Join us as we welcome Dr. Erik R. Seeman, UB Distinguished Professor of History at the University at Buffalo, to the Forest Lawn Chapel for the next talk in our new series called Chapel Chats. This initiative will offer a variety of death care awareness programs and resources that promote a healthy attitude about mortality.

Forest Lawn, the Rural Cemetery Movement, and Victorian Death Practices

Ever wonder why Forest Lawn looks the way it does, with its sculpted landscape and meandering paths?  That’s because it’s a splendid example of the “rural cemetery movement,” the effort to beautify burial grounds that swept the United States in the 1830s and 1840s.  This illustrated talk puts Forest Lawn in the context of the rural cemetery movement and the famously macabre Victorian death practices the movement helped inspire.  The session will end with a conversation about the connections between past and present death practices.

Erik R. Seeman, UB Distinguished Professor of History at the University at Buffalo, is the author of four books on early American religion and death practices.  His most recent book, Speaking with the Dead in Early America, won the Lawrence Levine Award from the Organization of American Historians for the best book in American cultural history.  Over the past quarter-century at UB, more than a thousand students have taken his “Death in America” lecture course.

Advance registration is required as space is limited.

Address: Forest Lawn Cemetery, 1990 Main St., Buffalo, NY 14208
Event Location: This event takes place at Forest Lawn’s historic Chapel in the heart of the cemetery. Enter the cemetery at any gate and follow the white painted line on the road to the Chapel; ample parking is available.
Questions: Please call us at (716) 427-0727 or email Amizetta Haj, Director of Community Engagement, at ahaj@forest-lawn.com.