About the Libraries
Related Links
- Current Exhibits
- Online Exhibits
- Future Exhibits
- Past Exhibits
- Permanent Exhibits
- Babbidge Hours
- Dodd Center Hours
- Exhibit Application
- Program Policy
- Current Traveling Exhibits
Quick Links
Stones from the famous Stevens shop of Newport, Rhode Island, are a common and striking component of many burial grounds in coastal and southeastern Connecticut. Until recently it was thought that these stones were all carved by three generations of Stevens (John I, 1646-1736; John II, 1702-1778; John III [ = Junior], 1753-? ; and William, 1710-1740. Work in progress by Vincent Luti indicates that the situation is more complex than this with the possibility of additional carvers being involved. Thus attributions for “ Stevens” or for an individual Stevens must for the most part be considered tentative. There is an account book series that is invaluable for students of this wonderful and dominant Rhode Island carving “school” (Tashjian & Tashjian 1974). All of the Stevens carvers appear to be represented in Connecticut. The stones of John I are almost entirely restricted to Stonington burying grounds and are only common in the old Wequetequock yard where examples of John’s square-jawed and round-jawed skulls and oval cherubim may be seen. The majority of Stevens stones in Connecticut were carved on a gray-green slate with strongly upwardly arched wings, often with bald-headed cherubim and elaborate border panels of the type adopted on hundreds of later Manning granite stones. These stones appear to have been carved either by John II or William (or more likely by both). The work of John Stevens III (called Junior) is more easily recognizable; first, he signed a great many of his stones, and he was an innovative, artistic craftsman whose skill with half portraits, elaborate coiffures, lifelike facial expressions, and intricate design details often make his stones quite distinctive. Fine examples of his work are presented in New London’s “Antient Burying Ground” and in the Colonel Ledyard burying ground in Groton (one is found as far north as the Storrs graveyard in Mansfield). In the Denison, Old Taugwonk, and Wequetequock burying grounds in Stonington one finds a series of beautifully designed winged skulls usually carved on a dark blue slat by a carver from the Stevens shop using a distinctive letter g. These stones may be by yet another Stevens hand. The elucidation of the intricate relationships of the Stevens family and their carving associates seems likely to be a major challenge to future gravestones students. In the meantime, these beautiful and frequently well-preserved slates that add such a distinctive note to so many of the old burying grounds of eastern Connecticut can be enjoyed.
From: Slater, James A. The Colonial Burying Grounds of
Eastern Connecticut and the Men Who Made Them. Memoirs of the
Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences, vol. 21. Hamden,
Connecticut: Archon Books, 1987.
*Homer Babbidge Library call number f/Q/11/C85/v.21