Local Cemetery Conservation: Repairing Broken Tablet Stones

Headstones in most of the cemeteries across the country have either been set in the ground, in slotted bases, and some rare cases in concrete. Overtime, these headstones may have broken, sometimes in many pieces. These headstones are predominately of a “Tablet’ design. It is to the benefit of these headstones to be cleaned, repaired, and reset so they stand vertical.

These series of videos were produced for the 2021 Local History & Historical Preservation Conference. The Wisconsin Historical Society partnered with monument conservator Jonathan Appell to cover the basics of cemetery preservation. Through a partnership with the Osceola Historical Society and the Mount Hope Cemetery Association, Jonathan demonstrates and performs treatments for the most common gravestone and monument preservation dilemmas, including cleaning, resetting tilted stones, and rejoining fractured tablet stones. The goal of these videos will be to give local cemetery staff or volunteers the knowledge to perform basic preservation procedures.

The workshop and these videos were produced by Valley Access Channels in Stillwater, Minnesota. Music credit: Storyblocks.com