This book could not have been completed without the assistance and encouragement of many generous colleagues and friends over nearly two decades.
It evolved from my dissertation at the University of Maryland, where committee members included Franklin Kelly, Sally Promey, and June Hargrove, whose courses in nineteenth-century art had helped to inspire my interest in sculptural memorials of that era. I finished writing the dissertation in 1996 with the help of a predoctoral fellowship at the National Museum of American Art (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum), where I worked with curator George Gurney. I also gained immensely from conversations during this period with Julie Aronson, Eunyoung Cho, Ellen Grayson, Janet Headley, Anne Verplanck, Neil Harris, Richard Murray, and Sidra Stich, all of whom I met through the Smithsonian’s fellowship program, as well as classmates Debora Rindge and Susan Libby at the University of Maryland.
The book manuscript developed slowly over the following years, as other demands on my time often took precedence. Postdoctoral research fellowships at Winterthur and at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, whose research center was headed by Michael Holly, as well as a fellowship received from the American Council for Learned Societies (ACLS) provided crucial support.
Among professional colleagues, whom I now count as friends, I especially thank Sarah Burns for her astute comments on a draft of the manuscript, and Wanda Corn and William Truettner for their earnest support. Art historians Erika Doss and Michele Bogart, curators Thayer Tolles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Henry Duffy at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, and Donna Hassler at Chesterwood (and assistants Anne Cathcart and Erika Cohn) all took time to talk with me and aid my efforts over the years. Karen Lemmey also was an important reader of the text after she became curator of sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Charles Vandersee, a co-editor of the Henry Adams letters, was a valued early mentor. Katherine Manthorne and spouse James Lancel McElhinney kindly provided the final photo for the book.
My special thanks to archivist Wayne Hammond at the Chapin Library of Rare Books, Williams College, which holds the Chesterwood Archives. Mona Chapin assisted my research at the Cincinnati Art Museum library, and Julie Aronson, now a longtime curator there, answered many of my questions about the Duvenecks. Staff members were helpful at the Dartmouth College Library, Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room, and Massachusetts Historical Society, where I had the great pleasure of participating in a 2001 conference, “Henry Adams and the Need to Know.”
Also at the Smithsonian, I benefited from research assistance from Christine Hennessey, Robin Dettre, and Amelia Goerlitz at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Research and Scholars Center, and from librarians Pat Lynagh, Cecilia Chin, Anne Evenhaugen, and Douglas Litts. I often learned much from fellows in residence at the Smithsonian, and I especially thank Kimberly Hyde, Kathleen Lawrence, and Kate Lemay for their help on different occasions.
Cemeteries today have become more welcoming places for historians. Julia Bolton Holloway at the English Cemetery in Florence gave me a memorable tour and shared information about its history. Other cemetery specialists who offered assistance and a wealth of hard-won personal knowledge include David Downes at Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.; Susan Olsen at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York’s Bronx; Elise Ciregna at Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston; and Janet Heywood at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Among many others who offered generous aid over the years, I thank Charles Francis Adams IV, Natalie Dykstra, Marianne McCormally and Stephen F. Obarski, Caterina Pierre, and Brian Pohanka.
This book could not have been written without the work of those who have gone before. Influential work on specific artists has included studies of Augustus Saint-Gaudens by John Dryfhout, Henry Duffy, Kathryn Greenthal, Ruth Marcus, and Joyce Schiller. Michael Richman did the important early study on sculpture by Daniel Chester French, and much work remains to be done on this sculptor’s lengthy career, largely untapped by scholars. Antoinette le Normand-Romain wrote about Paris cemeteries, and kindly took the time to talk with me about my project.
I also depended on the small but growing body of published information about specific cemeteries or cemeteries in specific cities. Among the most important for me were Blanche Linden’s Silent City on the Hill about Mount Auburn Cemetery and Spring Grove: Celebrating 150 Years, both significant urban landscape studies. Gary Laderman’s The Sacred Remains and David Sloane’s The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History have added much to earlier discussions by writers. Thanks, too, to Elisabeth Roark for her long study of angelic figures in American cemeteries.
The manuscript gained editorially from a close review by the extraordinary Fronia W. Simpson. I thank Ginger Strader at the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press for believing in my book and making it a reality, and Deborah Stultz for shepherding it with great care through the production process.
On the personal side, I am also grateful to Joann Moser and Nicholas Berkoff for lending me their West Virginia home for a month at a much-needed time for reflection. All members of the McCormally clan, including my daughter Brenda, provided support at a difficult time. My sister, Judy, brainstormed with me over the years, providing critical insights, as she drew her own challenging project to its conclusion, and, most important, kept me supplied with cookies and Finnish bread. Brother-in-law Frank “Skip” Conahan took photos at Mount Auburn and chauffeured us on a memorable trip to Maine. And through it all my husband, Sean McCormally, was chief companion, chauffeur, cameraman, and reader, whose faith in this book and gentle insistence helped me to bring it, finally, across the finish line.