Tibensky, James

Background on James Tibesky

An early scholar of American gravestones, James Tibensky was born in Chicago in September 1948 and raised in a family that spent time indulging in cultural and educational activities, including visiting nature centers, hiking, and exploring old cemeteries. Tibensky began college at Morton Junior College in Cicero, Ill., but left school after his first year to enlist in the Volunteers in Service to American (VISTA) program, and was assigned to service on the Standing Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota. After completing his service, he enrolled as a sophomore at the University of Illinois at Chicago, but after meeting his future wife, transferred to Washington University, where she was enrolled, and completed his bachelor’s degree there in 1971. At Washington University, he declared a major in anthropology and after encountering the pioneering work of James Deetz and Edwin Dethlefsen in an archaeology class, began to focus on old gravestones.

During the summers, Tibensky and his wife worked at a summer camp in West Cornwall, Conn., that gave them considerable latitude in developing projects for the campers. Through a connection with a salvage archaeologist in the area, Tibensky arranged to have his charges assist in digging and sorting artifacts and looking at old graveyards, doing stone rubbings. After completing his undergraduate degree in 1971 and deciding to continue for a master’s degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he drew upon these camp experiences and laid out an ambitious project, systematically documenting every pre-1800 grave marker in western Connecticut. Based at a YMCA in Hartford, he spent two months between April and June 1974 photographing each stone, and noting the name, date of death, orientation, style, and material. Using Hollerith cards to enter and then analyze his data, completed his thesis, “The colonial gravestones of western Connecticut,” in 1977.

In 1976, Tibensky met Nancy Buckeye, a librarian at Central Michigan University with a mutual interest in gravestones, who mentioned that she was one among a group founding an organization to be called the Association for Gravestone Studies. Tibensky became a charter member and has remained a member since.