2026 West Virginia Cemetery Preservation Workshop Series

We are currently seeking information about historic cemeteries in need of care and groups in need of support in caring for these important places. We plan to select a few cemeteries for workshops in Fall 2026. Please fill out the Google form below by July 24, 2026, to be considered as a workshop location. If you need an alternate way to submit this information, please contact [email protected].​

Here's what you can expect from these workshops:

In the classroom portion of workshops, participants can look forward to learning:

• Appalachian burial/funerary history, culture and beliefs 
• Historical context of  cemetery/burial ground  we are using for fieldwork & why its important
• Digital documentation of a cemetery using two different mobile application/websites (BillionGravesⓇ  & Find a GraveⓇ)
• Do’s & Don’ts when taking pictures of gravestones/markers
• Basic gravestone/marker style identification (Military, obelisk, etc.)
• How to safely read “unreadable” stones-methods of reading worn stones
• Basic identification of traditional cemetery vegetation & significance 
• Basic identification of gravestone/marker material types (i.e. marble, sandstone, slate, bronze, limestone, granite), 
• Monument condition and risk assessment
• Preparation of WV State Cemetery Inventory
• West Virginia State Cemetery Codes and applicability to various situations
• Gravestone conservation and cleaning
• Secretary of the Interior's Standards Core Concepts
  
• Four Distinct Treatment Approaches
  
• ​Conservation Ethics Framework
  

In the hands-on field experience portion of workshops, participants will:

• Learn about stone iconography/epitaphs and their meanings
• Learn how to use various digital applications to document graves in the field and do any troubleshooting 
• Experience taking gravestone pictures, adding photos to memorials, mapping with GPS, adding memorials and corresponding information to mobile app, etc
• Identify different styles of markers/monuments in the cemetery
• Identify different types of traditional vegetation
• Identify types of stones, if it is safe to clean them & methodology
• “Adopt” a gravestone and clean it with D2 
• Utilize two different methods to read “unreadable” stones  (mirror & D2)
• Experience Hands-on cemetery and gravestone preservation work
• ​Safety Evaluation Protocols/Volunteer Worker Safety