Old Boneyards of New England
Text & Photos by Fred Berger
Nowhere in this benighted land of ours are the shadows of the past deeper and darker than in New England, a place settled by the Puritans who fled religious persecution in their English homeland to establish communities based on strict biblical principles. But here they were vexed by new fears born of a vast untamed wilderness where strange heathens and the Devil roamed. The harshness of their austere lifestyle and draconian belief system is evident in the graveyards they left behind, haunting monuments of a simpler yet unforgiving time, decorated with rudimentary carvings of placid angels and dour skulls.
In 1990, I visited the Milford Cemetery in Milford, Connecticut with one of my models, Michelle Duncan, whose somber beauty lent itself to many a macabre and mysterious theme. Established in 1642, it is one of North America’s oldest graveyards and is typical of the period with its irregular rows of narrow tombstones and the occasional sarcophagus. It even boasts its own resident ghost, a woman dressed in white known to stroll its grounds after nightfall. Using a real human skull as a photographic prop, Michelle quickly got into character, channeling the spirits of the dead in a state of necromantic reverie.
A year later, I traveled with Propaganda model John Koviak to Salem, Massachusetts, scene of the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692 to 1693. Ironically, this quaint colonial town had become America’s witchcraft capital, home to numerous covens and practitioners of The Old Religion. Our photoshoot took place in the picturesque Charter Street Cemetery, the city’s oldest burial ground opened in 1637. It is the final resting place of two of the trial’s judges, although most of the 20 innocent people they condemned to death were interred in unmarked graves at the execution site known as Gallows Hill. A dedicated memorial now pays tribute to these victims of mass hysteria.
