TEACHER'S GUIDE TO

History and Folklife of the Kentucky Frontier

FIELD TRIP ACTIVITY

Visit a Local Cemetary

Locate the earliest stones and make rubbings of their inscriptions.  Identify familiar 
names, ethnic origins, religious affiliation, and occupations.  Write a short biography 
based on the information on the stones. Ask students to write their own tombstone 
inscriptions and consider what information they might want to include.  

Record the information on ten to twenty of the earliest tombstones.  Chart birth and 
death dates and determine life spans.  Discuss what the headstones reveal about life 
in the past.

Study the tombstones as art.  Examine the shapes, lettering styles, and carving 
techniques.  Discuss how they have changed through time.  Have students research 
the meanings of certain symbols such as lambs and willow trees.

This activity comes from A Teacher's Guide to Pioneer Life in South Central Kentucky,

by Nancy Disher Baird and Carol Crowe-Carraco.