Graves & Tombs
of Famous PeacemakersClick here for peacemakers.
Right click image to enlarge.
1536? - Tomb of Erasmus, Basler Münster / Basel Minster, Münsterplatz, Basel (Switzerland). Desiderius Erasmus [1466/1469-1536] was a Dutch Renaissance humanist. "He spent several years in Basel and died here in 1536. Although he stayed a Roman Catholic, he was buried in the Minster that was by then the main church of the Protestants in Basel. His bones were lost following changes to the church during the 19th century. They were only positively re-identified in 1974 and now rest under his epitaph." Information courtesy of Gerard Lössbroek.
1703 - Fair Hill Burial Ground, 2900 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA). "Founded in 1703 on part of a grant of land of 16 acres given to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) by George Fox [1624-1691], who is known as the founder of the Society. He received the land from William Penn [1644-1718] as a gift. The present burial ground was laid out in 1843 and enlarged in 1853, providing almost five acres of green space in this urban neighbohood. Most persons buried at Fair Hill are Quakers, many of them participants in the early abolitionist and women's rights movements. Some of the more renowned include Lucretia Mott [1793-1880], James Mott, Thomas and Mary Ann McClintock, Sarah Pugh, Ann Preston and Edward Parrish. Some colleagues in the anti-slavery movement, not Friends, are also buried there, most notably Robert Purvis [1810-1998], an African-American known as the President of the underground railroad, and his family. The site was recently placed on the National Register for Historic Places."
1831 - Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA). "Our founders believed that burying and commemorating the dead was best done in a tranquil and beautiful natural setting at a short distance from the city center. They also believed that the Cemetery should be a place for the living, 'embellishing' the natural landscape with ornamental plantings, monuments, fences, fountains and chapels. This inspired concept was copied widely throughout the United States, giving birth to the rural cemetery movement and the tradition of garden cemeteries. Their popularity led, in turn, to the establishment of America's public parks." Famous people buried here include William Ellery Channing [1780-1842], Dorothea Dix [1802-1887], Julia Ward Howe [1819-1897] and Mary Baker Eddy [1821-1887].
After 1852 - Grave of Frances Wright, Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, Hamilton County Ohio 45232 (USA). Frances (Fanny) Wright [1795-1852] was "a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, abolitionist & social reformer, who became a US citizen in 1825. That year she founded the Nashoba Commune in Germantown, Tennessee, as a utopian community to prepare slaves for emancipation, intending to create an egalitarian place, but it lasted only three years. Her 'Views of Society & Manners in America' (1821) brought her the most attention as a critique of the new nation."
1950's - Nashoba Marker, Germantown, near Memphis, Tennessee (USA).
1874 - Lincoln's Tomb, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois (USA). Includes reproductions of Lincoln statues in Chicago & Washington, DC. Mary Todd Lincoln and sons Tad, Willie & Eddie are also buried here, but not son Robert (who is buried in Arlington National Cemetery). Abraham Lincoln [1809-1865] was US president 1860-1865 & signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862.
1881 - Grave of Caterina Campodonico, Cemetery of Staglieno, Genoa (Italy). "Campodonico was a pauper nuts-seller, who saved money for her whole life to afford a luxurious grave. However, the statue realistically portrays while she sells her humble merchandise. This is one of the most popoular statues in the cemetery." Inscription: "By selling my wares at the Sanctuaries of Acqucsanta Garbo and St. Cipriasso, defying wind, sun and ___ in order to provide an honest loaf for my old age, I have also put by enough to have myself placed later on, with this monument, which I Caterina Campodonico (called the Peasant) have erected while still alive. 1881. Oh, you who pass close to this, my tomb, if you will, pray for my peace."
1897 - Grave of Henry George, Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York City, New York (USA). George's funeral in 1897 was attended by more people than any other funeral in US history except for that of President Abraham Lincoln. Henry George [1839-1897) was an American writer, politician and political economist, who was the most influential proponent of the "Single Tax" on land.
1908 - Grave of Randal Cremer, Hampstead Cemetery (plot H9/40), London, England (UK). Randal Cremer [1828-1908] received the 1903 Nobel Peace Prize. He died at his home, 11 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London (England). Click here for an article about this grave.
January 31, 1948 - Raj Ghat, New Delhi (India). Where Gandhi's body was cremated, and a shrine ever since. A commemorative ceremony takes place every Friday. Remembrance prayers are held on anniversaries of Gandhi's Birth ( October 2) & Death (January30). The latter is called Martyr's Day. Gandhi's ashes were sent to the Ganges, other sites in India, the Nile (Uganda) & Pacific Palisades, California (USA).
