Historical society plans presentation on cemeteries

The presentation will deal with the origins of the rural cemetery movement.

STAFF REPORT

SALEM — The Salem Historical Society will offer a program in its meeting room at 7 p.m. Tuesday on the topic of cemeteries.

McKinley Museum curator Kim Kenney will present “Unlocking the Secrets of Cemeteries.”

Cemeteries have a special language, spoken through the symbols carved on tombstones. Using photographs from cemeteries across the country, this program demystifies the symbolism and explains the origins of the “rural cemetery movement” in the mid-19th century.

Kenney recently received the Oakley Certificate of Merit from the Association of Gravestone Studies for her interpretive projects at West Lawn Cemetery. This illustrated lecture is part of her on-going cemetery research project. She recently presented this program for the Cemetery and Mortuary Association of California in Palm Springs, Calif.

Kenney graduated summa cum laude from Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., with a major in American history and minor in creative writing, and she became a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Chapter Xi.

She earned her master’s degree in history museum studies at the Cooperstown Graduate Program. She interned at the Rome Historical Society in her hometown of Rome, N.Y.; Wells Fargo Historical Services in San Francisco; and the Sen. John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center in Pittsburgh.

She also has served as an interpreter at the Erie Canal Village in Rome, N.Y. She served as curator of collections at the Historical Society of Rockland County in New York before taking the position of curator at the William McKinley Presidential Library & Museum in Niles in October 2001.

She is the author of three books: “Canton: A Journey Through Time,” “Canton’s West Lawn Cemetery,” and “Canton’s Pioneers in Flight.” She also has published an exhibition review in The Public Historian, the journal of the National Council for Public History. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, the literary magazine Mused, and the Amazon Shorts program. She serves as editor of the museum’s Web site at BellaOnline.com, where she has authored several ebooks.