I have been a taphophile for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I was so intrigued by cemeteries, but America's death-denying culture always left me refraining from asking questions (since it was so taboo to talk about death). As Edgar Allan Poe once wrote: "The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?"

First and foremost, I am an independent Edgar Allan Poe scholar. Besides his many accomplishments as a writer, he was a true taphophile! Poe often enjoyed a brisk walk through an old cemetery. I have come to focus on his ties to Providence and his relationship with our own poetess, Sarah Helen Whitman. I created A Walking Tour of Poe's Providence that had a successful debut in 2021. I guide public and private tours annually. I created a website https://edgarallanpoeri.com/ that compiles all of Poe's history in Providence as well as Whitman's history in Rhode Island.

When I am not researching or guiding tours, you can find me sipping a Dunkin' iced coffee and exploring my favorite little cemeteries with my pit bull mix, Ginny Poe. I am an amateur artist, historian, writer, and I anticipate being an amateur at most other things in the future. I am a docent at Providence's North Burial Ground, Rhode Island's first public cemetery established in 1700 to people of all races, classes, and religions (not to mention, Sarah Helen Whitman is buried there). I have been volunteering with professional gravestone repairers throughout Rhode Island, learning and helping to fix old headstones that have fallen and/or broken.

I am a born and raised Rhode Islander residing in my hometown of Coventry. Please let me know if I can help you with any photo requests. I find that many of the open requests in the cemeteries near me are due to the lack of an existing stone to photograph. I will still do my best to help in any case, just note that even if you know that someone is buried in a particular cemetery and even if you have an exact plot number, it does not mean they have an existing gravestone.

Cemeteries offer history, art, nature, and so much more! They represent the legacies of people gone before us. Let's Make America Appreciate Cemeteries Again!

"Anima magis est ubi amat quan ubi animat."

I have been a taphophile for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I was so intrigued by cemeteries, but America's death-denying culture always left me refraining from asking questions (since it was so taboo to talk about death). As Edgar Allan Poe once wrote: "The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?"

First and foremost, I am an independent Edgar Allan Poe scholar. Besides his many accomplishments as a writer, he was a true taphophile! Poe often enjoyed a brisk walk through an old cemetery. I have come to focus on his ties to Providence and his relationship with our own poetess, Sarah Helen Whitman. I created A Walking Tour of Poe's Providence that had a successful debut in 2021. I guide public and private tours annually. I created a website https://edgarallanpoeri.com/ that compiles all of Poe's history in Providence as well as Whitman's history in Rhode Island.

When I am not researching or guiding tours, you can find me sipping a Dunkin' iced coffee and exploring my favorite little cemeteries with my pit bull mix, Ginny Poe. I am an amateur artist, historian, writer, and I anticipate being an amateur at most other things in the future. I am a docent at Providence's North Burial Ground, Rhode Island's first public cemetery established in 1700 to people of all races, classes, and religions (not to mention, Sarah Helen Whitman is buried there). I have been volunteering with professional gravestone repairers throughout Rhode Island, learning and helping to fix old headstones that have fallen and/or broken.

I am a born and raised Rhode Islander residing in my hometown of Coventry. Please let me know if I can help you with any photo requests. I find that many of the open requests in the cemeteries near me are due to the lack of an existing stone to photograph. I will still do my best to help in any case, just note that even if you know that someone is buried in a particular cemetery and even if you have an exact plot number, it does not mean they have an existing gravestone.

Cemeteries offer history, art, nature, and so much more! They represent the legacies of people gone before us. Let's Make America Appreciate Cemeteries Again!

"Anima magis est ubi amat quan ubi animat."