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E1949 - Grave of Theodor Herzl, Mount Herzl (Har Herzl or Mount of Memory), Jerusalem (Israel). When Herzl died in 1904, he was interred in Vienna. It was only in 1949, 45 years later, that Herzl's remains were brought to Israel and reinterred in Jerusalem. Mount Herzl is Israel's national cemetery on the west side of Jerusalem. Herzl's tomb lies at the top of the hill. Israel's war dead are also buried there. Yad Vashem lies just to the west of Mount Herzl.
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1952 - Gräbenfeld X / Cemetery X, Tübingen (Germany). Has military sections for WW-I and WW-II. Also "served as the cemetery for the anatomical institute of Tübingen University from 1849 to 1963. People who had donated their bodies to science were buried here. But the 1077 people who were buried here from 1933 to 1945 died as victims of the Nazi regime -- starved or killed in POW camps, in hospitals, in concentration camps, work camps, etc. More than 70 were hanged or beheaded by military courts for resistance or openly doubting military victory in the war. 44 of the people here were murdered by the German secret police without trial. 156 were POWs or forced laborers who died of various diseases or of exposure and exhaustion in their camps and were buried here after use by the anatomical institute." "The three crosses were the first indication of a memorial at this site. They were added in 1952. It is hardly visible on the photo, but they read '1939-1945,' giving the impression that this is a war memorial." Visited by EWL.
August 5, 1955 - Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima (Japan). A vault lies under the mound and contains the ashes of roughly 70,000 victims. #09 of 56 "cenotaphs & monuments" on the Virtual E-Tour. Photo by EWL.
1956 - Sarcophagus of Woodrow Wilson, Washington National Cathedral, Cleveland Park, Massachusetts & Wisconsin Avenues, NW, Washington, DC (USA). "Woodrow Wilson [1856-1924] was the 28th President of the US and winner of the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. Only president buried in DC proper. Originally buried in the Bethlehem Chapel in the crypt of Washington National Cathedral. In 1956, celebrating the centennial of his birth, the Cathedral arranged for his removal to this sarcophagus in the south aisle of the nave proper. It is decorated with symbols of Princeton University (of which he was president), the state of New Jersey (of which he was governor), and the Seal of the USA. Windows of the Wilson Bay depict war and peace, commemorating his service as president during WW-I, as does the sword on the top of the sarcophagus."
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EAfter September 27, 1960 - Grave of Sylvia Pankhurst, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). "After the liberation of Ethiopia, Sylvia Pankhurst [1882-1960] became a strong supporter of union between Ethiopia & the former Italian Somaliland...In 1948, MI5 considered strategies for 'muzzling the tiresome Miss Sylvia Pankhurst.' She became a friend & adviser to Emperor Haile Selassie [1892-1975] and followed a consistently anti-British stance. She moved to Addis Ababa at Selassie's invitation in 1956, with her son Richard (who continues to live there) and founded a monthly journal, Ethiopia Observer, which reported on many aspects of Ethiopian life and development. She died on September 27, 1960, and was given a full state funeral at which Selassie named her 'an honorary Ethiopian.' She is the only foreigner buried in front of Holy Trinity Cathedral, in the area reserved for patriots of the Italian war."
1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia (USA). Includes King's tomb (in lake in photo), an eternal flame, Rosa Parks room, and Mahatma Gandhi room. Click here for additional information. Entry #242 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001). (Martin Luther King, Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.)
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1977 - Grave of Fannie Lou Hamer, Ruleville, Mississippi (USA). Fannie Lou Hamer [1917-1977] was was an American voting rights activist and civil rights leader. Tombstone engraved "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired."
After 1983 - Victory Memorial to the War of October 1973, Medinet Nasr, near Cairo (Eqypt). Sadat's tomb is under the Victory Memorial. Anwar al-Sadat [1918-1981] & Menachem Begin [1913-1992] of Israel shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. Sadat was assassinated October 6, 1981, during the annual victory parade in Cairo. The nearby October War Panorama was built on a suggestion made to Hosni Mubarak by Kim Il Sung of North Korea when the Egyptian president visited that country in 1983.
1988 - Grave of Seán MacBride, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin (Ireland). Also grave of his mother Maude Gonne MacBride [1865-1953]. Seán MacBride unveiled the statue of Reconciliation at the University of Bradford (England) in 1977 (qv). Seán MacBride [1904-1988] & Eisaku Sato [1901-1975] shared the 1974 Nobel Peace Prize.
2004 - Mausoleum & Minaret honoring Yasser Arafat, Al-Muqata'a, Ramallah (Palestine). Right next to the presidential headquarters where Arafat spent his last years. Yasser Arafat [1929-2004], Shimon Peres & Yitzhak Rabin [1922-1995] shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize.
