Posted by Jeff Richman on January 7th, 2020

Green-Wood has millions and millions of records pertaining to the 574,000 individuals who are interred there. Sometimes the briefest of notations in these records can trigger a search through history--and uncover a long-forgotten story. Bob Moogan is a Green-Wood volunteer. Recently retired as an accountant, Bob decided that he wanted to explore history. So, for the past few months, he has been working at processing a collection of lantern slides of New York City, circa 1900, and, more recently, at creating a spreadsheet to help us understand the stories of… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on December 3rd, 2019

Visitors to Green-Wood today are welcome to explore the cemetery on their own, with the help of maps, apps, and/or self-guided walking tours, or on a tour led by a Historic Fund tour guide. But what, you may wonder, was it like to explore Green-Wood in its early years, soon after its founding in 1838? Fortunately, we can get a sense of Green-Wood's early years, courtesy of George Templeton Strong (1820-1875). Strong was a lawyer, trustee of leading New York City institutions (including Trinity Church and Columbia College) and one… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on October 29th, 2019

Green-Wood stories--and my blog posts--touch upon many diverse topics. But I never thought that I would be blogging about Russia. I am usually out on the cemetery grounds a few times a week. With 574,000 interments, 7,000 trees, and tens of thousands of gravestones, there is so much to see! Sometimes I notice, for the first time, things that have been out there for a century or more. And sometimes I see things that are recent additions to the grounds. That was the case when I was recently out on… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on June 25th, 2019

It is a fact of life--there is always (or almost always) someone out there who knows more than you do about something. It is pretty well known that Louis Comfort Tiffany designed stained glass windows for use in cemetery mausolea. There are several of those at Green-Wood. And, just a year ago, I was pretty impressed with my knowledge of the much less well known stone monuments at Green-Wood by Tiffany Studios. Through the work of sharp-eyed Green-Wood Historic Fund Volunteers, processing the cemetery's Burial Orders, I had learned about… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on May 21st, 2019

Sometimes, as we peruse Green-Wood's massive archives, with millions of documents chronicling the lives of the 574,000 souls who are interred here, something unusual catches one's eye. So it was for volunteer Jim Lambert, who recently worked for months recording the information from Green-Wood's chronological books pertaining to each of the 1400 individuals who are interred in Green-Wood's Freedom Lots--lots which offered burials for people of color in the 19th and 20th centuries. One day Jim came across the 1910 burial record for a Ronda Rangit, who was noted as… Read more