Cemetery Talk and Walking Tour

Ron Romano returns to the HSWO with a 30-minute slideshow and 30-minute walk through Ocean View Cemetery to celebrate his latest book, Curious Gravestones in Northern New England. The slide show will be packed with photos and stories about an interesting form of grave marker from the mid-1800s that Ron discovered and named “billboard monuments” (for their large and unique construction resembling signboards). His first volume on the subject, Billboard Monuments of Maine, featured the 38 billboards known in Maine and led to the discovery of four more. The new volume includes the four additions to the Maine collection, plus 31 others in New Hampshire and Vermont. Each monument has a story to tell, and Ron will select a few of the most interesting and unusual for this portion of the program. Following the slide show, we’ll reconvene at Ocean View to see Wells’s three billboards first-hand. Ron is a cemetery historian and author of numerous papers and four books about historic cemeteries and gravestones. He has designed and led tours at 16 historic cemeteries in southern Maine. He is an officer on the board of the Association for Gravestone Studies, the leading organization in America for cemetery and gravestone studies, and he serves locally as a trustee on the board of the friends of Portland’s oldest burying ground (established in 1668), Eastern Cemetery. He is a frequent lecturer on Maine’s cemeteries, gravestones, and gravestone makers. Ron will have copies of both volumes available for autographing and sale. Offering either one for $20, he has a special offer for this event — both volumes for $30 (a savings of 30% off cover prices).