Don't Take It for Granite
Island Cemetery is full of notable burials such as Oliver Hazard Perry, the naval hero who led the Lake Erie fleet to victory during the War of 1812 and Civil War Generals Kimble Warren and Thomas W. Sherman. The real surprise was finding out Clarence King, the first Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, is buried here.
Island Cemetery: Newport, Rhode Island
What I really like to do is wander aimlessly. Walking in a z-pattern increases the likelihood of a surprise discovery. Now, walking toward the center of town, I stumbled onto the Island Cemetery, its imposing entrance, forewarning you have arrived at a place of comfort and solace. On the way, I passed rows of unimpressive houses. The architecture around my bed and breakfast seemed like an act of surrender overshadowed by the cemetery’s grand entrance. Bypassed by industrialization, several land additions bordering to the north and east enlarged the property to its present extent.
Newport, Rhode Island is a seaside town renowned for its marble mansions designed by architects like Richard Morris Hunt, McKim Mead and White, and others, that industrialists built in the gilded age when this was the preferred summer playground of America's wealthiest families. Colonial 18th and 19th century wood buildings in the northern section of the city, have been meticulously preserved by the Newport Restoration Foundation. Thus, the architecture is a mix of gilded age decorative arts and simple style.
This was my first trip post-covid after months working from home for the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Geospatial Program, supporting the 3D Elevation Program and National Hydrography, and my second trip back to the cemetery that day. The administration building hadn’t opened when I had arrived at 7am. I had lingered around the entrance long enough to find an excuse to return. An earlier web search uncovered some thrilling history. Having a smartphone is such a game changer. It's my approach to education that uses the local environment and community as a context for learning.
Island Cemetery is full of notable burials such as Oliver Hazard Perry, the naval hero who led the Lake Erie fleet to victory during the War of 1812 and Civil War Generals Kimble Warren and Thomas W. Sherman. The real surprise was finding out Clarence King, the first Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, is buried here. He was born in Newport, Rhode Island in 1842 and was returned for burial in 1901. In between he had an intriguing life as an explorer and geologist as part of the Great Surveys of the West.
When I began reading about King, I rapidly became aware of how much I didn’t know. Most disconcerting was that most of what I knew was either incomplete or unbeknownst. It’s kind of common knowledge as part of the onboarding process at USGS that Clarence King was the first Director of the agency. The library at the National Center bears the name Clarence King Memorial Library. ‘On March 20, 1879, President Hayes sent to the Senate the nomination of Clarence King to be the first Director of the U.S. Geological Survey. The Senate confirmed the nomination on April 3, and King took the oath of office on May 24’. 1 For non-employees, it may represent an almost blank space in their mind as evidenced by the staffer at the administration building, a Ms. King, who despite having the same surname, had no idea who he was and took interest in learning of his background - perhaps hopeful she had come from a famous lineage? And yet others may have heard of the dual life he led under the pseudonym James Todd, the white husband of Ada Copeland, a black woman. Their story is quite extraordinary. Apparently, he was able to convince his wife that he was a light-skinned black man!
Searching for Clarence
I sure thought finding Clarence King’s grave marker would be a slam dunk the first time. Unfortunately, over time, gravestones become stained, reduced to jagged fragments, or a nutrient base for lichen growth. If there are flat markers, you’re likely to scrape off sod overgrowth around the edges to uncover any legible carving. Upright markers may be tumbled over or found leaning on others. I had no clue what I was looking for.
The Island Cemetery burial plot map is available for reference on their website or as I found out later, as a wall size version inside the administration building. It’s truly a valuable primary source that illustrates the placement of each grave within a cemetery. Genealogists find them useful to document family ancestry and it’s a great authoritative record of history. I pointed to the plot on the wall map to Ms. King, who directed me on my way!
With family plots, there is usually a single large headstone engraved with the family name marking the area, and each individual family member will have their own smaller gravestone marking the individual grave. In some cases, a family plot may be in a non-contiguous area. I found myself at the end of the long gravel path on Calla Avenue between Juniper and Locust Avenues, right where the cemetery burial plot map said I should be. While not exactly a predicament, I approached the situation the same way I would if verifying a structures feature from an aerial photograph - start easy then tackle the harder ones. To my benefit, the tumbled over upright marker was not Clarence Kings’. Then I went directly for the two side-by-side flat stones, that over time had sunk and covered with overgrowth.
Using Grayscales for Color Correction
Old tombstones that have been exposed to the sun, rain, and wind for many years, can become difficult to read. Digital cameras can help in situations like this with edits to color or tonal values. An important part of photography is the camera itself. However, for this scenario you don't necessarily have to have a big camera like a full DSLR or even a mirrorless camera. Sometimes the camera that most of us have with us every day, the camera in our smartphone, will work perfectly fine. Digital sensors tend to have a few issues though - noise is one, particularly if you're shooting in lower light, and softening of details. An overhead tree casted a large enough shadow that this was a concern, fixable by adjusting the shadows, exposure, and highlights.
The RGB color images that you see throughout this article, are constructed out of three channels, a red, a green and a blue channel. That red, green, blue is a capture and editing color space. When you look at an image you are viewing the composite of these three channels. When you look at the individual channels, you see grayscale and that's all that is there on those individual channels. This is a fundamental underlying concept for understanding color in a digital image. When your camera captures an image, this is what it captures, a red grayscale channel, a green grayscale channel, and a blue grayscale channel. What you see here on screen is RGB, but that's being created on screen.
I enabled black and white mode and dragged the slider through until I find a good separation between the dynamic range. That creates a more compelling separation and really pushing the difference between bright and dark. Once you get the type of boost to color that you want it’s time to revisit black and white.
Association
Association is a very powerful memory principle. Additionally, a mnemonic device is a memory technique that helps you remember information, to something you already know. For example, ‘HOMES’ helps you remember the Great Lakes. Each letter stands for one of the lakes, Lake Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. Mnemonic devices come in a variety of formats. They can be acronyms, memorable phrases, rhymes, and can even take visual forms.
In this example, I noticed the string ‘rence’ shared between Clarence and Florence. Recall that a Florence K. Howland is also buried here, that is Clarence’s mother. A quick web search confirmed that her name changed from ‘Florence Little King’ to ‘Florence King Howland’ when she married George S. Howland, her second husband. I felt confident enough that I was in the right place as next of kin are typically laid to rest near each other. I recalled that the plot map appeared to suggest that both were buried adjacent to each other. This was a decision with two possible outcomes, I came empty on my first try but did find Clarence.
Island Cemetery is truly a historical treasure. It took me all day to get over the significance of my encounter. And now I was ready to move along to the next place. Place-based learning is more than just a field trip. It’s an approach that connects learning and increases engagement with my surroundings. And it provides unforgettable travel experiences.
Reference
1Clarence King | U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov)