Cave Hill

It was a coincidence. Really, it was.

I just took advantage of the coincidence.

Since we moved here, I thought it would be interesting to visit the Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville. Finally the weather got nice enough and we took a morning for a short tour. I hadn't even thought about this being Memorial Day weekend.

My intention was to find the graves of notables. And to see if it would be a good place to walk. I'll start with the most notable of the notables

It's not clear to me that this is actually Ali's grave or if it is a spot for tourists.

Ali's grave is said to be marked by a simple black marker with only his name "in the Islamic tradition" 

Turns out there are lots of stories out there, one of which might be right. But that is the internet, eh?

I would guess the next most notable is

Yes, it is that Colonel

And since we are on food franchises, how about a Frito salesman?

And better known as Louisville's favorite street magician

We looked for the grave of Patty Hill, (possibly ... probably) the composer of Happy Birthday. 

But our map or our map reading skills were insufficient for the job

So next on to George Rogers Clark

This Clark is credited for founding Louisville. A legendary hero.

But like many legendary American heroes, factual historical accounts are less kind.

Clark has already been bounced between multiple graves, so I'll not give him further grief.

I had been looking for his brother William Clark of Lewis & fame but I was confused. 

William is buried in St Louis. 

Both Louisville and St Louis were named after the French King Louis.

Another coincidence

Now appropriately, since it is Memorial Day,

I will turn to the National Cemetery located at Cave Hill.

Many of these graves are from the Civil War and contain both Northern and Southern troops.

Kentucky was officially neutral during the Civil War but seemed to lean heavily to the south.

Here the Kentucky State flag flies over Civil War Dead

This flag bears a very strong resemblance to the Confederate flag.

It is estimated that 1.1 million American serivcepeople have lost their lives in all of American wars.

That would require a cemetery of about 2 square miles to bury them all

It is estimated that American has killed 20 million enemy soldiers and non-combtants since WWII.

And killed 40 million Native Americans in the expansion Westward.

That would be a 60 square mile cemetery

Lots of grass to mow

I'll now transition back to the rest of the cemetery

Louisvillians seem to like large monuments for their dead. 

I'm not sure how widespread this practice is.

Is it East Coast? 

Southern?

Plantation?

European? Scottish? English? German?

I shall have to research this

This one is interesting mainly because you can catch a rare glimpse of me in the reflection

And a pic of Cyndi peering into a crypt.

When I first moved here, I heard people talk about the Ali Museum and the Frazier Museum

"Odd" I thought. "Why" I asked "is there a museum for Frazier in Ali's hometown?"

"Ah" I was told "Different Frazier"

This one donated money from his bourbon distilleries for the confusingly named museum

Does that qualify as another coincidence?

Lots and lots of large monuments

Most of them very white

There is a lot of limestone around here, so maybe the choice is simply expedient

But ...

Louisville has reasonably good racial harmony, at least for a US City

But Louisville has highly segregated housing

East is almost all white, west is almost all black

For a while, blacks were forbidden from all entry to this cemetery 

(tho that was long ago)

Scholarly papers cite Cave Hill as having had the most extreme segregation rules in the 19th century

I tried to find some statistics or information about the current racial diversity in this cemetery, 

but the internet was surprisingly mute on the topic

Ali is buried here

And I saw one African American middle aged woman driving about the cemetery dressed appropriately for a visit to a relative

I should try to research this further

(btw, this Jacob was mayor of Louisville in the late 19th century)

It is a bit rude to erect the monument while the patient remains on their deathbed

This next one was Cyndi's favorite

We weren't sure if this was an authorized memorial

or if someone just pounded a stake in the ground and left it here

I found some common motifs

 Even some Gorgons

And lots like these

Now to start to wrap up

And finish with the American Happy Ending

Some Spring splashed across the skies

Conclusion:

A great place to walk

Precisionism, War and People

Mass production and machined precision were fascinating and fearful in the early part of the 20th century. Artists reacted to this conflict with detailed, loving art with no soul. At least that is my take on it. A movement called American Precisionism both captured this moment and influenced it. The deYoung is showing a number of pieces from this period. Capitalism, industrialization and colonialism led to this time and led to war as well. The deYoung had what I consider a companion exhibit about propaganda during the World Wars.

Lets start with Precisionism, an exhibit the deYoung called

The Cult of the Machine

The absence of people is startling in these cityscapes.

While people were impressed with mass production and these suddenly massive and powerful machines, they also feared them. People lost jobs. Society was experiencing new things it didn't know how to handle. Fear and excitement were abundant.

The parallels with technology problems today were not lost on either myself or the deYoung.

Nor you, I'm sure.

I have taken many photos like these last two

It's Best Because It's Better

Even I can understand the symbolism of these two individuals

When people do appear, it is in roles such as this uneasy encounter between blue and white collar workers in San Francisco on the Embarcedero

This last one is by Georgia O'Keefe, believe it or not. It is believed to be her last cityscape before moving to New Mexico

The scene is now set for two wars. 

Propaganda

First you dehumanize your opponent. Call them "animals". 

And rely on fear to control the masses

War is good for the economy. Or at least the Industrialists

And the loyal, patriotic citizens will stay silent and do as they are told.

And the citizen will be a loyal worker, taking whatever wage is offered.

And loyal citizens of course will flock to Disney movies with their extra pennies and nickles. 

A Tanguey seems a good way to end this section.

Long Live the Individual. Or at least the Colorful.

I was cheered some as I left the museum, wandering through a few permanent galleries.

Sort of an anti-precisionist object.

Made me happy