Buried Boston: America’s Revolutionary Necropolis

An exploration of Boston’s hidden history through its cemeteries, revealing the city’s complex relationship with death and memorialization.

One of the oldest cities in America, Boston’s story is one richly steeped in culture and history. Its sprawling streets behold countless tales of revolutionary battles of years past, but much of that vivid story remains shrouded beneath its gravestones. Cemeteries and graveyards stand as a place of reverence and memorial--but they are also gorgeous stone archives--and Boston’s are no exception. Hidden between the skyscrapers and parks are burying grounds and cemeteries, each revealing a complex story, not only of Boston, but of the dynamically shifting attitudes toward death in America.

Photographer, lecturer, and cemetery tour guide, JR Pepper, has been documenting cemeteries for over twenty years and turns her lens to America’s famed ＂Walking City.＂ Through over 100 richly detailed photographs, the countless stories beneath the headstones and otherworldly landscapes of one of America’s earliest cities are brought to light. Buried Boston explores the memorable monuments of Boston’s permanent residents ranging from the memento mori embellished colonial stones of the city’s burying ground to the lavish marble statuary and mausoleums of the expansive rural landscape of Mount Auburn Cemetery.