From the earliest memorials used by Native Americans to the elaborate structures of the present day, Dr. Richard Veit uses grave markers to take an off-beat look at New Jersey and Monmouth County history that is both fascinating and unique.
Dr. Veit presents a culturally diverse account of historic burial places from High Point to Cape May and from the banks of the Delaware to the ocean-washed Shore, to explain what cemeteries tell us about people and the communities in which they lived. The evidence ranges from somber seventeenth-century decorations such as hourglasses and skulls that denoted the brevity of colonial life, to modern times where memorials, such as a life-size granite Mercedes Benz, reflect the materialism of the new millennium. Also considered are contemporary novelties such as pet cemeteries and what they reveal about today’s culture. To tell their story the authors visited more than 1,000 burial grounds and interviewed numerous monument dealers and cemetarians.
Richard Veit is Professor of Anthropology and Interim Dean of the School Of Humanities And Social Sciences at Monmouth University. He received his B.A. from Drew University in 1990, his M.A. in Historical Archaeology from the College of William and Mary in 1991 and his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. In 2007 he was the recipient of Monmouth University’s distinguished teacher award and in 2012 he received Monmouth University’s Donald Warnecke Award for outstanding university service. At Monmouth he teaches courses on archaeology, historical archaeology, New Jersey history, Native Americans, and historic preservation. He has authored or co-authored numerous articles and reviews and five books including Digging New Jersey’s Past: Historical Archaeology in the Garden State (Rutgers Press 2002), New Jersey Cemeteries and Tombstones History in the Landscape (co-authored by Mark Nonestied, Rutgers Press 2008), New Jersey: A History of the Garden State (co-authored with Maxine Lurie, Rutgers Press 2012), Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley (co-edited with David Orr, U. Tennessee Press 2014) and The Archaeology of American Cemeteries and Gravemarkers (co-authored with Sherene Baugher, U. Florida Press, 2014).
His first book, Digging New Jersey’s Past, received awards from the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office, New Jersey Academic Studies Alliance, and the New Jersey Center for the Book at Rutgers University. Two of his books, Digging New Jersey’s Past and New Jersey: A History of the Garden State are listed on the New Jersey State library’s 101 Great New Jersey books list. He serves on the New Jersey Historical Commission and on the boards of the Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology, Crossroads of the American Revolution, and the Archaeological Society of New Jersey. He is the President of the Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference. His work research has been featured on NPR, in Archaeology Magazine and at TEDx Navesink in 2014.
Registration closes November 11. Limited to 150 people. Meeting link and handout will be emailed to registrants on Saturday November 13.