The History of Grave Markers
The history of stone grave markers goes back thousands of years. The Greeks and Romans used stone monuments to honor the dead and prevent graves from being disturbed. In America, gravestone carvers have used various types of rock for burial markers during different periods.
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Early Markers
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The Puritans who settled New England in the 1600s created simple wooden or stone grave markers. They believed that carving anything other than words on them would violate the biblical commandment against creating graven images, according to the website Digital History. This began to change after 1650.
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Slate
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Slate was the first stone that was widely used to make grave markers in America, and gravestone carvers used the gray rock from the mid-1600s to about 1900, according to the website Gravestone Preservation. Many slate headstones remain in New England cemeteries and still have readable inscriptions.
Sandstone
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Carvers in Connecticut used sandstone, or brownstone, from the mid-1600s to about 1890, as the rock was readily available there. In the 1800s, Connecticut quarries shipped the stone to other parts of the country by train.
Marble and Limestone
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Headstone carvers used marble or limestone for grave markers from the late 1700s to about 1930, Gravestone Preservation says. Because these stones become stained over time, the inscriptions can be difficult to read.
Granite
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Because of its strength, granite has been the primary stone used for grave markers in the United States since the 1860s. Granite can be gray or another color, depending on where it is mined.
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- Photo Credit "Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Kevitivity (Kevin Stanchfield) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
