Styles: Bale Tomb/Barrel Tomb

This is a wonderful bale/barrel tomb located at Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa, OK.  Sadly there is no names or dates anywhere to be found. There is a lot tag which is visible in the photo that reads 251.  If you are familiar with this grave I would love to know who is buried here. 

Identifying Major StoneTypes

This information was taken from The Association of Gravestone Studies. It has been very helpful to me so I though I would share it.


GRANITE

• Igneous rock with visible grain, primarily quartz and feldspar
• Speckled appearance with sparkly mica and dull black flecks
• Extremely hard rock that is difficult to carve by hand
• Grays, pinks in a wide range of colors
• Commercial granites include gneiss and other rocks not strictly granite
• Exhibits a full range of grain sizes with uniform surface patterns
• Granular with no discernable bedding planes
• Often used for monuments and tombs

LIMESTONE

• Soft, sedimentary rock primarily composed of calcite
• Fossils may be recognizable and are the most diagnostic trait
• Tan, buff or gray colored that darkens with age
• Matte surface almost never polished
• Somewhat rough texture, rarely “sugars” like marble
• No marked veining like marble
• No definite layers or bedding planes like sandstone
• No sparkly mica grains like granite
• Often gets gypsum crusts

MARBLE

• Hard, dense crystalline or granular metamorphic limestone
• White when new or in new breaks, but older marbles may appear gray from soiling
• Capable of taking a high polish, yellows with age
• May have veins of gray or gold
• Commercial marble is any lime carbonate capable of taking a polish, could include limestone and many colors
• Tennessee marble is medium-grained similar to limestone in texture with a pink cast
• Georgia marble is very large-grained, somewhat gray in color
• Predominant stone for gravestones in the 19th century
• Many early marbles are eroded and “sugaring”

SANDSTONE

• Sedimentary rock composed of cemented sand grains – “bedding planes”
• Red and brown (Brownstone) in color, can be gray, tan or blue (Bluestone)
• Fine-grained stone with sand grains
• Often flakes and delaminates

· SLATE

• Metamorphosed shale, hard and brittle
• Usually black, gray or blue
• Sometimes fades with time
• Extremely smooth, fine-grained stone with even bedding planes usually running parallel with the stone’s face
• Holds carving very well, inscriptions usually very clear
• Uniform surface appearance
• Gravestones tend to be thin and simple in shape, generally not more than six inches

SOAPSTONE

• Metamorphic rock
• Largely composed of the mineral talc and is rich in magnesium
• Easily carved and darkens over age
• Smooth to the touch
• Used in 19th century, commonly for slot and tab tombs in Georgia
• White, gray, greenish gray, pale green -- commonly discolored in reddish or brownish hues and mottled

Sunday Styles: Truncated or blunt obelisk

Truncated or blunt obelisk - Similar shape to the standard obelisk but with a rounded capital (top).

Sunday Styles: Vaulted Obelisks

Vaulted obelisks  - Shaft is similar to the other obelisk styles but the capital (top) is distinctive. The most common variation is the cross-vaulted obelisk. The cross-vaulted obelisk’s capital peaks cross over, which gives a "+" or cross-vaulted pattern. On some of these vaulted obelisk styles, the capital is designed to look like the vaulted ceilings in churches. (Credits)

Sunday Styles: Grave House or Grave Shelter

Grave House or Grave Shelter - is a  shelter erected over or near a grave. These little houses protect the grave from both the natural elements, critters and grave robbers.

Sunday Styles: Chest Tomb

Chest tomb - is the simplest sarcophagus like tomb.  Much like a shipping container. 

Sunday Styles: Domed Tablet

Domed Tablet - is just a variation on the basic tablet headstone, domed tombstone markers are generally rectangular in shape with a domed or curved top.

Sunday Styles: Ledger Stone

Ledger stone-  are usually 3’ x 6’ rectangular grave marker of stone laid flat over a grave, or combined with box or table tombs. When combined with box or table tombs they set on the top of box and table tombs. Ledgers generally contain detailed information about the deceased.

Sunday Styles: Flush Marker

Flush marker -- A flat, rectangular grave marker set flush with the lawn or surface of the ground.  No frills but makes maintenance easier. Many military markers are flush markers.

Sunday Styles: Bale Tomb

A Bale Tomb looks like a chest tomb with a rounded top.

Sunday Styles: Alter Tomb

Alter tomb - a chest tomb that becomes more ornate and looks like ornaments are applied to it. Especially if the ornaments are added to the top.

(Located at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, MO.)

(Located at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, MO.)

Sunday Style: Pedestal Tomb

Pedestal Tomb - give sarcophagus-like tombs a more dramatic look, designers placed them on pedestals.

Sidney Rowland Francis located at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St.Louis, MO.

Hilt family marker located at Bellefontaine Cemtery in St. Louis, MO.

William Waner (in the back) located at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, PA.

Sunday Styles: Hip Tomb

Hip tomb take on the form of a miniature low slung house with either a two or four sided roof.

Two Sided Roof

(Located at Anderson Cemetery in Anderson, MO.)

Sunday Styles: Exedra

Exedra pronounced ek-si-druh is a permanent outdoor bench, semicircular in plan and having a high back. (http://www.dictionary.com/) They can also be found as a straight bench in many cemeteries.

Stories in Stone by Douglas Keister

Sunday Styles: Potter's Field

Potter’s field -- A place for the burial of indigent or unknown persons. The term derives from a Biblical reference, Matthew 27.7, where, with regard to Judas throwing down the silver to betray Jesus, is written, “And they [priests] took counsel, and bought with them [the pieces of silver] the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.”

Wikipedia

Sunday Styles: Rock Cairn

Rock Cairn -- A mound of stones erected as a memorial or a marker.

(Located at Jane Cemetery in Jane, MO.)

Wikipedia

Sunday Styles: Columbariums

Columbariums are structures used to store cremated remains above the ground for memorialization purposes. Community and church cemeteries, as well as, families and individuals use Columbariums. Many community and church cemeteries have Columbariums installed to save space.

Sunday Styles: Fieldstone markers

Fieldstone - A stone taken from the ground’s surface. Often placed at the head and sometimes the foot of a grave to mark its location. Fieldstones are found primarily in graveyards that were established before sources of gravestones were available in the area, or where lack of stone carving skills or limited economic circumstances made use of fieldstones necessary.

Sunday Styles: Eclectic monument

Eclectic markers  - they tends to be large and incorporate two or three styles in one structure. This type of marker commonly has a flat screen (for inscriptions). These monuments are generally massive and made of granite but not alway.

(Located at Fairview Cemetery in Joplin, MO)

Sunday Styles: Pilaster columns

Pilaster columns are a type of column, but are a combination of the obelisk and the column monument. The pilaster column has a square or rectangular shaft and is either flat topped or topped with an urn.

Sometimes pilaster columns are referred to as pedestals.

(Located at Hazelwood Cemetery in Springfield, MO)