Mausoleums at Galesburg's Hope Cemetery

Mausoleums at Galesburg's Hope Cemetery

How the mausoleums in Galesburg's Hope Cemetery represent the still present racial and economic divides in Galesburg.

The Mausoleum in Galesburg’s Hope Cemetery is a symbol of how class divides persist beyond death, despite the myth that we are all equal in death. The vault is a prominent building in the back of the cemetery that houses about 500 people’s corpses, it is also quite prominent as it stands on top of a hill (for Galesburg it’s hill), and looks over much of the rest of the cemetery. The crypt is a large, old, gray building that is very intimidating, the doors are massive and almost never opened. When approaching the crypt the doors are grand and magnificent, it is a memorial to death itself. This shows us the myth that we are all equal in death, which the mausoleums themselves are a response to as the places where the wealthiest went to die in early Galesburg, and that despite Galesburg being an abolitionist town not everyone was still equal. This mausoleum is also one among many in the cemetery, because while 500 people were buried there, there are also several mausoleums where entire well to do families are buried dotted amongst Hope cemetery. These sites also contrast with the numerous unmarked graves of those who were not well off enough to be able to be buried even with a headstone. Today it shows us that even though Galesburg is an abolitionist town founded upon the ideas of equality, and freedom, still not everyone is equal or free. And just like in the past how wealthy someone is, is more likely to affect how they choose to die than anything else, since now the wealthiest in our society are also getting even more innovative death options such as water cremation, or human decomposition, methods which not everyone can access, or even know exists.

Hope Cemetery

Omeka

11/9/2022 (photographed/visited), published on 11/17/2022

PDF

English

Physical objects/photographs of physical objects

Anthropology, death, dying, class, race, myth.