Obituaries in American Culture

A Record for Public Memory

ARECORD FOR PUBLIC MEMORY \V 7henfifty-year-oldVirginian William P. Custis died "after a W long and wasting illness" in 1838, readers of the Daily National Intelligencer learned about his generous hospitality, his sterling business principles, and his kindness as a neighbor and husband. Custis's newspaper obituary not only recorded the "fact" ofhis death but celebrated the virtues of his life, saying, "In paying a tribute to one who has gone to the dead, it is due to his memory publicly to record his virtues. There is in the life of a noble, independent and honest man, something so worthy of imitation, something that so strongly commends itself to the approbation of a virtuous mind, that his name should not be left in oblivion, nor his influence be lost."1 Thus, Custis's obituary provided comfort for his grieving friends and family and enlightened others in his community. The obituary expressed publicly a sense of the value of his particular life, the life of one American. Today this published obituary, like many others of the era, offers a fascinating glimpse into some of the cultural idiosyncrasies of Custis's America by highlighting specific attributes of this citizen such as his independence, honesty, and virtuous mind. His newspaper obituary emphasizes particular salient aspects of his life and thus reflects his society's cultural values. The obituary, or death notice, has long been a regular feature in 11 A Record for Public Memory the American press. For more than two hundred years newspapers have recorded for the public the lives and the virtues of American citizens. An obituarydistills the essence of a citizen's life, and because it is a commemoration as well as a life chronicle, it reflects what society values and wants to remember about that person's history. EarlyAmerican news providers set the standard for newspaper obituaries;2 thus, the systematic examination of obituaries can provide a useful tool for exploring the changing values of Americans of any era. Such an examination can help in understanding an important aspect of American culture, the public memory of its citizens. Obituaries link published memories of individual lives with generational , or family, memory and with American collective memory. They add to the understanding of American journalistic history by showing how news practices associated with the rise of the mass press might historically have influenced death notices. Perhaps most important, they offer insight into American values. For example, specific values emphasized in obituaries changed significantly following major turning points in the nation's political and cultural history, times when the nation was becoming more inclusive. In these eras—Andrew Jackson's presidency, the Civil War and, the years surrounding the granting of women's suffrage—the new inclusion wasreflected not only in who wascommemorated in newspaper obituaries but also in how they were remembered. Thus, obituaries highlight era ethical issues of virtue and exclusion. A systematic inspection of obituaries can be a tool for exploring cultural history. Fredric F. Endres found that frontier obituaries reflected cultural values, especially the value of life: almost everyone, regardless of age, sex, or station in life on the American frontier, "deserved some sort of meaning being given to their lives."3 But a study of obituaries published in Boston and New York newspapers more than one hundred years later found a clear pattern ofmasculine preference , giving "subtle confirmation of the greater importance of men" in twentieth-century American cities.4 Obituary exclusion, too, can be an important element of understanding. 12 A Record for Public Memory PUBLIC WORTH Obituaries could contribute to a society's well-being by strengthening it collectively and by highlighting the importance of its individual members. Since an obituary is an idealized account of a citizen's life, a type of commemoration meant for public consumption, obituaries should be studied in light of their relationship with the collective, or public, memory,that "body of beliefs about the past that help a public or society understand both itspast and its present, and, byimplication , its future."5 Publication of an obituary in the mass media constitutes a rare instance in a democracy when an individual can become part of collective thought, part of what Americans might believe in common about the worth of a life. Obituaries illustrate how the national memory of American cultural symbols is reflected in, and thus influences, the commemorations of the lives of individual citizens. For example, when...