The role of cemeteries in the development of municipal and national military parks: the cemetery-park connection

Abstract

This thesis examines how cemeteries, both municipal and military, have developed in America based on internal and external influences and the role that they have played in the development of municipal and national military parks, respectively. It highlights the role of cemeteries on the eve of the twenty-first century and shows how this study can provide managers of municipalities and national military parks that possess cemeteries with an understanding of the role that cemeteries have historically played and can still play in the lives of the citizens and visitors that they serve. This information, relayed to concerned parties, will not simply serve as useless trivia but will serve as an important understanding of how, in fact, America's municipal and national military parks developed based on the various ideas, desires, and sacrifices of Americans that have passed before. It seems quite odd that cemeteries were the public spaces in which the recreation revolution occurred in America. Many researchers have attributed the recreation revolution to Frederick Law Olmsted and his impact on the development of municipal parks. This research shows that the recreation revolution in America occurred well before Olmsted entered the scene; it occurred with the development of "rural" cemeteries. This research delves into many related topics to show how, in fact, this revolution occurred including the idea of parks and cemeteries, past and present, and the histories of the development of cemeteries and municipal parks including the persons, events, ideas, patterns, and philosophy involved. This research reveals that it was a complex of reasons that, in fact, led to the development of municipal parks. Cemeteries indeed have more of a connection with parks than simply with municipal parks. In fact, cemeteries in the form of military cemeteries played an important role in the development of national military parks. This study relates how this unique development occurred in the United States.