (Saturday, July 6, 1 p.m.). Explore all upcoming Gallery programs: https://www.gcv.org/the-john-l-wehle-gallery/curator-talks-and-tours/

The John L. Wehle Gallery at Genesee Country Village & Museum

Established by Museum founder John L. Wehle, the collection in the John L. Wehle Gallery unites Wehle’s passions for art with interests in hunting, sports, wildlife, and conservation. Spanning the 17th to 20th centuries, paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures document the changing tastes and styles of sporting and wildlife art. The Gallery traces the history of equine, canine, racing, driving, angling, hunting, and shooting art as well as wildlife from diverse areas of the United States. The Gallery also houses the extensive Bruce & Susan Greene Costume Collection, featuring more than 3,500 rare, mostly 19th-century garments and accessories. In addition to Everybody’s Going to be There!, the exhibit Becoming Gendered: Garment as Gender Artifact is also on view for the duration of the 2024 season. This exhibit explores how 19th-century Americans navigated a changing landscape of gendered fashion. Learn more about Becoming Gendered: https://www.gcv.org/becoming-gendered-garment-as-gender-artifact/. Also new to the John L. Wehle Gallery for 2024 is a semi-permanent exhibit entitled Perceived Realities: Wildlife, Land, & Myth, which features some of the finest pieces of sporting and wildlife art collected by John L. Wehle himself.

More information about the John L. Wehle Gallery and GCV&M collections can be found here: https://www.gcv.org/the-john-l-wehle-gallery/

 

###

Photo: Visit GCV&M this season to explore “Everybody’s Going to be There! The American Rural Cemetery Movement”

Additional photos and b-roll are available by request. To request an interview, or be removed from this mailing list, contact pengard@gcv.org.

GCV&M is the largest living history museum in New York State with the largest collection of historic buildings in the Northeast. The Museum, with its John L. Wehle Gallery, working brewery, vintage base ball park, and Nature Center, is located in Mumford, NY, 20 miles southwest of Rochester and 45 miles east of Buffalo. Visit www.gcv.org for more information.

 

Media Contact: Paige Engard, (585) 294-8280, pengard@gcv.org