Apologies for cross-posting:

The Alexandria Archaeology Museum
Announces the Latest Addition to its Publication Series:

“To Find Rest From All Trouble”: The Archaeology of the Quaker Burying Ground, Alexandria, Virginia.  Alexandria Archaeology Publication Number 120, by Francine W. Bromberg, Steven J. Shephard, Barbara H. Magid, Pamela J. Cressey, Timothy Dennée, and Bernard K. Means. 672 pages, including over 120 figures, 12 tables, and five appendices. Price (which includes shipping): $25.00.

        Located in Alexandria, Virginia, the Quaker Burying Ground, as it is known historically, was the cemetery for the Alexandria Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) from 1784 into the 1890s.  The meeting leased the property to the City of Alexandria for use as a library in 1937.  The demolition and replacement of a 1954 addition to the library led to archaeological fieldwork from December 1993 to March 1995.  The Woodlawn Meeting, current owners of the site, wished to honor the 1937 agreement between the City and the Quakers, and decided to allow construction of the new library addition, provided that appropriate preservation measures were instituted.

        To comply with a Memorandum of Agreement between the meeting trustees and the City, the building was designed to preserve as many burials in situ as possible.  Of 159 burial features discovered, sixty-six were in areas that would be directly destroyed by construction activities and were completely excavated, though the remains and associated artifacts were later reinterred on site.  The locations of an additional ninety-three burials, left in place under the library foundation, were carefully mapped, and a stewardship plan was written to insure continued preservation of these graves along with the hundreds of others which undoubtedly remain on the site.

        In this report, which is copiously illustrated with historic maps and artifact photographs, the findings from the archaeological investigations are interpreted within the context of Quaker beliefs and practices and local and regional developments.  The artifact analysis suggested that Alexandria’s Friends attempted to uphold the value of simplicity central to Quaker philosophy.  While influenced by the “beautification of death” movement of the nineteenth century, the Quakers tempered their adoption of the material trappings of the movement with moderation.  When present, gravestones were relatively plain, as were clothing items, including buttons and hair combs. Each excavated grave is illustrated, showing the location of human remains, grave furniture, and associated artifacts, many of which themselves are illustrated.

        The report is divided into ten chapters, which include a general history of Alexandria, a discussion of burial practices in the nineteenth century, with a specific focus on Quaker beliefs related to death, and a discussion of Quaker sites in Alexandria and beyond.  Other chapters include detailed descriptions of each excavated burial, summarize osteological examinations, and analyze the artifacts encountered during the excavations. Further details on the osteological examinations are included in two of the appendices.

To order, phone (703) 838-4399 or e-mail Jennifer Barker at [log in to unmask]


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Bernard K. Means
Assistant Collections Manager
Alexandria Archaeology Museum