Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce
Originally uploaded by Hapaxes

Another interest I have – basically it’s an excuse to travel around the US taking pictures – is visiting all the graves of the former (dead, obviously) presidents. To date I’ve made it to 21 of the 38, with photographs of all but a couple (I chickened out taking a flash picture in the tomb of the 2 Adams).

I start with one I visited before I had a digital camera in 2005 (I was slow to adapt, being a photography purist and all): Franklin Pierce (1804-1869).

Franklin Pierce has one of most unassuming monuments (I’ve been surprised by the extremes I’ve seen in terms of simplicity and ostentation) – basically it’s a large obelisk that you’d see in any cemetery. The cemetery itself is quite small, located pretty much downtown Concord, New Hampshire. There is a plaque outside the cemetery noting he’s buried there (as I’ve found most presidential cemeteries have) but once inside, it took some looking to find his monument (it’s inside an enclosure that itself is not marked as having anything to do with him.

Pierce was not a remarkable president; he served a single term and apparently didn’t have much enthusiasm for the job. If you travel around New Hampshire, however, you’ll see his name all over the place, including a highway, a college and a law center named after him.

This is one of the first dead presidents I visited with my family. At first I think they were amused by my quest and a little disturbed at my interest in cemeteries. They’ve realized, I think, that it really isn’t that macabre and a person could learn a lot about our presidents and American history by making these pilgrimages.