Adult Funeral Procession

William P. Chappel American

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Here, Chappel depicts a funeral procession with a minister leading the widower and his son, attendant mourners, and the pallbearers, identified by their white sashes and gloves. The pictured cemetery, located near Stanton and Chrystie Streets, would have been situated in the city’s northern reaches in 1807. By the turn of the nineteenth century, overcrowded cemeteries had become a major problem for New York, and in 1804, the council banned all burials south of Pump (now Canal) Street. By 1809, the council had also prohibited the common practice of interring the dead below the sidewalks just outside the walls of cemeteries when they reached capacity.

Adult Funeral Procession, William P. Chappel (American, 1801–1878), Oil on slate paper, American

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