Winterthur Portfolio - Book Reviews 42:4 Book Reviews James Blachowicz. From Slate to Marble: Gravestone Carving Traditions in Eastern Massachusetts, 1770– 1870. Evanston, IL: Graver Press, 2006. xxxix+440 pp.; 282 illustrations, 24 tables, bibliography, in- dex, CD-ROM. $59.95. James Blachowicz’s sumptuously illustrated book, From Slate to Marble: Gravestone Carving Traditions in Eastern Massachusetts, 1770 to 1870, follows a tra- dition in gravestone study that employs formal analysis, connoisseurship, and genealogical study. Relying on gravestones, probate records, and ad- ditional primary sources, this book surveys the work of fifty-five stonecutters working in Boston, Plymouth, Kingston, Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard, from 1770 to 1870. Seeking to provide his readers with an ‘‘inside story of this very old American craft’’ (4), the author illuminates a complex network of activity that extended over a wide area, arguing that the shift from the pro- duction of slate gravestones to carved marble mon- uments was reflective of a larger transformation in American consumer demand, industry, and eco- nomics. Beginning with a broad introduction to carving traditions in late eighteenth-century Boston, the author demonstrates that stones carved in this urban locale were exported and enjoyed prom- inence in markets across New England from Maine to Cape Cod (77). Early nineteenth-century news- paper advertisements and probate records are em- ployed to explain how young carvers in towns like Kingston and Plymouth reduced the demand for Boston-carved stones, ultimately bringing an end to the metropolis’s role as the dominant regional producer. Detailing carving locales outside Boston, Blachowicz engages questions surrounding ap- prenticeship traditions, shop diversification, mar- keting, and the extensive physical infrastructure necessary for tablet production. Additionally, the text examines the transformation that occurred in the first quarter of the nineteenth century when material preference shifted from traditional slate to more fashionable marble gravestones. Although the period from 1830 to 1870 has long been omit- ted from studies of gravestones, Blachowicz makes a compelling case for the inclusion of objects created within this time frame: these stones ex- emplify the move from flat, tablet-shaped stones to monuments with more three-dimensional sculptur- al adornment, they demonstrate developing trends toward standardization of design elements, and they reveal evidence of the transformation of labor from craft traditions to early industrial models. The book concludes by addressing the moderniza- tion of American gravestone design by centralized suppliers like Sears, Roebuck and Co. in the 1900s. Augmenting Blachowicz’s thoughtful text are two tremendously useful components. First, the book includes a CD-ROM with over 750 color images keyed to the text, searchable and sortable lists of over 8,000 stones, lists of over 1,300 signed and doc- umented gravestones, and a catalog of 713 burial grounds in which the included objects can be found. Second, the author has compiled an appendix that he refers to as the ‘‘freytag 27+ scale.’’ This photo- graphic compendium, displaying sixty sets of carved typefaces executed by most of the major craftsmen presented in the body of the text, provides a con- noisseurial key with which to examine tombstones. # XXXXX UCP: Winterthur Portfolio article # 420411 B 2008 by The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact journalpermissions@press.uchicago.edu.