In the third part of this series, we are still trying to understand and interpret the meaning and origin of the incredible artistic design of the gravestone of Relief Wilcox Town (d. 1813) from Halifax, VT. To that end, we try to learn more about Relief herself, and start with dissecting the inscription on her epitaph. Turn-of-the-19th-century Epitaphs are a great place to find all sorts of cultural and social clues. They give us the basics like, name, date of and age at death but they can also tell you about social rank and even how a person died. We also talk to some real artists, from The Drawing Studio in Brattleboro VT, to get their impressions as to what the broken-willow, moon-soul effiigy and stars and the deliberate empty space in the center of the design, says to them. There is one more episode to go to finish up this investigation (I know I said that last time but I really mean it). The show will drop early next week so don’t go anywhere! Or, at least take us with you where ever you do go so you don’t miss out!

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

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