The Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office kicked off a threepart webinar series on cemetery preservation. The first session was held on September 4 and focused on cemetery preservation planning.

The webinars will be part of SHPO’s “Saving the Sacred” series.

The second session is scheduled for October 2, at 2 p.m. and will outline where to look online and in archives for information on cemeteries and decedents buried at respective cemeteries. Details on a variety of methods to properly record information on cemeteries and the decedents, including the information uncovered during the research phase of the project. It will also focus on frequently disregarded or unrecognized details, such as funerary art and stonecutters’ marks on grave markers and monuments. This session will also include information on geophysical survey methods and online databases to document and present cemetery data for a broad range of audiences.

The third and final session will take place on November 6, at 2 p.m. This session is geared toward cemetery stewards who have properly researched and recorded their cemeteries and developed preservation plans. It will focus on the more detailed parts of conserving and repairing grave markers and monuments that pose safety challenges, have accelerated states of deterioration, have inappropriate past repairs that pose current and future conservation obstacles, and those that are so far gone that conservation is not a consideration.

Register online for the webinars. For more information, contact Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Lynda Ozan at 405-5224484 or lynda.ozan@history.ok.gov.