A project born out of my work at the Fernald State School & Metropolitan State Hospital’s MetFern cemetery and the Tewksbury Hospital Cemetery, I have been conducting research to determine the current state of all the state school and state hospital cemeteries in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
At this time, I have visited all of these cemeteries, bar about two or three, and have assessed the status of the cemetery through photo documentation. A selection of the images are below:
I was selected as the Student Presenter for the 2017 Association of Gravestone Studies Annual Conference in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where I presented “‘Feeble Stones’: Graves of the Developmentally Disabled in Massachusetts.” This presentation, although focused primarily on cemeteries of the disabled, briefly touched on my research of institutions throughout Massachusetts.
More research and presentations to come regarding my work on this topic!
ashlynnrickord.com 