Culture
The Cemetery as Archive
A 177-year-old cemetery is preparing to digitize millions of records that shed light on New York City’s shifting demographics.
A burial often involves a casket, or maybe an urn, possibly a headstone and a bouquet of flowers or wreath. But there’s also a lot of paperwork.
Some 560,000 bodies are laid to rest among the 478 grassy acres of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, dotted with statues and placid ponds. There are records of every burial since the first body was interred in 1840, says the cemetery’s archivist, Tony Cucchiara.