Rotundo, Barbara

Barbara Rotundo was a 1942 graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a degree in economics. She married Joseph Rotundo, a professor of economics and government at Union College. After the death of her husband, Joseph in 1953, Rotundo became the first female faculty members at Union College. After earning a master’s degree in English at Cornell University and a doctorate in American Literature from Syracuse University, she became a long-time member of the English Department at the University of Albany, where she founded one of the first university writing programs in the United States and wrote a grammar text.

Avocationally, by the late 1960s, Rotundo became an avid researcher of gravestone studies. She was a stalwart member of the Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS), helping to broaden its scope beyond its the Colonial period to include the Victorian era. Her research included the rural cemetery movement, Mount Auburn Cemetery, white bronze (zinc) markers, and ethnic folk gravestones. Her research in these fields was presented on dozens of occasions to annual meetings of AGS, the American Culture Association, and The Pioneer America Society. She was an international speaker reading 19th century gravestones. She frequently presented her research to annual meetings of AGS, the American Culture Association, and The Pioneer America Society.

Beyond her scholarship, Rotundo served on the Board of Trustees of AGS, as the organization’s president, as a long-time member of the Markers’ editorial board, and as a contributing editor for the AGS Quarterly. She was a constant volunteer for the organization’s annual conferences, cemetery tour leader, participation session facilitator, program chair, and registrar. In 1994, Rotundo was the recipient of the Harriette Merrifield Forbes Award; the highest honor bestowed by the AGS. In 1989, after residing in Schenectady for forty-six years, she retired from teaching to Belmont, NH, where she died in December 2004. After her death, the Barbara Rotundo Memorial Scholarship was created to provide serious students with an interest in gravestone studies an opportunity to attend the AGS conference.

In addition to being a member of AGS, Rotundo was a member of the Quaker Meeting of Schenectady, New York. She was also a member of the Friends of Highgate (London) Cemetery, and was a member of the Society of Architectural Historians. Rotundo has published several articles relating to Gravestone Studies. She pays special attention to rural cemeteries and shows a particular interest in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts. Her publications include:

• “The Rural Cemetery Movement,” Essex Institute Historical Collections 109.3 (1973): 231-40
• “Mount Auburn Cemetery: A Proper Boston Institution,” Harvard Library Bulletin 22.3 (1974): 268-79
• “Mount Auburn: Fortunate Coincidences and an Ideal Solution,” Journal of Garden History 4.3 (1984): 255-67
• “Crossing the Dark River: Shaker Funerals and Cemeteries.” Communal Societies 1987: 36-46
• “Monumental Bronze: A Representative American Company,” in Cemeteries and Gravemarkers: Voices of American Culture, Edited by Richard E. Meyer, Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1989, pp. 263-91
• “A Modern Gravestone Maker: Some Lessons for Gravestone Historians,” Markers 14 (1997): 86-109

Consisting primarily of thousands of 35 mm colored slide transparencies and related research notes, the Rotundo collection is a major visual record of Victorian grave markers in the United States and part of the United Kingdom. The slides are arranged alphabetically by state, and within each state, town and graveyard. There is an emphasis on the eastern states, with particularly rich content for Massachusetts and New York. The collection houses several hundred photographic prints, the majority of which represent white bronze (zinc) markers, though other stone types are noted. Also included in this collection are Rotundo’s research notes, which focus on a variety of gravestone related subjects. The collection also includes several rare or privately published books, which have been cataloged separately. Slides have been partially digitized.

Several themes run throughout the Rotundo Collection. As already noted, Rotundo had a special interest in white bronze markers. She was also very interested in Rural Cemeteries, and funerary rituals in Quaker and Shaker communities. Rotundo viewed many graver markers (especially bronze markers) as works of art, and was increasingly interested in gravestone symbolism.