Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️
LightNews LightNews
banner
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️
@graveyardarch.bsky.social
3.5K followers 760 following 2.1K posts
Adjunct prof, PhD in Historical Archaeology ✨️
Mortuary Archaeologist & Museum Educator. I like graves, the C17th, landscapes, & protective magic. I preserve gravestones, write books, & paint pictures (she/her)

https://linktr.ee/RLacy
Posts Replies Media Videos
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Hello yes, coming to the end of Remembrance Day & we have immediately put up our tree 💁‍♀️
The lights combat the fact that its dark at like 4:30pm now!
A living room with light blue walls, with white fairy lights running around the top of the walls. We are looking at a christmas tree in the front left of the frame, covered in rainbow lights and numerous handmade clay ornaments. In the centre is a wooden ikea tv stand with 3 drawers, and a large black flatscreen tv. Above it on the walk is a gallery of paintings and prints in black frames. In the far right corner is a grey cat tree.
November 11, 2025 at 9:41 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
I assisted my colleague with a Remembrance Day embroidery workshop yesterday, & made this!! I learned most of the stitches during the workshop so I could assist participants, & made this in between actually helping :) #embroidery
A small wooden embroidery hoop holding white fabric, with a forget-me-not flower embroidered on it. I'm holding the hoop over a grey table scattered in sewing needle packs and bits of thread.
November 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Please admire my Pierrot costume, based on Derain's painting! ✨️ #halloween #halloween2025 #costume
It's me, dressed all in white with a large white neck ruffle and right black hat. There are black pompoms on my sleeves, and two on each pant leg, and I'm holding a black mandolin.
November 1, 2025 at 8:44 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 31, Memento Mori: the last day of #31DaysofGraves, we have this ledger in the floor of the Domkerk, Utrecht! Note the reclining skeleton with Memento Mori below it, the cherubs with their hourglasses, & another cherub on a smaller plinth reading 'Pavi Atim', or 'I was so happy'.
A large, black stone ledger set into the floor of the Domkerk. There is a sort of egg and cup design around the border, and a panel of text in Latin at the top. In the centre is a large wreath with a heraldic shield in the middle and a knight's helmet. The memento mori symbols described in the post are all on the bottom half of the stone. The bottom half of the stone in detail, with a pait of feet wearing black and white sneakers and blue jeans on the bottom of the image, standing on the edge of the stone.
October 31, 2025 at 2:21 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 30, Colour: This is the limestone grave marker of the Honourable John Kent, 2nd Premier of Newfoundland, who died suddenly in 1872. He is buried in the Belvedere RC Cemetery in St. John's, NL. Someone keeps repainting John's face on the stone 🫠
#31DaysofGraves
A large limestone crucifix, Jesis is wearing a wrapped fabric around his waist. The cross is on a round pillar with a pointed top, and below the cross is curved scroll work amd a circle framing a carving of the face of John Kent. The stone flairs out below him onto a wide cylindrical base. The face is painted to look more lifelike.
October 30, 2025 at 9:51 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 29, Occupation: The grave of Reverend William Dutton, a Methodist minister in Greenspond, NL, who died in Dec 1870. He had only arrived in July of that year, before dying of typhoid fever. His stone is detailed, with an open book on top, a rose laying on the pages.
#31DaysofGraves
A two piece complex marble monument, rectangular with a carved open book laying on the top with a carved rose on the pages. The inscription is carved on a panel that looks like a scroll. It was carved by MacKim
October 29, 2025 at 2:16 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 27, Tree: The gorgeous forested graveyard in Elliston, NL, featuring me!
Day 28, Column: This gravestone in Trepassey Old RC Cemetery is so ornate! The columns on the side frame a detailed central IHS with vines and blossoms.
#31DaysofGraves
A forested graveyard, with a central pathway of blue and purple slate reaching from the centre towards a small white chapel in the background with a red door. I am standing partway down the path with my legs crossed, wearing a green wide brimmed hat, a grey sweater, and jeans. A very ornate white marble gravestone with an IHS in the centre, surrounded by flowers and ivy. It is dedicated to Johm Hewett, 1871. Another almost identical gravestone is peeking in from the left, and a man in leaning down from the right in a plaid shirt and green baseball hat, putting an irange pinflag into the ground by the grave.
October 29, 2025 at 12:36 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 26, Figure: Here we have the extremely pre-Reformation burial of historian Jean Juvenal des Ursins and Michelle de Vitry, his wife. They are praying, suggesting to the viewer to offer prayer to help their souls from purgatory. They are buried in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris.
