Celtic Crosses as a Grave Memorial of Choice

Abstract

When we consider prominent cemetery monument forms during the first half of the twentieth century, it’s hard to avoid the Celtic Cross. George Foster Peabody commissioned one from the Presbrey Leland Company to mark the Saratoga Springs grave of his wife, Katrina. Company President Clifford Presbrey used one to mark his own grave in New Jersey. One of sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder’s key early commissions led to the creation of the William Joyce Sewell Memorial, a major Celtic cross at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey. Another marks the multi-generational grave of the Calder family of sculptors placed one at the family’s lot in West Laurel Hill Cemetery. Beyond these prominent examples, the monument type becomes a staple of more modest grave marking as. This paper will examine both prominent and lesser examples coupled with contemporary writings on the form in order to better understand its significance and popularity among Americans during the first half of the twentieth century.