Elmwood Cemetery

by Kimberly McCollum, Willy Bearden

Overview

Elmwood Cemetery was founded in August 1852 by 50 prominent Memphians who resolved to create a new burial site just two and a half miles outside the city limits. The name of the cemetery was drawn out of a hat by one of the founding fathers. A nurseryman from Scotland was hired to lay out the grounds, and Elmwood was opened to people from all backgrounds to use as their family cemetery. Elmwood has survived wars, military occupation, epidemic disease, and the bankruptcy and near collapse of Memphis, only to emerge as one of the premier outdoor museums in the United States. Its massive collection of Victorian memorial statuary is almost unrivaled, but Elmwood's true allure lies in the stories of those who rest beneath the lush canopy of trees on its 80 acres. The graves at Elmwood belong to soldiers and statesmen, scoundrels and scalawags, writers and musicians, martyrs and madams, the notorious and the anointed, and so many more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467117487
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	09/05/2016
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	642,582
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Gathering 150 years of images from the Memphis Room at the Memphis Public Library and Special Collections at the University of Memphis Libraries, Kimberly McCollum and Willy Bearden have told the stories of the people who rest at Elmwood.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 8

1 The Founding of Elmwood 9

2 Amazing Monuments and Cemetery Symbols 19

3 Yellow Fever 47

4 Dynasties, Music, and Legends 59

5 African American Innovators 89

6 Medicine and Memphis 101

7 Activists and Politicians 105

8 The Civil War 113

9 The Home of the Brave 123