Guest bloggers Martin Hoondert & Janieke Bruin of Tilburg University in the Netherlands are creating a FUNERAL LAB to help funerary professionals work with mourners to create ‘good’ funerals. Development of the funeral lab Contemporary Dutch funeral rituals are characterized as personalized funerals. During these funerals, next of kin recall memories about the life of…
Category: Objects of Remembrance
How would a dementia friendly society memorialise people with dementia?
Guest blogger, Sarah Blair, Administration Manager at Holly Bank Nursing home, ponders the question of how residents with dementia can be remembered and memorialised. I am not a “dementia professional”. I am not a doctor, a nurse or a researcher. I don’t have any qualifications or authority on the subject of dementia, and I have…
Stop the presses! Research highlights now available online.
Remember Me Principal Investigator, Emeritus Professor Margaret Holloway heralds the online publication of our first research highlight documents. It’s hard to believe but the ‘Remember Me’ project is well into its final year. The period since my last update has seen all project streams actively engaged in data analysis and report drafting and I am…
Mont Ventoux: “There is no mountain too high” – The Tom Simpson Memorial
Guest-blogger, Prof Malcolm Golightley, reflects on the memorial to the famous British cyclist, Tom Simpson who died 50 years ago this year. Mont Ventoux is a huge mountain in the south of France. Known affectionately but with considerable fear as the ‘Géant de Provence’ it is reckoned to be the most difficult climb used by…
How ‘trinkets’ become family heirlooms.
Guest-blogger, Jasmine Brammer, from Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust in Melbourne, Australia explores the process by which personal objects associated with deceased loved ones become heirlooms. When a loved one dies, their possessions don’t have to be antiques or expensive heirlooms, or itemised in a Will or Trust to gain the title of ‘treasure’. This can…
Mortimer 100: memorialisation through collecting
As part of the 2017 Festival of Archaeology guest blogger, Alice Rose, Documentation Assistant at the Hull and East Riding Museum explores the concept of collections as a form of memorial. Individuals can be memorialised and remembered in a variety of ways. When we think of memorialisation in the UK, our thoughts usually focus on…
Remembrance through the use of human remains in archaeological collections
Guest blogger, Alice Rose, Documentation Assistant at the Hull and East Riding Museum, explores human remains and remembrance in museum collections. Museums and collectors often do not discuss the human remains they care for. This is due to the complex ethical debates surrounding the excavation, collection and storage of these remains. In this post, we…
Gordon must fall? The ‘Martyr General’ and Brexit Britain
Guest-blogger James Selway reflects on what the legacy of General Charles Gordon means to him in light of the recent decision by Britain to leave the European Union. If 2016 was a year of political revolt in Britain, 2017 has kick-started a process of reflection across our disunited Kingdom. Critics have labelled Brexit ‘Empire 2.0’,…
Why Wear Rosemary on ANZAC Day?
Remember Me Researcher Dr Yvonne Inall explores the reasons underlying the tradition of wearing sprigs of rosemary on Anzac Day. Last year, guest-blogger Dr Jenny MacLeod explored the origins of ANZAC Day . This year I want to focus on one of the smaller details of ANZAC Day remembrance activities: the wearing of rosemary. Each…
Commemorating the Revelation of Mother of God in the Beskidy Mountains (Poland).
Remember Me Research Associate Dr Marcin Biernat shares a story that has been told in his family for generations. Once upon a time a ‘lady’ told a little girl that a church should be raised here, up in the mountains… The first revelations in this place date back to 25th July 1894 when a little…
Death and Memorialisation in Hong Kong and New Zealand
Remember Me Principal Investigator, Emeritus Professor Margaret Holloway, recently travelled to Hong Kong and New Zealand. She reports on memorials she observed on her travels. In vain did I protest to neighbours and friends as I left home on 4 February that this trip was mainly work. It has truly been an incredibly intense but…
Remembering, Loss and Poetry
Guest-blogger Catherine Sadler reflects on the influences of remembrance and loss on her work as a poet. When I think about the idea of remembering, or remembrance, I immediately, and perhaps rather obviously, think about loss – the loss of a person, an idea, a dream, a place, a building, an experience, a history, or…
Remember Me. The Changing Face of Memorialisation 