#31DaysofGraves
The photo shows two figures made of wood or stone and painted. They are kneeling and facing left in prayer. The inscription says 'Jean Juvenal des Ursins 1431, Prevot de Marchands de las Ville de Paris. Et Michelle de Vitry sa Femme, 1456'
October 26, 2025 at 10:56 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Tonight was @ohfolkthat.bsky.social 's traditional pumpkin carving night! @stgiles.bsky.social & I went for the dynamic duo 💁‍♀️✨️
Two carved pumpkins, lit up in the dark. On the left is Derpy the tiger from kpop demon hunters, amd on the right is the 3 eyes bird with the hat from the movie too!
October 26, 2025 at 2:02 AM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 25, graveside ornament: A beautiful family grave with a scotty dog sculpture at Pére Lachaise cemetery, Paris. The front says 'Concession a perpetuite', meaning that they have paid to own that plot in perpetuity!
#31DaysofGraves
A low grave monument covering the entire grave shaft. It has a shallow carved cross across the length of the low gable monument, and there is a bronze fern or palm leaf in the middle. Near the foot of the monument is a statue of a scotty dog, painted white with a red tongue.
October 25, 2025 at 7:27 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 24, Unique Animal: A flatfish on a ledger in the floor of the Domkerk in Utrecht, Netherlands. The stone is too worn for hundreds of years of feet to see the name or date, but the fish on the crest endures!
#31DaysofGraves
A photo looking at the floor at a large, black stone ledger. It is very worn, so there are no letters left on it, but in the centre there is a family crest with a flatfish in the middle.
October 25, 2025 at 12:19 AM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 23, Cross: Today we have an elegant Celtic Ring Cross with lead lettering, at the General Protestant Cemetery in St. John's, NL. It is the grave of John Anderson, a member of the Legislative Council of Newfoundland. He died in 1930.
#31DaysofGraves #yyt
A sandstone celtic ring cross with celtic knot designs across the face of the cross. It is standing on 2 sandstone blocks, and has lead lettering.
October 24, 2025 at 12:08 AM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 22, Landscape: This is the L'anse Amour burial mound in southern Labrador. It it the oldest known burial monument in North America, at 7700 years old, & was the burial of a young person associated with the Maritime adapted peoples in Labrador. 😍
#31daysofgraves
Reddish brown soil is in the foreground, dotted with rocks and small flowers. In the centre of the image is a grassy pile of rocks and earth, the burial mound. Low trees stretch out into the distance under a blue and cloudy sky, and there is a glimpse of the ocean in the top left.
October 22, 2025 at 5:07 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 21, Bronze: The beautiful and tragic monument of auronauts Joseph Croce-Spinelli and Théodore Sivel, lying side by side holding hands. They died in their hot air balloon in 1875 at 28,000 feet from lack of oxygen, and are buried together, recognized as 'martyrs to science'.
#31DaysofGraves
A large bronze monument of two men laying under a shroud, their shoulders, heads, and arms exposed. The shroud drapes down over the limestone sides of the monument. Both men look to be sleeping, their hair pushed back and heads turned away from one another.
October 21, 2025 at 11:48 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 20, Wreath: The grave of Maximilien Joseph Hurtault, French architect. The owl in the wreath at the top of the monument is stunning! He is buried in Pére Lachaise, Paris.
#31DaysofGraves
A large and ornate complex grsvestone. It has a shell like central carving at the top. The central motif is an owl inside a wreath. There is garland below the wreath scross the width of the stone, tied to two upsidedown torches. The base of the stone has ivy on it, snd iron rails surround the grave.
October 20, 2025 at 10:58 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 19, Social Group: This is the grave of Elizabeth Purcell, who died in Portugal Cove, NL, in 1828. She is buried alongside her family, her social group. The epitaph says 'Wife to John at my left hand and Grandmother to Richard and James at my right hand.'
#31DaysofGraves
Sandstone gravestone with mottled green lichen. It reads 'Sacred to the memory of Elizabeth Purcell, who died on the 13th day of April 1828. Wife ti John at my left hand, and Grandmother to Richard and James at my right hand. May her soul rest in peace, Amen'
October 19, 2025 at 9:37 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 18, Mistake: I think for the 3rd year in a row, we have another set of upsidedown hands! This time at the St.Andrew's graveyard in Fogo, NL! We finally have a carver name, the culprit is MacKim!
