Respectable burial : Montreal's Mount Royal Cemetery / Brian Young ; colour photographs by Geoffrey James.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Young, Brian J., 1940-

Contributor:

James, Geoffrey, 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Protestants--Quebec (Province)--Montreal--History.

Protestants.

Burial--Quebec (Province)--Montreal--History.

Burial.

Death--Quebec (Province)--Montreal--History.

Death.

Montréal (Québec)--Social life and customs.

Montréal (Québec).

Montréal (Québec)--History.

Mount Royal Cemetery (Montréal, Québec)--History.

Mount Royal Cemetery (Montréal, Québec).

Physical Description:

lv, 226 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 x 29 cm.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Respectable Burial also highlights how important a role Montreal played in Canada's history. The cemetery is the final resting place of politician Alexander Galt, poet F.R. Scott, hockey star Howie Morenz, explorer David Thompson, bank presidents, renegades, hangmen, and victims of the Titanic. This history of a model rural cemetery, an innovator in perpetual care and proprietor of the first crematorium in Canada, illustrates changing attitudes to burial and commemoration - including the relationships between Protestantism, Romanticism, and death. Young also shows how the cemetery, a site of great natural beauty that helped inspire Frederick Law Olmsted's adjacent Mount Royal Park, became a much-loved public urban space and examines how the evolution of its landscaping, architecture, and use reflect changing attitudes to the place of women, recreation, heritage, and the environment. Incorporating a rich collection of archival illustrations, walking maps, and a colour photo essay by photographer Geoffrey James, Respectable Burial will appeal to anyone interested in Canadian history, parks, and cities.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Maps

Acknowledgments

The Cemetery in Colour

Chronology

Introduction

Abandoning Urban Burial Grounds

Establishing a “Rural” Cemetery

The Victorian Cemetery

Contested Decorum: The Cemetery as Public Space

Running a Business, 1852–1924

The Lawn Plan versus “Widowed Stone”

Cremation, 1902–1974

Military Graves

Continuity and Entitlement

New Respectability: Business and History at the Cemetery Today

Notes

Bibliography

Illustration Credits

Index

Grave Location Maps

Notes:

Issued also in French under title: Une mort tres digne : l'histoire du cimetiere Mont-Royal.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-282-86108-5

9786612861086

0-7735-7098-5