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This Place of Silence: Ohio’s Cemeteries and Burial Grounds – Slide Programs/Book Signings

My latest book, This Place of Silence: Ohio’s Cemeteries and Burial Grounds, is the subject of four forthcoming slide programs and book signings at Cuyahoga County Library:

Chagrin Falls Branch Library on December 6, 2025 at 11 am

Brooklyn Branch Library on January 11, 2026 at 7:00 pm

North Olmsted Branch Library on February 18, 2026 at 7:00 pm

North Royalton Branch Library on February 19, 2026 at 7:00 pm

Find the Squirrel. A black squirrel is dwarfed by an 1879 Mausoleum and a huge white oak at Maple Grove Cemetery in Ravenna, Ohio

This book was my second photographic collaboration with Columbus-based Ohio landscape photographer Randall Lee (Randy) Schieber. Randy and I each drove more than 25,000 miles in Ohio during the Covid pandemic in 2020 through 2022, visiting hundreds of cemeteries in all 88 Ohio counties, and Robin Smith, a dedicated taphophile (cemetery lover) contributed a fascinating and extensive text for the book, which was released in July, 2024 by Ohio University Press. 

The Angel of Death Victorious, also known as the Haserot Angel, is perhaps the most striking grave marker at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. The bronze angel, seated on a gravestone of pink marble, holds a torch, a symbol of life extinguished., and the eyes of the statue appear to be weeping black tears, actually caused by the discolored surface of the bronze material.

This book highlights and showcases Ohio’s cemeteries and burial grounds, which are often beautiful but neglected pieces of history. Cemeteries are not dark, morbid places to be avoided but rather historical landscapes full of beauty, hope, history and honor for those Ohioans who came before us. 

An Amish farmer drives his buggy past the Zionist Church and cemetery at New Bedford in northern Coshocton County.

Randy, Robin, and I hope the photographic fruits and text of our taphophilial travels in Ohio will tempt you to follow in our footsteps and transform you into tombstone tourists in the Buckeye State. 

In addition to this new book, I will also be signing copies of A Photographer’s Guide to Ohio, Volumes 1 and 2 and Ohio in Photographs: A Portrait of the Buckeye State. 

For more information, visit the Cuyahoga County Library website. 

 

 

  

  

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