Richmond Cemeteries

Images of America: Virginia

by Christine Stoddard, Misty Thomas, Ryan K. Smith (Foreword)

Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy and once one of the most prosperous cities in the United States, is home to a range of cemeteries that tell the story of American trends in honoring the dead. African slaves were interred in Shockoe Bottom's so-called "burial ground for negroes," US presidents James Monroe and John Tyler were buried in Hollywood Cemetery, and Civil War soldiers were commemorated throughout the metropolis; indeed, the River City has laid blacks and whites to rest in flood zones and on rolling hills alike. During and shortly after the Civil War, Richmond worked to accommodate thousands of new graves. Today, Richmonders work to preserve and celebrate the past while making way for the future.

Genres: Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2014

About the author

Christine Stoddard is the founding editor of Quail Bell Magazine (www.quailbellmagazine.com) and the author and editor of several books. She works as a writer and artist in Brooklyn, NY.

Reviews

[MKF · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would give this book one star but decided on two because I did enjoy the history and some of the photos. The reason I disliked this book is there were a bunch of mistakes and flaws. The first thing was information that was repeated over and over again. I understand it may be important but I don't want to hear about again and again. There were a few spelling mistakes as well throughout. What really ruined it was a picture of Eliza Poe that they said was a picture of Frances Allan, Edgar Allan Poe's foster mother. It didn't even make sense since why would you put a picture of his foster mom when discussing his actual mom.
For a book on cemeteries they had a lot of photographs of things that aren't in the cemetery. I would of prefer seeing a picture of a person's grave more than their homes. The section on graveyards focused more on the churches and did not show any of the actual graves of the people. It did show the crypt for the victims of the Richmond Theater fire which was surprising.
I would of enjoyed this more if the book was more focused on the cemeteries and was not full of mistakes.

[Coral · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Images of America series tends to be hit-or-miss...and while I don't regret reading this one, it definitely is a miss for me.

The frustrating part is that it had the potential to be so much better. Instead, the book meanders quite a bit from its premise, with well over a third of the pictures and notes being about locations outside of cemeteries or tidbits of information about people's lives rather than cemeteries and graveyards. This would not have been so bad if those extras had been trimmed down, better organized, and not as repetitive. It's almost as if pictures were selected for the book, divided into piles between a couple of people who took notes on them, and then very loosely categorized into six groups for the book.

[Carolyn Waters · Rating 1 out of 5]

Many errors, redundancies, and outdated biases. Lots of photos, but many do not depict Richmond cemeteries. Disappointing.