Description

Historic headstones and monuments connect the present to the past while highlighting the artistic workmanship of beautiful grave markers and cemetery scenes. Take a photographic journey through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to view historic cemeteries, detailed tombstones, and unique graveyard memorials while exploring stories about the region. The people of Lancaster County have a background filled with diverse religious beliefs, rich folk art and culture, and captivating histories that are carved into the old grave markers that are still standing today.
Hand-carved tombstones from the eighteenth century include unique Pennsylvania German folk art decorated with celestial scenes and flowers in addition to traditional funerary motifs such as skulls, hourglasses, and soul effigies. Many Lancaster County cemeteries from the nineteenth century contain intricate headstones, exquisite cemetery entranceways, and surprising Egyptian-inspired monuments.
Famous artists, military heroes, and a former U.S. president are all buried here, in addition to everyday people whose names are etched into the building blocks and tombstones of Lancaster County's history and culture.