WILMINGTON — Oakdale Cemetery was founded in the mid-19th century and it captures some radical changes in the way Wilmington – and the western world – was dealing with death. This weekend, you can tour the facility and learn about those changes first hand.
Architectural Historian Janet Seapker is leading the tour this Sunday, and said she will focus both on the Victorian symbolism of the older gravestones in the cemetery, and the layout of the cemetery itself.
“We will mainly walk around the oldest part of the cemetery plot, I think it’s just astonishing how undulating the grounds are,” Seapker said.
The rolling landscape gives the cemetery its dramatic look.
“We’re always told that Wilmington is flatter than a pancake, but in point of fact the topography – the terrain – is so amazingly projected in these up and down ways. Think of Dock Street, between 2nd Street and 3rd Street – that’s quite a precipitous drop,” Seapker said.
This kind of cemetery – set largely in nature and at a distance from a church or community – was a new idea in the Victorian age. Oakdale was the first such “rural cemetery” according to Seapker.
“It was defined as a convenient walk or carriage ride from the populated area,” Seapker said. “In 1852, when the cemetery was founded, the city limits stretched East only to 8th Street.”
Setting the cemetery away from the town or city, like the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts, was only part of the changing approach to burial.
“Even the word cemetery was new in the 1800s,” Seapker said. “Before that they were always known as graveyards, or church graveyards. (At Oakdale) they were known as sleeping chambers. It changed the way people thought about it, from something rather morbid to a much more joyful attitude.”
With the changing attitude toward death and burial came changes in how the residents of Wilmington designed the gravestones of their loved ones.
“We will also be looking at the symbolic aspect of the cemetery – the iconography that appears on the gravestones. You see a new variety of images, from the ‘femme en pleurs,’ the French weeping women, which was distinct from the angel. But you also see anchors, which weren’t just a reference to maritime service, but also to ‘hope,’ – and there are some real dandy examples,” Seapker said.
Lastly, there is the appearance of sculpted marble drapes.
“It’s not clear if they’re curtains being opened on what’s to come or being closed on the current situation, so that’s something for people to take home an mull over,” Seapker said.
Seapker’s tour of Oakdale Cemetery starts at 2 p.m. on Easter Sunday, April 1. Tickets are $10. You can find more information about Oakdale Cemetery here.
