UTOPIAN PROMISE - Annenberg Media

deceased individual and expressed orthodox ways of understanding
human mortality. Typical gravestone iconography ranged from traditional
symbols of the transitory nature of earthly existence (skulls,
skeletons, hourglasses, scythes) to emblems suggesting the possibility
of resurrection and regeneration (wings, birds, flowers, trees, the sun).
Eventually, gravestones also came to include representations of
cherubs and human forms.
One of the most common images found on early Puritan gravestones
is the winged death’s-head, prominent on the pediment of the
Joseph Tapping stone (Boston, 1678). At first glance, the image seems
grim and despairing, a visual corollary to the Latin inscriptions on the
lower right panel of the stone (Vive Memor Loethi and Fugit Hora, or
“Live mindful of death” and “Time is fleeting”). Yet the wings attached
to the death’s-head suggest the possibility of resurrection and ascension
to heaven, thus pictorially signifying the conceptual duality of
Puritan attitudes toward death as both a fearful event and a potential
means to eternal salvation. The architectural symbolism of columns
and tablets on the Reverend Abraham Nott stone (Essex, Connecticut,
1756) similarly functions as a visual emblem of apocalyptic thinking,
suggesting the rebuilding of the temple and the Second Coming of
Christ as it is prophesied in Revelation. With their iconographic fusion
of religious and aesthetic values, gravestones offer important evidence
about the interrelationship of spiritual concerns and attitudes toward
death in Puritan culture.
QUESTIONS
Comprehension: What kinds of images decorate the gravestones featured
in the archive? Which images are most prominent? What do
you think the images would have signified to Puritan viewers? How
might the images have offered spiritual comfort to those mourning
the dead?
Comprehension: Basing your opinion on the gravestones featured in
the archive, how do you think Puritan gravestones changed over
time? How might these differences reflect shifts in cultural values?
Comprehension: What is the concept of “election” in Puritan theology?
Read Anne Bradstreet’s spiritual reflections in her letter “To My
Dear Children.” How does she struggle with her faith and the question
of her own election? What conclusions does she come to?
Context: In sermons delivered in the 1630s and 1640s, the Puritan
minister John Cotton predicted that the Apocalypse would occur
within the next fifteen years. Years later, at the end of the seventeenth
century, his grandson Cotton Mather asserted that Puritans
should expect the Apocalypse very soon. Using the timeline provided
in this unit, examine the events that were occurring in New
England in the 1630s, 1640s, and 1690s when these predictions
were made. Why do you think Puritans living in this period would
have felt that the end of the world was near at hand? What events
and anxieties might have made these apocalyptic predictions seem
realistic?
[4563] Anonymous, The Joseph
Tapping Stone, King’s Chapel, Boston,
Massachusetts (1678), courtesy of
Wesleyan University.
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[2121] Anonymous, Goffe Rallying the
men of Hadley (1883), courtesy of the
Library of Congress [LC-USZ62-75122].
Indian attacks on villages in western
Massachusetts during King Philip’s War
challenged the viability of English settlement
in New England and led many to
question why they had fallen so far from
God’s favor and to wonder whether the
Apocalypse was near.
[3370] Anonymous, The Rebekah
Gerrish Stone (1743), courtesy of
Wesleyan University Press. This stone
depicts the conflict between time and
death: a candle is flanked by a skeleton
on the left, about to snuff out the fire,
and a winged angel on the right, with
an hourglass in hand, making a prohibitive
gesture toward the skeleton. This
dispute reflects the dual nature of time
and Judgment found in Wigglesworth’s
“Day of Doom” and the more concrete
dualism of the Apocalypse: some will be
sent to hell and some to heaven.
APOCALYPSE 35