#31DaysofGraves
A marble gravestone with a gently curved top. There is an oval border around the image and inscription. The iconography shows an upsidedown set of shaking hands with several flowers and flower buds behind it. The grave is for Robert Humpirs, 1860.
October 19, 2025 at 12:12 AM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 17, Relocated: This is the grave of Amelia, died 1897 in Greenspond, NL. We restored her stone this summer, but had to set it to the left of its original position...because the burial was so shallow we could not dig down far enough.
#31daysofgraves
A simple marble gravestone with a semi-circular top is set in the ground to the right of a sandstone key. Behind the stone is an old iron fence around another grave plot, which is leaning outwards. They are standing in a green grassy cemetery at sunset
October 17, 2025 at 12:04 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 16, Obelisk: Today we have the towering limestone (?) Obelisk on the Adanson family plot, at Pére Lachaise Cemetery, Paris! Michel Adanson was a botanist & died in 1806. His widow, Jeanne Bénard, was buried below this obelisk, which was erected by his daughter & a nephew in 1821. #31daysofgraves
A towering yellow/grey limestone obelisk reaches into the blue sky. To the left and slightly behind is another obelisk-shaped monument, with gothic architectural style elements. A sketch from the 19th century of the monuments described in the previous image.
October 16, 2025 at 4:46 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 15, Damaged: This could be endless because I look at damaged stones for work, but lets go with the damage caused by iron corrosion on this marble column in Trepassey. The iron pin which would have held a cross or urn, corroded & cracked the stone from the centre outwards! #31daysofgraves
The top of a marble column gravestone, with a hole in the top where an iron pin corroded and cracked the stone outwards from the centre. A complex column/obelisk gravestone of white marble, with a lower marble section below, and a sandstone base. It is dedicated to Joseph Hewett, who died in 1902. Erected by James, for his brother.
October 16, 2025 at 1:15 AM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 14, Inside: This is the mausoleum of Count d'Harcourt, inside the Notre Dame, Paris. The Count, Henri-Claude d'Harcourt, died in 1769, and his wife Marie-Magdeleine Thibert des Martrais, commissioned this monument Jean-Baptiste Pigalle in 1776.
#31DaysofGraves
A large monument to the dead, made of marble and black granite(?). There is a guardian angel on the left of the large black stone coffin. There is a corpse of a man reaching out of the coffin, and the figure of death behind him, holding up an hourglass. There is a kneeling woman in front of the sculpture, covered in robes.
October 14, 2025 at 9:48 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 13, Skeleton: I couldn't resist using today to highlight the amazing Paris Catacombs! Created in former underground quarries below Paris, the Catacombs were established in the late 18th century. The first cemetery transfered there was the Cimetiere des Innocents, in April 1786.
#31daysofgraves
A stone plaque is set in the centre of a wall of human skulls and femurs in the Paris Catacombs. The plaque reads 'Ossements du Cimetiere des Innocents Deposés en Avril 1786'.
October 13, 2025 at 3:02 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 12, Notable Women: This is the grave of Henriette Marie Louise Gicquel (later Arbelot) Her face is held by her husband Fernand, & they are buried together in Section 11, Pére Lachaise, Paris. She died in 1967. Her face is famous & most docs on the grave don't mention her name.
#31DaysofGraves
A green brass monuemnt of a reclining man holding up the face of his wife. There are no names or text in the image.
October 12, 2025 at 10:35 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 11, Military: We worked on the gravestone of Private Albert Ash, Royal Nfld Regiment, at the New Anglican Cemetery at Battle Harbour this summer. Ash enlisted when he was 19 (or 21?). His regimental number is no. 5711. He did make it back from the war, & died in 1923.
#31daysofgraves
A small marble gravestone dedicated to Private Albert Ash, son of Ruth Ash. Born in 1897, died 1923. The decoration on the stone shoes a stone archway with a star and 2 1/2 below it, with the words 'at rest' on either side. Beside the gravestone, there is a small British flag in the gras on the left, and an orange pin flag to the right
October 11, 2025 at 2:14 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Wait I found it! @fotc.au @ohfolkthat.bsky.social
This one is an Alexander Smith stone dated 1889, at the old UC Cemetery in Brigus, NL!
A five piece complex monument, dated to 1889. It has a complex flower design on the middle section above the inscription.
October 10, 2025 at 10:12 PM