“Remember Me…” But “Be Mindfull of Death”: The Artistic, Social, and Personal Choice Expressions Observed on the Gravemarkers of Eighteenth Century Monmouth County, New Jersey

Abstract

The eighteenth century gravemarkers in Monmouth County illustrate the county as an agricultural periphery of the greater New England trade network. The iconography is dominated by mortality images throughout the century which is in contrast to neighboring study areas where mortality imagery is out of fashion by the middle of the century. The gravemarkers also show how the county was connected to the wider colonial markets where stones were purchased from a wide suite of available carvers, along with a probable local carver working on blanks imported from northern New Jersey. In the end, the choice of gravemarker icon and carver is best connected to family choices within broader social fashion or religious ideology.